Government
TVK boss’ departure draws further concern
Media watchdogs on Wednesday expressed concern that the resignation on Saturday of Kem Gunawadh, long-serving director-general of state broadcaster TVK, was due to the station’s airing of an opposition campaign spot showing violent government protest repressions. In a statement, the Cambodian Center for Independent Media and ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tvk-boss-departure-draws-further-concern-59348/
Ruling party lawmakers begin debate on judicial reform laws
CPP lawmakers on Wednesday began debating the first of three judicial reform laws, ignoring an opposition boycott of the National Assembly and calls from outside legal experts for outside review of drafts they say are substandard. Critics say the draft laws will not improve the widely ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/ruling-party-lawmakers-begin-debate-on-judicial-reform-laws/1919419.html
Sam Rainsy contacts Sar Kheng for talks
The opposition party leader Sam Rainsy sent an open letter Tuesday to Interior Minister Sar Kheng to resume talks between the two parties to break the current political deadlock. “I would like to inform all observers that today [Tuesday] I contacted Deputy Prime Minister and Interior ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=YmUwMzNhNGQxMGM
Cambodia has some 13,000 drug addicts: anti-drug chief
About 13,000 people, aged between 18 and 35 years old, have been using drugs in Cambodia, up from roughly 7,000 users in 2007, Meas Vyrith, secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), said Wednesday. “It is estimated that a drug user spends about ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140521/cambodia-has-some-13000-drug-addicts-anti-drug-chief
Judge adds video evidence in trial against activist
Trials against 23 labor activists continued in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, with union leader Von Pov addressing the court to defend himself. The activists are charged with inciting violence in mass demonstrations in January. The court was shown three video clips on Wednesday, in which Von Pov ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/judge-adds-video-evidence-in-trial-against-activist/1919443.html
Nauru detainees informed about refugee resettlement in Cambodia
Some asylum seekers at the Australian-run immigration processing centre on Nauru have been advised they will be sent to Cambodia if they are found to be refugees. The advice preempts the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Australia and Cambodia. The ABC understands some family ...
Karen Barlow
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-21/nauru-asylum-seekers-told-about-cambodia-refugee-resettlemen/5468662
Cambodia may present safer base for Taiwanese businesses
Cambodia is a promising target for Taiwanese entrepreneurs seeking cheap labor without risking the social unrest that has surged through Vietnam, according to an economics professor in Taiwan cited in our Chinese-language sister paper China Times. Riots have broken out in Vietnam against China’s oil rig ...
Hong Kai-yin, Huang Tsung-yuan, Tang Yu-lin and Staff Reporter
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20140521000069&cid=1202
Political parties say they are working toward agreement
Negotiators for the ruling party and opposition say they are preparing for a summit to settle their differences over election reforms, following meetings this week with a team of Japanese development experts. Officials from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party say they will still push for ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/political-parties-say-they-are-working-toward-agreement/1919402.html
Ministry swapped in deal with timber magnate
In yet another land swap deal that will see lucrative state-owned land handed to a private business in exchange for a new building on cheaper land, the Try Pheap Group has built a new headquarters for the Women’s Affairs Ministry in Stung Meanchey commune. In return, ...
Aun Pheap and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-swapped-in-deal-with-timber-magnate-59216/
Customs agreement gets green light at NA
The National Assembly approved changes to the country’s customs law yesterday, in order to comply with Association of Southeast Asian Nations intergration standards. The changes demand border operations increase human resources, reduce paperwork and modernise procedures in order to simplify border exchange and facilitate trade between ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/customs-agreement-gets-green-light-na
Gov’t called on to save forests
Villagers from forest communities in nine provinces called on the government yesterday to take action after alleging that “the rich and powerful” are causing the “serious destruction” of their livelihoods. The villagers, with the support of two NGOs – the Children’s Development Association and Community Peace-Building ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-called-save-forests
Rights group says US military support breaches Congress bill
U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday released a report claiming that Washington’s ongoing support for Cambodian security forces is inconsistent with U.S. Congress directives regarding aid to Cambodia. HRW charges that last month’s 10-day Angkor Sentinel military exercise, undertaken by members of the ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-says-us-military-support-breaches-congress-bill-59227/
Union leader details beating by soldiers
Taking the stand for the first time since his arrest at a garment worker protest that turned violent in early January, union leader Vorn Pao told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday that he went to the protest only to make peace and was ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-details-beating-by-soldiers-59221/
Defendants cut off as 23’s trial goes on
When union leader Vorn Pov was finally allowed to give testimony yesterday on the third day of the trial of 23 men arrested during a garment strike in January, he found himself cut off by an attorney ordering him to answer only the exact question ...
May Titthara, Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/defendants-cut-23%E2%80%99s-trial-goes
Future unclear for dormant health center
Nearly three years after it was shut down for supposed renovations, Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon Referral Hospital is still not operational and former staff say they have been left out in the cold about what will happen to the site. Commune, district, municipal and national health ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/future-unclear-for-dormant-health-center-59231/
Three provincial police chiefs shuffle jobs
Three provincial police chiefs will move into different jobs over the next three days due to their retirement or election to council positions, a police official said Tuesday. Kompong Chhnang provincial police chief Brigadier General Ath Khem will be replaced by his deputy, Brigadier General Prak ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-provincial-police-chiefs-shuffle-jobs-59237/
As Oz proposal nears, opposition mounting
Opposition to Australia’s proposal to send refugees to Cambodia is growing, with the Australian Greens’ immigration spokeswoman yesterday saying the party would try to block it in the Senate. Sarah Hanson-Young told The Sydney Morning Herald that Cambodia would be “a fundamentally unacceptable place for Australia to dump ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/oz-proposal-nears-opposition-mounting
Transparency group to launch anti-graft app
Transparency International Cambodia (T.I.) will next week launch an app for smartphones that allows users to log instances of bribery with the advocacy group. Bribespot, the work of a team of German computer programmers, will encourage users to share details of corrupt activity in real time, ...
Matt Blomberg and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/transparency-group-to-launch-anti-graft-app-59242/
Australian media cite Hun Sen Facebook page on refugee deal
A post on a Facebook page that Prime Minister Hun Sen has denied is his own was cited Tuesday by both the Sydney Morning Herald and Australia’s national broadcaster as having officially announced the Cambodian government’s agreement to resettle asylum seekers held by Australia. Mr. Hun ...
Alex Willemyns and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/australian-media-cite-hun-sen-facebook-page-on-refugee-deal-59229/
Minister to address beatings
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith has pledged to meet with Daun Penh District Governor Sok Sambath to discuss the targeting of journalists by hired district security guards, said UNESCO country representative Anne Lemaistre, who met with the minister on Friday. The minister is also keen on ...
Kevin Ponniah and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minister-address-beatings
Some 2,000 Chinese flee Vietnam to Cambodia: Cambodian deputy PM
Approximately 2,000 Chinese businesspeople and tourists have crossed the Vietnamese border into Cambodia these days to escape anti-China riots in Vietnam, a senior Cambodian official said Tuesday. “Some 2,000 Chinese nationals have fled Vietnam to Cambodia,” Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng told reporters. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-05/20/c_133348158.htm
Cambodia sees rise of Asean tourists in Q1
Cambodia received 424,300 visitors from Asean countries in the first quarter of the year, up 4 per cent year-on-year. Data from the Tourism Ministry showed tourist arrivals from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) accounted for 33 per cent of 1.27 million overseas arrivals from January ...
Bernama News Staff
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1039613
Greens will try to force Senate vote on plans to settle refugees in Cambodia
The Greens will attempt to force a vote in the Senate on plans to resettle in Cambodia refugees whose claims for protection are recognised on Nauru and is challenging Labor to block any deal. The party’s immigration spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, is confident any deal with the ...
Cambodia opposition, ruling party to resume talks
Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties are preparing to resume negotiations aimed at ending the country’s political crisis following a hiatus for local council elections, party officials said Tuesday. Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy said he had contacted Interior Minister Sar Kheng, the top negotiator for Prime ...
Rachel Vandenbrink
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/talks-05202014170548.html