News

The Phnom Penh municipality is finalising plans for a potential $1 million renovation of Wat Phnom, City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said yesterday. The project, which will commence at an unspecified date, will focus on combating hillside erosion while restoring worn-out structures. ...

Prince Norodom Ranariddh completed his takeover of the royalist Funcinpec party on Thursday, with a national party congress granting him absolute control of the party following a power struggle with the man who engineered his removal as leader in 2006. ...

Sousdey Finance, a subsidiary of Thitikorn Limited in Thailand, will start a financial hire-leasing service for motorbikes in Phnom Penh, with an initial start-up fund of $100,000. ...

A senior refugee department official has said that ethnic Jarai Montagnards fleeing alleged persecution in neighbouring Vietnam need to enter Cambodia via official checkpoints in order to register as asylum seekers on arrival. ...

Nearly 200 rubber plantation workers in Mondolkiri province on Thursday ended a three-day strike over wages and working conditions, despite not having resolved their concerns with Socfin KCD, the controversial French firm that owns the plantation. ...

Cambodia’s energy minister promised lawmakers from the National Assembly’s public works and energy commission yesterday that the country will be weaned off of foreign electricity imports within three years, the commission’s vice chairman said in a press conference after the meeting. According to Mao Monyvann, a ...

The chairman of parliament’s banking and finance commission yesterday rejected allegations of misuse of state funds at the National Assembly, which were raised on Tuesday by opposition lawmaker Son Chhay. Cheam Yeap, a ruling Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker who heads the commission, said Chhay was wrong ...

The European Union yesterday pledged an additional €6 million to the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance Programme, as the 10-year plan, first implemented in 2010, entered its second phase of development. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday sided with real estate tycoon Khun Sear and his eponymous company in a longstanding land dispute with a family living adjacent to an apartment block he obtained in a land swap, the family’s lawyer said Thursday. ...

Thirty-two families in Kampong Chhnang’s Teuk Phos district filed a complaint to rights group Adhoc yesterday, reporting they had been pressured by local authorities to sell their land for just $150 per hectare. ...

An eight-member troupe of China’s Fujian puppetry practitioners performed the show here on Wednesday. Held at the Chinese Cultural Mansion in Cambodia, the show drew dozens of viewers, including Cambodian Culture and Fine Arts Secretary of State Samraing Kamsan, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo and ...

A United Nations human rights expert has called for a speedy solution to the situation of the Montagnards from Vietnam still hiding in the forests of northeastern Cambodia, after crossing the border to escape alleged persecution. About 13 of the 50 Montagnards—Christian indigenous people from ...

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met with Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday to further discuss a refugee resettlement plan following an agreement struck by the two countries in September. ...

Human Rights Watch says lax labor laws in Cambodia are allowing garment factories, including many suppliers for Western brands, to take advantage of vulnerable workers. In a report released Thursday, the New York-based rights group documented a “persistent pattern of labor rights violations,” including forced overtime, ...

Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered alleged abuses at Cambodian garment factories that supply Marks & Spencer, Gap, H&M, Adidas and Armani. The pressure group found evidence of discrimination and anti-union practices, it says. ...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld previous decisions to deny bail to CNRP information department chief Meach Sovannara, who was jailed in November on insurrection charges relating to a July protest led by the opposition that erupted into a brawl between demonstrators and municipal security ...

Ten of Beehive Radio’s 22 employees protested outside the station’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district on Wednesday in a fifth day of strikes over owner Mam Sonando’s decision not to pay last month’s wages to four staff members he claims failed to regularly show ...

Four of the 36 Jarai Montagnards deported last month have “disappeared” from their village in Vietnam’s central highlands, prompting fears among villagers that they may have been detained by the authorities. The group of 36 Montagnards was deported on the night of February 24 after attempting ...

The government says it seized less rosewood from illegal loggers in Banteay Meanchey province in 2014 than the year before thanks to stricter enforcement, following a meeting Wednesday to review its anti-logging activities in the area. ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court has agreed to a request to delay the questioning of an anti-dam activist accused of illegally felling trees to build a community center in the Areng Valley. Ven Vorn—an ethnic Chong who has joined local protests organized by the NGO Mother ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy is in the early stages of developing a national oil company, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Meng Saktheara, who is also a secretary of state, said his ministry had been working with the Finance Ministry to assess the risks of ...

With thousands of fans expected to fill the stands at Phnom Penh’s Old Stadium Thursday afternoon to watch Cambodia kick off its improbable bid to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in a match against Macau, coach Lee Tae-hoon isn’t sure his side is ready. ...

The number of abortions performed in 2014 increased nearly 51 per cent from the year before, according to the Ministry of Health. A report released March 9 showed that the total number of miscarriages and abortions for the year were up by more than 4,000 cases ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court has agreed to a request to delay the questioning of an anti-dam activist accused of illegally felling trees to build a community center in the Areng Valley. Ven Vorn—an ethnic Chong who has joined local protests organized by the NGO Mother ...