Social development

Human rights groups say the Foreign Affairs Minister was wrong to demand the incoming representative of Unicef not comment on controversial legislation to govern NGOs. In a statement Tuesday, the civil society groups said Minister Hor Namhong’s demands constitute a narrowing of democratic ideals. ...

Cambodian pro-democracy and rights groups have written a statement of principles to guide Internet freedom in the country, following the arrests of activists for Facebook posts. ...

The results of this year’s much-improved grade 12 national exams have left some with less to celebrate than others, as government data showed a continued large disparity between male and female performances as well as across provinces.According to detailed results released on the Ministry of ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong on Monday told Unicef’s new country representative to focus on helping street children and refrain from criticizing a controversial new law regulating the country’s NGOs and associations, an official said Monday. ...

After the national high school exam results were released over the weekend—with about 56 percent of students passing—a number of those who did not make the grade headed to the Ministry of Education on Monday to submit official letters of complaint. ...

Indigenous villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province on Monday called for an investigation into a saw mill they say has polluted their local waterway and caused residents to contract a skin disease. ...

More than half of the students who sat the grade 12 national exam last month passed the high-stakes test, marking a significant improvement on last year’s results, when nearly two-thirds failed amid sweeping anti-cheating reforms.The results, which were released on Saturday, show that 55.8 per ...

A clinic owner in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town settled out of court for an undisclosed sum on Saturday after a family accused him of malpractice following the death of their 4-month-old daughter, though the cause of death remained unclear yesterday. ...

Dengue fever cases have shot up 350 percent in the first 34 weeks of this year compared to the same period last year, according to the government’s latest figures, but are still lower than the number of cases recorded in the three years prior to ...

A new campaign has been launched in Cambodia to identify the most effective tools available for diagnosing pneumonia, a condition that represents the country’s single-biggest killer of children under 5 years old. ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Social Affairs vowed to clear streets people and child beggar by the end of this year by rounding up and sending them for vocational training. ...

The Ministry of Education is prepared to release the results of the two-day national exam this weekend, ahead of schedule, but critics say the exam has been made easier than in the past in an effort to move more students along to higher education. ...

Cambodia announced plans this week to form a new government department responsible for monitoring and cracking down on a range of vaguely defined “online” crimes, drawing expressions of concern from human rights groups and the country’s political opposition. ...

Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng paid a brief visit here this week for a transfer-of-power ceremony from outgoing Provincial Governor Chhit Sokhon to his replacement, Yun Min. ...

Three Chinese men and three Cambodians were arrested in Phnom Penh on Wednesday on suspicion of running a trafficking ring in which Cambodian women are married off to Chinese men, police said. ...

Reading has always been a popular hobby for Cambodian children, but NGOs are now saying it is difficult for children in remote areas to access books and magazines. ...

Anti-human trafficking police yesterday arrested six suspected traffickers who were in the process of arranging for three Cambodian women to be flown to China to marry local men, a court official said yesterday. ...

The recent outbreak of “blue-ear pig disease” in two districts of Siem Reap province has been successfully contained, but consumer demand for pork in the province has not recovered, a senior official said. ...

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Cambodia’s agriculture industry contributes 37 percent of GDP, and employs 67 percent of the workforce, with 75 percent of cultivated land dedicated to growing rice. ...

The Ministry of Health yesterday issued a tally of illegal health-service providers in the country, saying there were nearly 4,000 such facilities as of August. ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng on Tuesday urged health departments in Phnom Penh and the provinces to file complaints with the courts if they discover that people running health services are breaking the law, a ministry official said. ...

A new outbreak of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) has taken the lives of more than 1,200 pigs while infecting some 3,200 more in three districts across Cambodia’s Siem Reap province since mid-August, according to Chinese News Agency-Xinhua. ...

The General Commissariat of National Police has recently established a new department called “Department for Anti-technology Crime”, said Gen. Khieu Sopheak, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior. ...

Patients living with HIV/AIDS in northwestern Cambodia’s Battambang province have called on the government for help in supporting their families as they are too weak to work, some nine months after an outbreak of HIV in the region saw more than 270 residents test positive ...