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More than 2,000 student volunteers yesterday were sent to measure land in 19 provinces, starting the second phase of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-titling program. Of the 2,016 volunteers, 1,362 are new and the rest are returning for the second time. ...

On the heels of a year in which the deaths of endangered Irrawaddy dolphins rose – as much as 100 per cent by some estimates – the government is paving the way for greater enforcement of conservation measures along a protected stretch of the Mekong. Touch ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at unnamed critics yesterday, saying there was no corruption in large-scale development projects backed by foreign aid. “[For example] as for the Neak Leung bridge or Kizuna bridge Japan runs its bids in Tokyo. Therefore, only Japanese companies have the ...

Rulling party Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar Company announced yesterday that it had amended its hiring policy to forbid contractors from employing children, while at the same time, opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua made public her plans to visit the company to investigate its ...

Unionists yesterday said they would urge international organisations and buyers to pressure the government to re-charge and arrest the former Bavet town governor accused of shooting three garment workers and to release two men imprisoned for the murder of unionist Chea Vichea. In December, charges ...

When ministers from the four member countries of the Mekong River Commission and donors meet in Luang Prabang, Laos this week, the future role of the agency will be on the table. Questions about the effectiveness of the Mekong River Commission, set up in 1995 to ...

THE Australian Federal Police will reopen corruption inquiries into major Australian companies OZ Minerals and Cochlear, after searing criticism that it was lax in its investigations. OZ Minerals will be targeted following discussions with the OECD about the AFP’s previous investigation of alleged foreign ...

About 80 workers from a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district – which supplies women’s underwear to U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart – protested yesterday, demanding that the factory owner settle their severance payments, workers and union representatives said. Workers at the Kingsland Garment Cambodia factory ...

Hundreds of families in Ratanakki­ri province have asked rights group Adhoc to intervene, saying local authorities in Bakeo district’s Laminh commune are illegally forcing them from their homes. Village representative, Ek Orm, 52, said that authorities were forcing villagers to relocate to make way for a ...

For the second time, an investigating judge at Ratanakirri Provincial Court has closed the investigation into the murder of Virakchun Khmer newspaper journalist Hang Serei Oudom. Odom was found dead in the trunk of his car. The murder happened only days after an article about ...

Norwegian energy firm Eltek Valere will file a criminal complaint today against mobile phone operator Mfone over an agreement that was signed last week to shift Mfone’s existing subscribers to MobiTel, according to a lawyer representing Eltek. The decision by the Thai-owned mobile operator Mfone to ...

Energy supplies will be more secure once territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia are resolved, Department of Mineral Fuels director-general Songpob Polchan said on Friday. Mr Songpob said that the sooner Thailand and Cambodia are able to work out their differences, the sooner they can exploit ...

BANGKOK, 9 January 2013 The cross-border tension between Thailand and Cambodia escalates as both countries prepare to make legal submissions to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the disputed area around the Preah Vihear temple in 3 months. In Surin province, security has tightened ...

Cambodia-based telecommunication operator Mfone, part of the Thaicom group, on Wednesday petitioned for insolvency proceedings in Phnom Penh after facing difficulties in an intensely competitive market and after failing to complete the sale of its shares to INT Management Service Company. “Mfone has been through a ...

THE [sic] Ministry of Tourism plans to organize an annual River Festival along the Mekong and Tonle Sap in a move to attract tourists, officials said. Additionally, it wants to raise awareness for environmental protection with a “Clean City Day” on February 27. The Minister of ...

The Arbitration Council heard about 230 collective labor disputes in the garment and footwear industry involving approximately 98,000 workers in 2012, a 38 percent increase from 2011, which saw 161 cases handled, according to the council. Y Samphy, training and communications manager for the council’s Arbitration ...

Construction is due to start shortly on a socially responsible sun-glass case and cleaning cloth factory in Siem Reap. Pactics produces 40 per cent of cases and cloths for the larget sun-glass factory in the world, Luxottica, which has brands including Ray Ban, Oakley and ...

First, agricultural company DM group displaced them, now a recently arrived commercial farmer has threatened their lives and chased them off their new land, said representatives of 12 families engaged in a long-standing land dispute in Ratanakkiri province. On Wednesday, the 12 Tampuon ethnic minority families ...

A Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district yesterday agreed to pay $4,000 in compensation to an ethnic Jarai community whose traditional graveyard was bulldozed by the firm last week, local officials said. During a meeting at the Paknhai commune police station, representatives of the ...

The government’s Human Rights Committee has visited villagers in a long-running land dispute in Battambang province to find out whether members of their community have been unfairly imprisoned in recent years for land encroachment, local authorities and villagers said yesterday. Officials from committee, which is headed ...

Fixed-duration contracts (FDCs) are in the sights of Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun, who yesterday urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to outlaw their use in the garment and footwear industries. Chhun said the cancellation of such contracts would provide better conditions and job security ...

A coalition of NGOs has called on Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee (CNMC) to push for the Xayaburi dam to be added to the agenda of a regional Mekong River meeting next week. Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum on Cambodia, said it was disappointing ...

In a sign that they no longer have faith in the court system, more than 100 villagers in Kampong Chhnang province placed their fates in the hands of a higher power yesterday, and prayed for misfortune to rain down on a company with whom they’ve ...

It has been just over a year since Vancouver-based Angkor Gold (ANK-V) went public with its stable of Cambodian exploration projects, and it is looking like the company’s early mover strategy in the developing Southeast Asian nation might be poised to pay off. To kick ...