Government

Cambodia’s construction sector attracted a total investment of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, down 10 percent from 2.77 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, according to official data on Monday. ...

At the behest of Prime Minister Hun Sen, prisons across the country Sunday marked International Women’s Day by releasing a total of 22 female inmates who are either pregnant or had young children with them in jail, including a woman convicted of attempted murder over ...

Dozens of NGOs are planning to boycott a workshop Monday to discuss the new election law, saying that the CPP and CNRP have not given them enough time to review the draft and that they do not want to give the event a veneer of ...

The National Assembly’s Anti-Corruption Commission will visit Siem Reap this month to further probe claims Angkor Archaeological Park’s manager, the Apsara Authority, underreported ticket sales, as new figures show a drop in visitors to the World Heritage site last month. ...

The Interior Ministry has given Cambodian dissident Sourn Serey Ratha permission to proceed with the registration of a political party despite the self-exiled government critic’s recent conviction in absentia for plotting an attack on the state. ...

An annual US-led military training exercise, which was marred by controversy last year when a major rights group said it was teaching tactics that would assist Cambodia’s “abusive armed forces” in crackdowns, will officially open today in Kampong Speu province. ...

The allocation of two new seats to Preah Sihanouk province and absence of seats for Phnom Penh in the recently distributed draft law on electoral reform has prompted concerns that attempts are being made to manipulate the playing field ahead of the 2018 election. Ou Virak, ...

Two government ministers will meet with a National Assembly commission on Monday to discuss a tourism management plan for Bo­kor Mountain, according to CNRP lawmaker Yem Ponhea­rith, who last month visited the mountain to inspect burial sites popular with Vietnamese tourists. ...

The son of a police lieutenant colonel and a member of a commune council were among four people arrested Thursday in Kom­pong Thom province for dealing drugs and were remanded in custody, a court prosecutor said Friday. ...

The country’s two major political parties signed off on the final draft of a revised and highly controversial election law on Friday, with civil society groups arguing that the bill is unconstitutional due to a provision that restricts their activity during the election campaign period. ...

A 20-year-old woman suffered serious burns to her face and body after being doused with acid in Phnom Penh on Friday in an attack allegedly carried out by a jealous wife who suspected the victim was sleeping with her husband. ...

The National Assembly’s banking and finance commission has called parliament’s chief administrator for questioning on Tuesday over alleged spending irregularities in a 2015 budget that included buying 30 new cars at $200,000 each and spending $25,000 on a flagpole. ...

A former official at the National Aids Authority (NAA) alleged this week that the organization falsified letters authorizing missions to three different provinces so that fraudulent expenses could be claimed. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen last week appointed 14 high-ranking officials to a working group that is now responsible for overseeing his bodyguard unit during all events that he and his wife attend, the unit’s commander said Thursday. ...

The revised national election law—expected to come before parliament this month—includes a provision that allows National Assembly seats to be taken away from any political party that attempts to boycott parliament following an election, according to a draft of the law made public Thursday. ...

Police shut down the Our Home orphanage and school in Phnom Penh on Thursday, two days after child sex abuse allegations led to the arrest of its director—a former head of the anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), which carried out the investigation. ...

In a meeting Thursday in Siem Reap province with about 270 provincial officials and members of the opposition CNRP, party President Sam Rainsy promised to find a “win-win solution” to the members’ demands that the provincial CNRP chief be removed from her post. ...

There are now more than 1 million estimated Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand. This could be a threat to Cambodia’s economy and politics in the future, an analyst says. ...

As police closed in on Montagnard asylum seekers hiding in the forests of Ratanakkiri province last week, Klan Hoeun, 42, said Wednesday that he knew he had to at least try to get the group to Phnom Penh, to safety. ...

More than 600 military police will be sent as reinforcements all over Cambodia today to aid the National Police, Ministry of Mines and Energy authorities and court officials as they inspect and crack down on illegal mining in the Kingdom. ...

Two local journalist associations are planning to file a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) this week accusing the Preah Vihear Provincial Court’s acting chief prosecutor of charging journalists with extortion because they reported on an illegal-logging racket inside his family. ...

A defrocked monk who was handed a one-year jail sentence for obstructing officials during a wave of arrests of activists and opposition figures in Phnom Penh last year was on Wednesday questioned over an additional charge of “joining a criminal association,” a human rights monitor ...

Following a bail hearing for CNRP information department chief Meach Sovannara at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the opposition party’s spokesman said he was “optimistic” that the court would decide to release the official when it announces a verdict on March 11. ...

The Tbong Khmum Provincial Court has not issued an arrest warrant for the nephew of a senior Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) general despite police naming him as the suspect in the shooting of another man more than five months ago, according to officials and ...