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Officials were mum yesterday about the proposed construction of an oil refinery by a Chinese firm in Preah Sihanouk and Kampot provinces, and provincial authorities said the company had not yet been granted any land for the proposed project. Ter Chimnarith, deputy director of Kampot province’s ...

Villagers accused of illegally occupying state land in Kompong Thom province protested outside Santuk district hall yesterday to ask for land titles, residents and authorities said. Sue Nhaunh, a villager and representative of 160 families in Kraya commune, said that more than 100 residents had gathered ...

Hundreds of people whose land has been swallowed by a giant Chinese tourism project on the coast of Koh Kong province will attempt to demonstrate their grievances today by blocking national roads 4 and 48, villagers and human rights workers said Protesters have been resisting China’s ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has not made public the last two quarterly reports on the impact of resettling families who are being evicted for a $142 million railway rehabilitation project. The reports, which are required under an ADM loan agreement with the government, haven’t been ...

Construction on a US$2 billion oil refining plant, the Kingdom’s first, will start in April, according to officials close to the project. The plant, which will be built on 365 hectares across Kampot and Sihanoukville provinces and is expected to be completed in 2014, is a ...

An environmental group yesterday criticized Thailand’s announcement last week that it would not oppose Laos’ proposal to build the first Lower Mekong dam at the upcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) meeting, as long as Laos addresses the dam’s environmental impacts. Water and environment ministers from Cambodia, ...

At least 20 Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have had their passports confiscated by a Thai recruitment agency, while another 10 have gone missing after they fled the same agency fearing they would be trafficked to work on Thai fishing vessels, Human Rights Watch and ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged a businessman with fraud and forgery stemming from a complaint made by the director of Win World Trading Co. Ltd. over a deal involving the selling of rosewood logged in Laos to Vietnam. The provincial military police detained Sann Dichham ...

A closed sign hung on the door of ClickNet’s Phnom Penh office during business hours yesterday, and the internet service provider’s Siem Reap office had also reportedly closed. ClickNet’s internet service has been down in Siem Reap since Monday, Thaddée Bechtold, CEO at internet technologies firm ...

Thailand will not object to the proposed Xayaburi hydropower dam in Laos, but Vientiane must shoulder responsibility for potential environmental damage caused by the US$3.8 billion project, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. “Laos has the right to construct the dam as it is located inside Lao ...

The Royal Government needs to address the environmental impacts not only from climate change but from man-made, water-based infrastructure such as dams before another natural disaster like the recent flooding claims hundreds of lives, community representatives said yesterday. At the first NGO Forum conference on climate ...

The Ratanakiri provincial forestry department over the past week in Andong Meas district confiscated more than 600 pieces of the luxury rosewood species of timber, a forestry official said. Vong Sok Serie, Ratanakiri provincial administration chief, said his officers collected a total of 610 pieces of ...

Rounding off a week that included two violent clashes with police and the charging and release of four protesters, Boeng Kak lake villagers yesterday daubed paper sheets with their blood in a symbolic call to end what they consider judicial intimidation. About 50 villagers gathered at ...

While crediting his efforts to quash illegal fishing with a surge in this year’s fish stocks, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he would extend the closure of 35 large Tonle Sap lake fishing lots until 2014. Speaking at a road paving project inauguration in ...

Improved fiscal management and preparation for a decline in foreign aid would help increase Cambodia’s credit rating, according to a quarterly credit opinion from Moody’s Investor Service, which maintained a stable outlook for the country. Reduced exposure to crisis and stagnation in Western economies, continued foreign ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court ordered on Tuesday that workers striking at Cambo Handsome 1 return to work within 48 hours and banned them from striking in front of the garment factory, in the capital’s Dankgor district. Seang Sambath, president of the Federation of Friendship Unions, ...

A regional meeting on disaster risk reduction and climate change wrapped up yesterday with officials pointing to the recent flooding as a reason to take immediate action to prepare for disasters. “We must not sleep or wait for donors to take action,” Ross Sovann, deputy secretary-general ...

Thailand has repatriated the body of an Oddar Meanchey man fatally shot Tuesday while illegally logging for rosewood in Thailand, border officials said yesterday. Torn Kimsann, 22, was among a group of four men from Samraong City’s O’Smach commune who had ventured about 1km into Thailand ...

Government officials sent conflicting messages yesterday over how they would handle the complaints of about 50 businessmen from Kompong Cham province who continued to protest at the Fisheries Administration over Prime Minister Hun Sen’s decision to cancel their bids to operate fishing lots. Por Try, secretary ...

As Mekong River Commission (MRC) countries prepare for a crucial meeting next week to debate Laos’ proposal to build the first Lower Mekong River dam, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called for a delay of the controversial project. The US Senate’s concern was echoed ...

China’s Erdos Hongjun planned to build a bauxite processing plant in Kratie province as part of the company’s US$1.5 billion venture in the Kingdom’s northeast, provincial officials said yesterday. The plant would serve Erdos’s mine in neighbouring Mondulkiri, an exploration licence for which was granted by ...

About 60 businessmen from Kompong Cham province protested at the Agriculture Ministry yesterday over Prime Minister Hun Sen’s decision to cancel their bids to operate fishing lots. Mr Hun Sen on Friday annulled the results of an October bidding process for companies interested in operating fishing lots ...

Police and military police stopped about 200 villagers from entering rice fields in Battambang province yesterday, saying they had no right to harvest in the 100-hectare area because it belonged to well-known businessman Song Thon, villagers said. Chhut Mao, a 64-year-old village representative of Lvea commune, ...

Six Oddar Meanchey villagers were arrested Monday afternoon while attempting to cross into Thailand to illegally log rosewood in the same area where three loggers were shot and killed by Thai authorities last week, officials said yesterday In a separate case, two loggers were reported missing ...