Social development

Thirty tons of chemicals seized by police on Wednesday were used to make counterfeit soap, officials confirmed Thursday, refusing to release the name of the Chinese national arrested in connection with the raid. The liquid and solid chemicals were stored in blue vats, bottles and sacks ...

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that Cambodia may soon agree to take in asylum seekers who are now detained on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru after being diverted while trying to reach Australia. Mr. Morrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that next ...

Families evicted for a rail project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) threatened to demonstrate if the bank does not show them its plan to improve their living conditions within one week. About 1,000 families who built homes over the country’s long-neglected train tracks were ...

The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities. With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in three districts of Preah Vihear are ...

At the site where security forces shot dead at least four people during a nationwide strike on January 3, union leaders yesterday passed out fliers encouraging workers to join a stay-at-home strike after Khmer New Year. When workers filed out of Canadia Industrial Park’s gates for ...

Police on Wednesday busted what they believe to be an illegal soap-making operation, seizing 30 tons of illicit chemicals and arresting a Chinese national in Kandal province. The chemicals, which were held in blue vats, were discovered at a warehouse belonging to a Chinese businessman in ...

Cambodia’s cybercrime law, a draft of which was made available online Wednesday, could be used to arbitrarily punish people who share controversial opinions online or air complaints about the CPP government, rights groups said Wednesday. According to the law, people who publish content online that slanders ...

The governor of Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district will face arrest if he fails to appear for a second summons to Ratanakkiri Provincial Court to answer questions about his alleged involvement in the illegal logging of protected land around the Ou’Sinlair waterfall, the court said yesterday. The ...

With acid attacks in steep decline – not a single attack has been recorded so far this year – the only organisation working directly with acid survivors on the ground is scaling back its services by 75 per cent. Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC) is no ...

Keeping ahead of Phnom Penh’s mounting piles of garbage has proved tough for Cintri since it was awarded sole rights in 2002 to keep the city clean. But a new plan harnessing global satellite positioning and digital mapping is offering the company a high-tech helping ...

Landmine explosions in Koh Kong and Kampot provinces on Monday and Tuesday seriously injured a man and a teenage girl, according to local officials. On Tuesday, Suot Matimas, 14, climbed a fruit tree in Koh Kong province’s Mondol Seima district, near the Thai border. Upon jumping ...

Cambodia will pardon the prisoners or reduce the punishment for to mark annual Khmer New Year celebration from 14-16 April. ...

Thailand has begun training workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar ahead of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) next year, the National News Bureau of Thailand reported Wednesday. ...

The Ministry of Culture on Tuesday rejected the opposition CNRP’s request to hold a ceremony at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum for those who died under the Khmer Rouge. In a letter dated Monday to the CNRP, Chamroeun Vantha, director general of the Culture Ministry’s administration ...

About a dozen Tuol Kok district security guards in Phnom Penh on Tuesday blocked three families involved in a long-running land dispute from building a fence around the disputed property in Boeng Kak I commune, an official said. Deputy district governor Saing Sopheak Vichet said the ...

Without more efforts to punish traffic violators, the government is all but certain to miss its 2020 goal of cutting traffic deaths by 20 percent and drunk driving deaths by 50 percent, road safety experts said at a forum Tuesday. There were 1,910 deaths due to ...

Phnom Penh’s department of social affairs has asked City Hall to use a building in Pur Senchey district as a new, citywide detention facility for homeless people and beggars, including children, officials said Tuesday. The center would temporarily house all beggars and homeless people in an ...

The Cambodian Red Cross, which bills itself as the country’s largest humanitarian organization, is building a six-story luxury hotel in Preah Vihear City. Government officials said Tuesday that the hotel would be used to generate revenue for the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC). The hotel is being ...

Ath Thorn, the president of the union that led strikes at the SL Garment Factory last year, appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday for questioning over allegations of incitement. The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), headed by Mr. Thorn, spearheaded ...

The National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said Tuesday that it needs an additional $217 million from donors and NGOs to help recovery efforts from the floods of September and October 2013. A document accompanying the Post-Flood Early Recovery Needs Assessment Report, prepared by the ...

In their latest bid for a $160 minimum monthly wage for the garment industry, independent unions will lead a “stay at home” strike late next week. While the chances of that figure being approved anytime soon seem slight – the government has only just announced a ...

Like mob deals and black market trades, the Cambodian school budget is dealt in suitcases of cash. Four times a year, the school operating budget is dispersed in stacks of cash transferred from the central bank to the Ministry of Education, eventually ending up with the ...

In 2011, Oeun Phirun took out a $450 loan from the Asian Development Bank, using half to buy a used motorbike and spending the rest on a small flock of ducks and chickens he hoped to raise. His family and about 1,000 others have been evicted ...

As hundreds of thousands participate in the annual mass migration from Phnom Penh to their home provinces for Khmer New Year next week, military police will remain at their posts. National Military Police in the capital and provincial outlets will be working at full capacity 24 ...