The Cambodia Daily

Two pro-CNRP U.S. lawmakers called on newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to take a hard-line stance with the Cambodian government ahead of upcoming elections, in a letter signed on Thursday.Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat representing Long Beach, California, home to the largest Cambodian ...

Unless there are fundamental changes to the dynamics of politics in Cambodia—with the government suppressing dissent and the opposition often relying on racially charged attacks—disenchantment following next year’s election is likely to lead to violence, a think tank warned in a political analysis released on ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen emerged from a meeting with visiting Burmese President Htin Kyaw on Saturday declaring he did not support the “internationalization” of Burma’s escalating Rohingya crisis, going against mounting global fears of an impending genocide. ...

Violating the Constitution while following through on a threat from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the National Assembly’s CPP-staffed secretariat on Thursday issued an order saying that ministers would not appear before lawmakers unless the CNRP stopped boycotting parliamentary sessions. ...

Even by his own admission, it is an extraordinary change in fortunes for Adam Whittington. Eight months ago, the so-called “child recovery agent” was languishing in a stark Lebanese jail facing kidnapping charges after a failed attempt to snatch two children from the streets of Beirut ...

Hundreds of chickens and ducks infected with H5N1 bird flu have been culled in Svay Reing province after an outbreak of the virus last week, the first reported cases since November 2015. ...

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia on Monday rejected the CNRP’s complaints against the first 76 of 2,441 people the opposition party says were unlawfully registered to vote last year, arguing, like the National Election Committee, that the opposition party lacked evidence to back up its ...

South Korea will hand out nearly $420 million in development loans to Cambodia this week, much of it for roads and other infrastructure, bringing its total assistance to more than $880 million since 2001.   ...

Government officials say they are investigating the causes of two separate weekend fires in Mondolkiri province that reportedly burned through hundreds of high-value logs the government had sold to a businessman after confiscating them from a pair of rubber plantations. ...

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia will today start hearing claims from the opposition CNRP that more than 2,400 non-citizens were recently added to the country’s voter rolls, days after the government’s National Election Committee threw out the same complaints. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday signed a sub-decree to create “biodiversity conservation corridors”—patches of land connecting Cambodia’s protected areas—putting an additional 1.4 million hectares under the management of the Environment Ministry.This brings Cambodia’s protected areas overseen by the ministry to more than 40 percent ...

A five-year pilot program is being created to integrate arts and culture into public schools throughout the country, and may help Cambodians develop a better understanding of their roots and the creative ability to take on global challenges. ...

The Agriculture Ministry renewed the license for timber extraction on a land concession in a protected area in September, despite previously concluding that the land within the concession had been completely cleared, according to a conservation group and documents obtained by reporters this month. ...

The controversial exporting of Cambodian sand to Singapore has finally—if temporarily—been stopped, according to officials from the two countries, amid long-running criticism over discrepancies in shipment records and environmental damage. ...

If it wasn’t already clear, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday let an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos know how he really felt about former U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration’s “pivot” to Asia. ...

Cambodia’s judicial system is troubled by a cycle of corruption, with both sides of the bench accusing the other of perpetuating the practice of bribery, Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) Chairman Om Yentieng said on Thursday at the inauguration of the new bar association president. ...

Police tallied only 23 rapes in Phnom Penh last year despite an overall spike of 20 percent in criminal cases, prompting experts to caution that the data posted on the Cambodian National Police website provided only a partial picture of the city’s crimes. ...

Hundreds of registered voters are being called in to a tribunal set up at the Interior Ministry compound in Phnom Penh this week to face questioning about whether they are Cambodian enough to participate in upcoming elections. ...

Cambodia’s critical garment export sector could face major risks in both the short and long term from the U.K.’s surprise vote last year to exit the E.U., the International Labor Organization (ILO) has warned. ...

Breaking months of silence over accusations that it imported tens of millions of tons of smuggled sand, Singapore’s government on Monday distanced itself from any wrongdoing, a response an environmental NGO leader deemed “full of lies” and “devoid of any meaning.” ...

A year ago on Sunday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the start of what sounded like a muscular new crackdown on the illegal timber trade running rampant across eastern Cambodia.   ...

The owners of two Chinese mining companies that attempted to transport illegally mined copper from Siem Reap province to Phnom Penh have been fined and handed suspended prison sentences, the Ministry of Mines and Energy announced on Thursday.   ...

In just over a month since the creation of a special task force to curb illegal fishing on the Tonle Sap lake, the Agriculture Ministry says it has already dealt with thousands of offenses. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen joined his Laotian counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith for a visit to the site of the controversial Don Sahong Dam just across the border on Tuesday, remarking that the trip was a reminder of Laos’ commitment to improving the livelihoods of Cambodians. ...