The Cambodia Daily

Environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson made a direct ap­peal to Prime Minister Hun Sen via Facebook on Wednesday for help se­curing a visa to return to Cambodia to attend his pending trial for aiding a trio of fellow activists. ...

About 500 people gathered outside Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison on Tuesday to demand the release of form­er Capitol Tours bus driver Nan Vanna and la­bor activist Ros Si­phay, who were arrested two weeks ago for participating in a demonstration against the company. ...

Cambodians continue to suffer from a raft of human rights abuses in­cluding “arbitrary restrictions” on freedoms of assembly and ex­pression, according to Amnesty In­ternational’s latest global report re­leased this morning. ...

Reported rape cases increased by 12 percent last year compared to 2014, despite an overall drop in crime in 2015, according to an Interior Ministry report released on Tuesday. ...

The Interior Ministry has struck a deal with China to buy 200 fire­trucks this year, nearly doubling Cam­bodia’s current fleet in a bid to bet­ter serve the country’s rural reach­es, officials said on Monday. ...

An ad hoc task force set up by Prime Minister Hun Sun last month to go after illegal timber stocks in eastern Cambodia has started sending cases to the pro­vincial courts for prosecution, Na­tional Police spokesman Eng Hy said on Monday. ...

Indonesian firm Sri Rejeki signed a $50 million deal with the Min­istry of Interior last week to sup­ply Cambodia’s police and armed forces with new uniforms, ac­cording to the Indonesian Em­bassy and media reports. ...

Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirin­dhorn flew from Phnom Penh to Ratanakkiri province and back again on Monday, alighting for a lakeside lunch and the open­ing of a health center on the first day of her three-day visit to the country. ...

The European Union is increasing its development grants to Cambodia by almost 50 per cent in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to a Friday statement. ...

A 12-year-old boy was killed when a piece of an 80-mm mortar shell he was playing with exploded on Saturday in Battambang province, police said on Sunday.   ...

Despite their overwhelmingly female workforce, garment factories in Kompong Speu province fail to adequately address the maternal health and child-care needs of their staff, according to new study set to be released by the French NGO Enfants and Developpment. ...

Nine families who lost their farmland to an under-construction special economic zone (SEZ) in Koh Kong province filed a complaint with the provincial government on Friday seeking to have the land excised from the industrial park and returned to them. ...

Provincial environment department officials shut down a gem mine in Pailin province yesterday, after an inspection found that the operators had not obtained proper authorisation. ...

Between 2008 and 2015, the World Bank and German aid agency GIZ spent $13 million setting up eight social land concessions for thousands of the poorest Cambodians, doling out small farms they could use to pull themselves out of poverty and, after a few years, ...

Following an order from the government this week for businesses on O’Tres and O’Chheuteal beaches to shut down, about 100 protesters in Phnom Penh on Thursday called for the decision to be overturned. ...

Royal Cambodian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Pol Saroeun yesterday told hundreds of the Kingdom’s top military brass to be more like Prime Minister Hun Sen and join the information age via smartphones and social media. ...

This week, 25 years after a Frenchmen created the first of five specialized schools for blind and deaf students, it is handing over the schools—plus the tools and expertise its staff developed over decades—to the Cambodian government. ...

A prosecutor at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court said on Wednesday that charges would stand against five union officials who were released on bail last month af­ter they were arrested during a brawl with a rival association, de­spite calls by a prominent labor leader to ...

The government is reviewing a mammoth $1-billion proposal by the Thai Boon Roong Group to build twin commercial skyscrapers in Phnom Penh which, if constructed, would be among the world’s tallest buildings. ...

On trial at the Koh Kong Pro­vin­cial Court on Wednesday, anti-dam ac­tivist Ven Vorn denied the illegal logging charge laid against him last year over his involvement in the construction of a wooden community center, his lawyer said. ...

Mondolkiri provincial police chief Toch Yon has ordered authorities in Keo Seima district to search for fugitive former military police official Sou Ma­rith, after the district police chief said last week that he would not organize a manhunt without further funding. ...

Police in Kompong Thom prov­ince are searching for three men who held up the owners of a Wing mobile payment kiosk in Kom­pong Svay district on Mon­day night, the latest in a string of similar robberies. ...

More than 90 people had been hospitalized in Takeo province as of Tuesday evening after eating tainted noodles during a Buddhist ceremony at a pagoda on Monday, officials said. ...

All bars, restaurants and guesthouses along O’Tres Beach near Sihanoukville, and some on neighboring O’Chheuteal Beach, must close up shop within a month or face forced eviction, local officials confirmed on Tuesday. ...