The Phnom Penh Post
Suspected land scam artists sent to court
Eight huts were torn down and about 50 families were ordered to vacate land yesterday in Mondulkiri province’s Koh Nhek district as the couple whom police said illegally sold them the plots was arrested and sent to court. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/suspected-land-scam-artists-sent-court
Stay away from factory, court tells unionists
Eight members of Cambodia’s largest independent union were released on bail yesterday after being tried at Takeo Provincial Court over their alleged involvement in a factory protest late last week, officials said. Defence lawyer Kim Socheat said the members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/stay-away-factory-court-tells-unionists
Sanctuary ‘protected’
More than 2,000 hectares of the decimated Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanakkiri province have been classified by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) as the sanctuary’s first community protected area. Surrounded by three economic land concessions in Kon Mom district, the protected area is populated by a ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sanctuary-%E2%80%98protected%E2%80%99
Activist says remains are of missing teen
Human remains that an opposition activist claims are those of missing teen Khim Saphath, who disappeared after a crackdown on Veng Sreng Boulevard on January 3, will be brought to the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s headquarters in the capital today. Although no tests have been carried ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-says-remains-are-missing-teen
Twenty put end to latest Caltex strike
Petrol station workers who were back on strike on Friday returned to work yesterday as they prepare to file a complaint to the Ministry of Labour against US-owned Caltex over alleged rights abuse. Yoeun Reth, one of 20 Caltex workers striking on Friday, said yesterday that ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/twenty-put-end-latest-caltex-strike
‘Deforestation plagues ASEAN’
Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have never been higher, but Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries are still failing to curb emissions created by heavy deforestation, according to a new report. Forest land in ASEAN countries declined by more than 6 per cent ...
Phak Seangly and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98deforestation-plagues-asean%E2%80%99
Activist ‘threatened with knife’
A forest activist in Kampong Thom province yesterday claimed to have been threatened with a knife by a soldier after reporting that the officer was behind a number of forest crimes in the area. Pen Bunkear, a soldier with the Kampong Thom military research unit, yesterday ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-%E2%80%98threatened-knife%E2%80%99
Grenade attack kills 1, injures 5
A man, 18, was arrested in Kampong Chhnang province on Friday after a grenade attack killed a 69-year-old man and seriously injured five others. [Khov] Thim [the suspect] allegedly found the grenade in a field some months ago when tending to his cows and kept ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grenade-attack-kills-1-injures-5
WWF petitions to halt Don Sahong dam
World Wildlife Fund is taking to the internet to halt a hydropower project it claims will serve as the nail in the coffin for the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. On Friday, WWF launched an online petition calling on the developers of Laos’s 120 megawatt Don Sahong ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wwf-petitions-halt-don-sahong-dam
Tourism campaign to counter unrest
The Ministry of Tourism will hold an emergency meeting with industry leaders and representatives in Phnom Penh today to look at what can be done to curb the loss of cross-border visitors resulting from unrest in neighbouring countries. Minister Thong Khon yesterday emphasised the need for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tourism-campaign-counter-unrest
Orphanage director in court
American national and orphanage director Daniel Stephen Johnson was tried on Friday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges that he sexually abused five boys last year. The court heard that Johnson, 36, the director of the Hope Transitions Christian orphanage in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
https://cambodia.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=51030&action=edit
New charges as trial wraps
Despite presenting no hard evidence against defendants throughout the two trials of 23 men arrested during a strike that turned deadly in early January, a prosecutor used his closing statement yesterday to up the charges against union leader Vorn Pov. The final day of two trials ...
Sean Teehan, Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-charges-trial-wraps
Union leaders evade arrest, co-workers say
Two union leaders narrowly escaped arrest yesterday morning when employees on strike at a Phnom Penh garment factory forced their release from police and security guards, fellow union officials said. Seang Sambath, president of the Worker Friendship Union Federation, said WFUF vice president Mao Vannak and ...
Mom Kunthear and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leaders-evade-arrest-co-workers-say-0
Rights worker summonsed over land fight
A rights group worker has earned a court summons for monitoring villagers who were embroiled in a Preah Vihear land dispute with a Chinese company. Lut Sang, the Khmer Ponlok employee scheduled to appear in provincial court today, said that he was only a passive observer ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rights-worker-summonsed-over-land-fight
Pupils blamed for illegal books
Education officials yesterday shifted the onus of pirated and illegally sold state textbooks onto students, faulting the teenage pupils for fuelling demand. “If there are no buyers, there will be no sellers,” Lim Sotharith, director of the Education Ministry’s textbook department, said during a forum on ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pupils-blamed-illegal-books
Farmers urged to go green
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture have called on farmers to cease using chemical pesticides and adopt environmentally friendly methods in an effort to increase yields and reduce damage to produce. At an agriculture workshop on biological control agents hosted yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture, ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/farmers-urged-go-green
Cambodia keeps cool after coup in Thailand
As news broke yesterday evening that the Thai political situation had evolved from martial law to a full-blown coup d’etat, Cambodian government officials said they hoped the army’s takeover would be transitional and dismissed any concerns that tensions could rise on the Cambodia-Thailand border. ”We wish ...
Kevin Ponniah and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-keeps-cool-after-coup-thailand
Temple to be restored
A stone wall from the Angkorian-era Banteay Chhmar temple that was damaged in a rainstorm last month will be repaired in July, an official said yesterday. Yang Tangkouy, a provincial official, said the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts is cooperating with UNESCO on the restoration ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/temple-be-restored
Imports of petroleum on the rise last quarter
Cambodia’s petrol bill topped $440 million at the end of the first quarter, up 11 per cent from $397 million during the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. The data show Cambodia imported a total of 453,000 tonnes of petroleum ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/imports-petroleum-rise-last-quarter
Directive aims to stop ELC abuses
Sacred burial grounds and community forests should be granted more protection under a new government proclamation issued this month, but rights groups and land-grab victims are wary that, without proper enforcement, it will amount to little in practice. An interministerial proclamation, or prakas, signed by ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/directive-aims-stop-elc-abuses
Put trips to Bangkok on hold: gov’t
The government asked Cambodians to avoid all nonessential travel to Bangkok following Thailand’s imposition of martial law. “The situation is calm and we will continue monitoring it, but travellers planning to go to Thailand should hold off for now,” Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said after an ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/put-trips-bangkok-hold-gov%E2%80%99t
Government spending, foreign aid up in 2013
Government spending increased 32 per cent last year, while increases in both domestic revenue and foreign aid helped stabilise Cambodia’s budget deficit, according to budget statements from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The consolidated financial records, which were released on May 8, show Cambodia’s ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/government-spending-foreign-aid-2013
ADB plan falls short: families
Families forced to leave their homes to make way for a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Australian government have told the bank that a draft compensation plan it has drawn up to remedy their situation is inadequate. On Monday, Inclusive ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adb-plan-falls-short-families
Chroy Changvar Satellite City groundwork nears completion
The pumping of sand and filling in of lakes and marshy areas prone to flooding, with the eventual aim of creating the Chroy Changvar Satellite City, will be completed in the fourth quarter, according to Overseas Cambodian Investment Company (OCIC) sources associated with the development. Meanwhile, ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/chroy-changvar-satellite-city-groundwork-nears-completion