News

The minister of posts and telecommunications on Monday insisted an edict ordering the country’s seven mobile phone operators to abide by a law that sets minimum prices for calls is only temporary. Prak Sokhon, the newly-appointed posts and telecommunications minister, said the order was necessary because ...

Stronger disaster planning is needed to avoid future devastation and loss of life caused by flooding, according to a report published by World Vision yesterday. The report, titled Cities Prepare, recommends that the Cambodian government and civil society work to place “a stronger emphasis on disaster risk ...

Cambodia ranked third worst in “global suffering” last year—behind Bulgaria and Armenia—a significant increase from 2011, when it ranked 14th worst, ac-cording to the worldwide polling group Gallup. A poll released last week on Gallup’s website says 34 percent of Cambodian respondents rated their lives as ...

Cambodia’s telecommunications ministry yesterday defended intervening in the market by fixing minimum prices for mobile phone calls, rationalising the base charges as necessary to stem the loss of tax revenue and avert a monopolised industry. The floor price was introduced in 2009 to prevent the demise ...

National Police and military police officers deployed to International Human Rights Day events and an opposition rally in the capital today will not carry guns or live ammunition, spokesmen for the respective authorities said yesterday. Effectively vowing to avoid a repeat of two fatal police shootings ...

Two men were arrested and charged on Sunday with smuggling more than 2,000 kilograms of luxury-grade rosewood from Kampong Thom to Siem Reap town, anti-crime officials said yesterday. Thanh Ti, 21, and Viet Thy Thanh, 19, were caught manning a truck transferring 2,400 kilograms of rosewood ...

Droves of seafood sellers descended on the normally sleepy Kep province this past weekend, attempting to capitalise on a tourism festival set up to drive dollars to Cambodia’s coastal areas. But overcrowding and blocked roads pushed prices down and kept customers away, according to vendors. The ...

Taking strides to curb Cambodia’s high maternal and child mortality rates, health officials yesterday launched a $14 million initiative to improve women’s limited access to reproductive health care. During the three-year Partnering to Save Lives campaign, funded by AusAid, NGOs Care Cambodia, Marie Stopes and Save ...

Kampong Cham police officials arrested 10 suspects on Sunday for illegally fishing the Mekong River in Koh Sotin district. “Seven are Vietnamese and other three are Muslim Cambodians. They used illegal equipment to fish in the Mekong River, such as four motor boats, trawls and two ...

In order to promote and facilitate people to people exchange between Cambodia and Japan, both governments have agreed on visa exemptions and the issuance of long-term and multiple visas, according to a press release issued by Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In the ...

Air pollution from vehicles and electric generators inside the Angkor Archeological Park and in Siem Reap City is soiling and darkening the monuments at the World Heritage Site, an official at the Apsara Authority, which is responsible for the park, said Friday. Options to decrease ...

Cambodian authorities unlawfully detain hundreds of drug users and others deemed “undesirable” in centers where they face torture, sexual violence, and forced labor, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called for the immediate closure of the country’s eight detention ...

Researchers at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases have isolated a new class of drugs that could be used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians, according to a report published in the journal Science Translational Medicine last week. The drugs, called indolcarboxamides, work ...

Paul Blanche-Horgan, the CEO of internet service provider Ezecom, will now be known as Oknha Paul Blanche-Horgan, making him one of the few Westerners to receive the prestigious and sought-after Cambodian title. Awarded by King Norodom Sihanomi in mid-November, the new status brings Blanche-Horgan, who has ...

The offices of Herbalife, a so-called multilevel marketing company that has moved into the protein powder market in Cambodia, stand like a beacon of promise in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district: Six stories of glass and white paneling, crisp lime-green signage and a four-story-high banner ...

Seventy National Police generals have been signed into retirement by Prime Minister Hun Sen, having surpassed civil servants’ mandatory retirement age of 60 years old. The request to retire the generals was made in a letter to King Norodom Sihamoni by the premier on November 27, ...

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Saturday visited troops stationed at Preah Vihear temple territory to explain the interpretation of the recent World Court’s ruling over disputed land with Thailand. Addressing more than 1,000 soldiers at a military headquarters about 20 km ...

Authorities issued an arrest warrant last week for the director of a local NGO involved with an operation that allegedly bilked thousands out of money by claiming the company could find them work in South Korea. Warrants for the arrests of Theun Samnang, head of NGO ...

An expatriate living in Phnom Penh has set up a fund to raise $3,000 over the next month to help pay the medical expenses of a student shot in the spine by a police officer at the SL Garment Factory workers’ protest last month. Hoeurn Chann, ...

NGOs yesterday were granted permission to hold an International Human Rights Day event on Tuesday outside Wat Phnom – just a short distance from Freedom Park, where the Cambodia National Rescue Party has been given approval for a 10,000-person mass demonstration. In letters signed by Minister ...

Social accountability East Asia and Pacific, a regional non-profit organization devoted to improving governance and social accountability, congratulated the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of Cambodia for requiring government institutions to set a standard public service fee for items such as; certificates and ID cards. The ACU ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday issued a statement ordering that anti-graft education be incorporated into the national schooling system as part of a wider effort to stamp out corruption in the country. The statement, released in the lead-up to International Anti-Corruption Day, which falls today, ...

Cambodia and Japan agreed to grant visa exemption to diplomatic and official passport holders, aiming at further enhancing bilateral ties and cooperation, said a press statement from the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday. The statement said the two countries have agreed to provide visa ...

More than 500 students and teachers from two high schools in Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon district took to the streets on Friday demanding better safety around schools after a truck crashed into a rice mill near one of the schools, injuring a man. The students and ...