News

A drug dealer who found himself at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal when it emerged that his SUV has been gifted to the son of ousted Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealak­tei was convicted on Friday, but the court said his car ...

William A. Heidt, a career member of the Foreign Service, was nominated on April 7, 2015, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Cambodia. If he’s confirmed, it will be his first ambassadorial posting. Since 2012, Heidt has been executive assistant to the Under Secretary ...

Sar Kheng, vice president of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and Kem Sokha, acting president of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to held talks early next week at the National Assembly’s secretariat. ...

The government could be forced to shell out more than $120 million [≈ Finance industry 2011 political donations] to build new landfills over the next decade unless it invests in preventing Phnom Penh’s current site from reaching capacity, according to a pair of new reports. ...

The Constitutional Council will next week will hear arguments from the government and opposition about the controversial NGO law before deciding on Wednesday whether to send the legislation to King Norodom Sihamoni for final approval. ...

Deputy Prime Minister and minister of interior Sar Kheng approved for two new political parties—the Grassroots Democracy Party (GDP) and Khmer Solidarity Party  (KSP) to contest in the upcoming 2017 commune/Sangkat council and the 2018 National Election.  ...

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC) held a meeting today on the “constitutionality” of a newly-approved law on the Association and Non-governmental Organization. ...

The first Phnom Penh-Preah Sihanouk expressway is expected to be constructed next year in order to facilitate goods transportation from the capital to the international seaport, according the state’s news agency- AKP. ...

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said UN was unable to find the 1:100,000 scale maps produced between 1933 and 1953 by the Indochina Geographical Service, but indentified the maps that may be of interest to Cambodia. ...

Land reclamation in the South China Sea has “increased tensions” in the region, according to Southeast Asian foreign ministers, who wrangled for days about how to word their annual communique.​ ...

Aiming to boost tourism numbers in its own country, Thailand has approved a multiple-entry visa that will allow tourists to leave and re-enter the country several times during a six month period, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. ...

Press freedom groups have condemned a violent attack on two reporters by security guards at a rally in Phnom Penh yesterday. ...

King Norodom Sihamoni, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath and Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday presided over the inauguration of Cambodia’s first geriatric center at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh. ...

The lawyer for Duong Udomchorvin, who slapped the son of logging tycoon Try Pheap in a Phnom Penh tattoo parlor in April, told a hearing at the municipal court Thursday that his obese client’s poor health should be taken into account in sentencing. ...

The first meeting to discuss a long-term strategy for dealing with last year’s freak outbreak of HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune was held at the Council of Ministers building in Phnom Penh on Thursday, officials said. ...

The Transportation Ministry this week inked a $644,000 deal with a Chinese firm for a master plan to lay out Cambodia’s needs for new roads over the next several years. ...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed William Heidt, a career diplomat, as the country’s next ambassador to Cambodia, the U.S. Embassy said Thursday. ...

The deputy Phnom Penh police chief in charge of immigration has denied accusations of overseeing a network of corrupt officers who regularly extorted foreigners running businesses in the city, according to a statement released by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Thursday. ...

Sixteen undocumented Vietnamese migrants were arrested yesterday at a construction site in Preah Vihear, the latest in a spate of arrests of workers without papers. This summer has seen a spike in arrests, fines, and deportations of expat workers – with police saying that more ...

Disabled people in Cambodia may frequently be excluded from the election process, according to a new study that is to be released next week that indicates local authorities consistently refuse to issue identity cards to the physically and developmentally disabled. ...

Five retired officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs could face legal action if they fail to declare their assets, the Anti-Corruption Unit has warned. ...

Influential businesswoman You Chantha was arrested on Wednesday over allegations she cleared 17 hectares of land in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district, defying a court order handed down as part of an ongoing land dispute. ...

Four reporters accused a forestry official in Ratanakkiri province of locking them behind the gate of the local Forestry Administration headquarters Thursday morning in an attempt to stop them from reporting on the transport of illegally logged luxury wood. ...

As Phnom Penh’s population expands in the coming decades—with expectations of 2.6 million people by 2035 and 5 million by 2050—Japan’s development agency on Thursday hosted a conference to review its plan to curb traffic congestion in the capital. ...