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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 ...
Singapore & Cambodia to strengthen energy cooperation, starting with study visit
Singapore and Cambodia have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in energy. As a first step, a delegation led by a Secretary of State of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy of Cambodia will conduct a study visit to Singapore from 21 to 24 October. The ...
Stringer who reported on logging found dead
A local newspaper stringer who had written about illegal logging was found dead in the back of a car yesterday in Rattanakiri province’s O’Chum district. Hang Serei Oudom, 44, was a stringer for Vorakchun Khmer, or Khmer Hero, newspaper. Police said his body was covered in blood ...
Spike in Mekong River Fishing Could Harm Dolphins
There has been an ioncrease in fishing activity in the dolphin conservation zones along the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces, putting pressure on the critically endangered Mekong dolphin population, the chairman of the Commission for Mekong River Dolphin Conservation and Eco-tourism Development said yesterday. Touch ...
Energy issues focus for ASEAN
Prime Minister Hun Sen opened the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh, where ASEAN officials will focus on ASEAN green energy and develop a plan for ASEAN’s power grid, officials said. Victor Jona, deputy director general of energy of the General Department ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091258643/Business/energy-issues-focus-for-asean.html
Protesters Demand Anti-Eviction Activists' Release
Fifty Boeng Kak and Borei Keila residents rallied outside the Ministry of Justice yesterday and submitted a petition demanding the release of two anti-eviction activists they say have been jailed on trumped-up charges. Four representatives from the two groups were allowed to enter the ministry yesterday, ...
District Governor Questioned Over Clearing Protected Forest
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court questioned a district governor from Kampong Thom province yesterday over his involvement in clearing protected flooed forest in the province in July. Prim Rottha, Stong district governor, is one of about 20 officials who received court summonses in July over their suspected ...
B Keila, B Kak continue petitioning
Free of the police resistance that thwarted their march the previous day, about 65 Borei Keila and Boeung Kak community supporters marched to the Ministry of Justice yesterday in another effort to have land dispute activists Tim Sakmony and Yorm Bopha freed from pre-trial detention ...
Villagers Save Pond From Being Filled
Approximately 400 people from 10 villages in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district stopped a truck on Monday that had been hired to fill in a pond in preparation for the reported building of a military police base, officials said. Thuon Nging, a representative of the ...
Kaing Menghun, P. 18
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/
Journalist Murdered in Ratanakkiri
A Cambodian journalist, who reported on forest crimes in Ratanakkiri province for a little-known newspaper, was found murdered in the trunk of his car yesterday, police said. Hang Serei Odom, 42, a journalist at the Khmer-language Virakchun Khmer Daily, had been missing since Sunday, when he ...
Trial of the 'secessionist' commences
Throngs of protesters gathered at the Olympic Stadium yesterday, at times straining against a mix of police force barriers and riot shields in their effort to show support for jailed Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando, whose trial was beginning just down the street at Phnom ...