News

The United Nations agency responsible for refugees has washed its hands of Australia’s controversial deal to send refugees from the tiny Pacific island of Nauru to Cambodia. ...

Government authorities in a southwest Cambodian province are planning a coordinated campaign to round up residents suffering from mental illness and take them to Buddhist temples where they will be cared for by monks, a provincial official said. ...

Two officials from Cambodia’s Interior Ministry departed for Australia and the Pacific Island of Nauru Monday, to ensure that an initial group of asylum seekers there will move to Cambodia, part of a controversial deal with Australia. ...

The deputy director of the Cambodian News Channel (CNC), a local 24-hour television news station, has been appointed undersecretary of state at the Interior Ministry, according to a copy of the April 11 royal decree awarding him the position. ...

Villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district last week seized several logs of illegal timber, ending what they said had been a lull in illegal logging since the arrests of two officials accused of colluding with loggers. ...

About 3,000 union representatives, teachers and senior officials from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party gathered at a ceremony on Koh Pich yesterday to mark the 129th International Labour Day – as well as to bolster support for the ruling party, one official noted. ...

Funcinpec leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh and second vice president Nhiek Bun Chhay left for China on Sunday to meet with officials from the Chinese Communist Party, the Cambodian royalist party’s longtime benefactor and supporter. ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to benefit from a strong recovery in the US markets and the fall of global oil prices, driving its high growth trend, according to the International Monetary Fund’s projection for the Asia-Pacific region. ...

The Ministry of Interior on Sunday said no refugees from Nauru were expected to arrive in Cambodia for the next few days, contradicting recent comments from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). ...

Tycoon Thong Sarath has been charged with premeditated murder and possession of weapons by a court in Phnom Penh after being arrested in a joint operation with Cambodian and Vietnamese police on Thursday over the killing of Shimmex Group owner Ung Meng Cheu. ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court on Saturday charged a Vietnamese man with possessing and transporting illegal drugs after he was arrested on Thursday at the Siem Reap International Airport with 5.25 kg of cocaine hidden inside a musical keyboard, a court official said Sunday. ...

Thirty-seven people died in 112 road accidents during last week’s Khmer New Year holiday, typically the busiest time of year on the country’s roads as people make their way to and from their home provinces to be with family. ...

Just two days after Prime Minister Hun Sen promised to resolve a 20-year-old land dispute in Siem Reap City, the government on Friday issued a subdecree that divides 115 hectares of the contested plot between more than 700 families. ...

Police and military officials in Kompong Speu province are searching for a soldier with six wives who shot and killed his sister-in-law and mother-in-law on Saturday morning after berating his second wife for talking to another man the day before, local officials said Sunday. ...

The number of tourists travelling during the three-day Khmer New Year festivities saw a dramatic increase this year, with the largest attraction – Angkor Sangkran in Siem Reap – hosting more than a million visitors last week. ...

Cambodia’s first opposition-aligned television station will begin broadcasting around the country by the year’s end, with a group of investors close to the CNRP now raising the $3 million needed to launch operations, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Sunday. ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has announced that it will grant two sand dredging licences around Phnom Penh Port, just days after declaring that no new licences would be issued until economic impact assessments had been carried out. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court today is scheduled to hear the trial of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party activist Meach Sovannara, who was charged with leading a violent “insurrection” after an opposition demonstration turned violent last July. ...

The World Bank said last week that Cambodia will likely graduate to a lower-middle-income nation in 2015, on the back of sustained poverty alleviation, stable economic growth and progress made on reducing inequality between the rich and poor. ...

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Australia is violating the rights of children being sent from Nauru to Cambodia under the refugee transfer agreement. In the coming week, possibly as early as Monday, a charter plane is expected to fly out from Nauru with ...

Cambodian Labor Minister Ith Samheng said on Sunday that the country’s garment and footwear industries, the kingdom’s largest foreign currency earner, are comprised of 1,087 factories with 700,000 direct jobs. ...

China and Cambodia have vowed to further enhance bilateral cooperation on law enforcement and security. During a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday, Guo Shengkun, Chinese state councilor and public security minister, said the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation has been deepening. ...

The United Nations Children’s Fund is voicing concern about the decision by Australia to transfer asylum seekers detained on the Pacific island of Nauru to Cambodia, possibly as early as Monday. UNICEF’s concerns come amid growing refugee protests in Nauru and protests over transfers of ...

China’s top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng met with King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia and his mother, former Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk, in Beijing on Friday. ...