Law and judiciary

The National Police has hired more than 4,500 new officials into its ranks, according to a sub-decree dated Wednesday. ...

Less than a month after the government announced that more than 170 Montagnard asylum seek­ers would have their refugee applications processed, an Interior Min­istry spokesman said on Wednesday that the group had not met the criteria for refugee status and would be returned to Vietnam. ...

The government is planning to boost Cambodia’s attractiveness as a second-home tourist destination for foreign retirees, according to a draft policy obtained from the Ministry of Tourism Wednesday. ...

Government rangers, paid to protect the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, allow loggers to process and transport illegally felled timber in exchange for bribes, an NGO alleged yesterday after conducting an undercover operation in the protected forest. ...

A fire burned through 45 hectares of sugarcane plantation belonging to three companies in Svay Rieng province’s Svay Tiep district on Tuesday, with one company representative suspecting that the fire was intentionally set. ...

After more than 40 men broke out of a Phnom Penh drug rehabilitation cen­ter on Friday, officials said this week that they have called off efforts to arrest 18 es­capees who remain at large, in­stead asking for their families to re­turn them voluntarily.   ...

Amid fears of a potential reprise of anti-opposition violence that flared in October, a US Embassy spokesman yesterday called on the government “to ensure that no one is threatened, punished, or harmed in Cambodia” if a planned anti-Hun Sen rally takes place as scheduled next ...

Almost a year after cassava producers in Pailin were fingered as the source of pollution in a local water source, little has been done to address the problem, commune officials said yesterday, while affected villagers are being forced to buy bottled water to avoid getting ...

An academic tasked with re­searching the country’s border with Vietnam visited the latest flashpoint of political tension—the “Three Rocks” village in Takeo province—on Wednesday and determined that the boulders were still under Cambodian control. ...

Authorities have unearthed an­other cache of high-grade logs buried near a well-known timber dealer’s sawmill in Tbong Khmum province, weeks after finding a stockpile of buried logs on the businessman’s property in the same district. ...

Authorities have seized more than 160 kilograms of illegal wildlife meat and several live animals during separate raids in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces over the past week. ...

The president of a tuk-tuk and motodop drivers’ association, whose members were recorded on video brutally beating protesting bus drivers over the weekend, said he would file complaints against prominent union and civil society leaders for sparking the violence his own group was accused of ...

The former headquarters of late CPP President Chea Sim’s personal bodyguard unit, which was disbanded following his death in June, is now the office of a private security firm. ...

Uncertain residents who have protested the lack of information surrounding a planned elevated toll road linking central Phnom Penh and the airport were yesterday urged to remain calm as authorities work out a “solution” for those affected. ...

A fire destroyed 97 houses in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district early Monday morning, with au­thorities blaming an unattended can­dle from a resident’s Lunar New Year celebration for sparking the blaze.   ...

Three local NGOs have filed a com­plaint with international sug­ar industry group Bonsucro for re­admitting Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol even though thousands of fam­ilies forced off the company’s for­mer plantations in Oddar Mean­chey province have yet to be fully compensated. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged two protesters involved in a bloody scuffle that left scores injured over the weekend, while another four prominent unionists were also charged in a significant expansion of the controversial case. ...

4 families living in Trear 4 village, Stung Meanchey commune, Mean Chey district, asked the local authority for providing compensation due to lake filling by a private company that caused sewage water and mud logging, also house and other properties damaging. ...

A Spanish man who is the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of a fellow Spaniard was arrested in Cambodia, where he is believed to have fled after the victim’s dismembered body was recovered piece by piece from Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, police said Monday. ...

A government sub-decree dated February 3 defined 3,200 hectares of Tamoak Lake as state-owned land, sparking eviction fears among residents. ...

A bloody scuffle in Phnom Penh on Saturday left scores injured after protesting bus drivers and their supporters were brutally set upon by a rival association armed with sticks, metal bars and hammers. ...

After a seven-year struggle, a Banteay Meanchey teacher finally got $8,000 in compensation for her land, which was seized by the Cambodian military during a border flare-up with Thailand. ...

For the third time in as many months, the government has canceled a contract with a private com­pany operating a toll road in re­sponse to complaints from motorists.   ...

The Appeal Court on Thursday upheld convictions of intentional violence and causing property damage against 13 unionists and workers who were arrested during a riot outside a Phnom Penh industrial park on January 3, 2014, at which military police shot dead at least five people. ...