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Forestry Official, Reporter Arrested and Released
A forestry officer and a reporter from a little-known newspaper were arrested Friday on allegations of attempted extortion and assaulting a man they caught illegally transporting luxury timber, but were released on Saturday, military police officials said yesterday. Seng Chandaron, the chief of Sandan commune Forestry ...
Border provinces request more energy from Thailand
Thailand had been asked to supply more electricity to those Cambodian provinces close to the shared border, according to officials. Suy Sem, Cambodian minister of Industry, Mine and Energy, talked to reporters after a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Thai Minister Arak Chonlatanon last week, a ...
Journo, forest official allegedly beat logger
A local journalist and a forestry official were arrested by military police in Kratie province’s Sambo district on Friday night for allegedly discharging a weapon into the air and beating a man with a boat oar in an extortion bid gone awry. According to district military ...
Anniversary Marked With Fiery Demonstration
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood burned straw effigies symbolizing corrupt government officials yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the demolition of eight homes at the contested site. Roughly 100 protesters gathered at the site of the demolitions and set fire to eight scarecrow-like effigies- one ...
Eviction fears grow at lake
Villagers living in raised houses on the capital’s Boeung Tumpun lake fear their eviction is on the horizon as sand pumping increases at the site, they said yesterday. In recent months, heavy machinery has been at work at the Boeung Tumpun site. Sand pumping has ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091758736/National-news/eviction-fears-grow-at-lake.html
Timber Firm's workers back
Employee at timber company Angkor Flywood in Kampong Cham province will return to work today after their bosses agreed yesterday to all but one of their demands: an increase in wages. Sok Kin, vice president of the Building and Word Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091758737/National-news/timber-firms-workers-back.html
Officer, Wife Charged with Journalist's Murder
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday charged a military police captain and his wife with the murder of journalist Hang Serei Odom, officials said. Hang Serei Odom, who worked for the Virakchun Khmer Daily newspaper, was found dead in the trunk of his car on Tuesday. He ...
Residents could be evicted as pumped sand fills the Boeung Tumpun lake
Heavy machinery is pumping millions of tonnes of sand from the river into the Boeung Tumpun lake in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The area is home to some 2000 families and rumours suggest they will be evicted to develop the land once the lake is filled. The ...
Cambodia to Buy Power From Laos’ Xayaburi Dam
Laos’ energy minister announced last week that the country will sell energy supplied by the controversial Xayaburi Dam to Cambodia. It is already planning to sell power to Thailand, where last month a lawsuit was lodged to stop the country from buying electricity produced at ...
http://www.ooskanews.com/daily-water-topic/cambodia-buy-power-laos-xayaburi-dam_24348
PTT prepares 800 million baht for expansion into Cambodia, Laos
The PTT Public Company Limited is looking to invest 800 million baht in energy business expansion in Cambodia and Laos in the next five years. The PTT planned to open 4-5 more gas stations in Laos and Cambodia each. The Thai energy giant already has 14 ...
Spirit of the Forest
Once a majority ethnic minority province where Tampoun, Jarai and Kreung speakers outnumbered the Khmer, Ratanakkiri is now one of the country’s fastest growing provinces where inhabitants of lowland provinces, particularly Kompong Cham, Svay Rieng and Prey Veng, are flocking in search of a better ...
Cambodia Asks China to Fund Power Cables
Two weeks after Prime Minister Hun Sen returned from China with more than half a billion dollars in new loans and grants, Cambodia once again asked Beijing for money on Thursday. In a bilateral discussion held alongside this week’s series of meetings between Asean energy ministers, ...
Mondolkiri Minority Villagers Divided Over Land Titles
Ethnic Bunong villagers in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district are bitterly divided over how best to protect their ancestral land amid efforts by authorities to map it in preparation for property titles. Bosra commune chief Yoeth Sarin said that since student volunteers-deployed across the country as ...
Canadia, Gov't Look to Soothe Tax Process
With the deadline to pay annual property taxes rapidly approaching, hundreds of Phnom Penh homeowners queued this week at Canadia Bank’s headquarters on Monivong Boulevard to pay their tax bills in relative comfort, and avoid long visits to district and municipal taxation offices. Canadia Bank signed ...
Rights Groups Condemn Charges Against Anti-Eviction Activists
International human rights groups added their voices to the chorus of criticism over the detention of two female anti-eviction activists from the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities, accusing the court of failing to honor fair trial standards. In a statement issued late Thursday, Amnesty International, ...
Bridge to Be Built Over Flooded Road in B Meanchey
Amid flooding caused by heavy rain in Thailand, Banteay Meanchey provincial officials have commissioned the construction of a steel bridge over an inundated section of road on the outskirts of Poipet City, officials said yesterday. Flooding in Preah Vihear province, which started last week following heavy ...
Cambodia Record Significant Progress in Child Mortality
The mortality rate for children under the age of 5 in Cambodia has fallen by 64 percent since 1990, with the most marked decrease noted over the past decade, according to a Unicef report released yesterday. The report, Committed to Survival: A promise Renewed, lists Cambodia ...
Cambodia sees mixed bag for 2015
Cambodia expects the arrival of the ASEAN Community in 2015 to present challenges as well as opportunities for its people. Economic advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sok Siphanna believes that the ASEAN integrity will create more opportunity for Cambodia. “Cheap labor in ...
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/13/cambodia-sees-mixed-bag-2015.html
China investment in energy 'crucial' to Cambodia
Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday hailed Chinese companies for hugely investing in the country’s energy sector, which is a key element to support the sustainable social and economic development. Suy Sem’s appreciation was made during a bilateral meeting with Wu Yin, ...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-09/13/content_15756465.htm
Hundreds of Taxi Drivers Protest for Third Time
More than 200 motorcycle-taxi drivers gathered in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park yesterday, for the third time, to protest against human rights groups who have characterized the recent arrest of two anti-eviction activists as politically motivated. The little known taxi drivers’ union, Cambodia for Confederation Development Association ...
Number of Airport Passengers Soars in 2012
The number of passengers arriving at Cambodia’s two main airports in the first eight months of the year increased 17.7 percent to more than 1.3 million people, compared to about 1.1 million people during the same period last year, figures released by Cambodian Airports show. Between ...
Slain Journalist's Mobile Phone Yields Clues
Police investigating the murder of a journalist whose battered body was discovered in Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday have unearthed key clues to who may have carried out the killing, an official said yesterday. Hang Serei Odom, 42-who had written exposes on the involvement of powerful people in forest ...
Cost pressure squeezes Asian growth
I attended a meeting in Chengdu, Sichuan Province last week. The most frequent word mentioned by local officials and scholars there was “industry.” They are very proud that the number of local jobs created in Sichuan has now surpassed the number of workers leaving to ...
Secretary-General Says Asean to Delay Start of Economic Union
The plan to create an economic union in the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will likely see a delay of a year, Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said at the meeting of the bloc’s energy ministers in Phnom Penh. During the meeting, Mr. Surin said ...