The Phnom Penh Post

A request for more information about the proposed $3.75 billon national budget has been denied and the bill will now likely pass through the National Assembly next week relatively unchanged, opposition lawmaker Son Chhay said yesterday. ...

A group of conservationists in Kratie province submitted on Friday a formal request asking Defence Minister Tea Banh to discipline two Kratie-based military commanders. They accuse the officers of profiting from illegal logging and threatening to kill an activist should he continue his work. ...

An activist monk set to face trial today on widely disputed charges of incitement alongside a so-called “terrorist” leader vowed yesterday to use the hearing to preach to the judiciary. In a statement released Sunday, 16 NGOs called for authorities to drop the charges against ...

Grand Twins International (GTI), one of two listed firms on the Cambodian Stock Exchange, has blamed third-quarter revenue losses on garment-worker demonstrations in December and January. On November 21, GTI posted a 40 per cent decline in revenue to $10.9 million for the three-month period ending ...

An archaeologist is pleading the government to save an Angkorian-era canal before the work of brick makers completely erases the site. Built nearly 1,000 years ago, the 120-kilometre stone channel was used to transport building materials from a quarry to Angkor Wat, according to archaeologist Thuy ...

Police on Friday warned labour union leader Pav Sina that if he continues to lead protests – thereby violating the rules of a court order – he will be arrested. The Collective Union of Movement of Workers leader was called to the Choam Chao commune police ...

Hundreds of people gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to mark the International Day to End Impunity, calling on the government to tackle the issue by reforming its court system. Speaking at the event at the capital’s Cambodiana Hotel, Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, ...

A 24-year-old student was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for posting 14 nude photos of his girlfriend on Facebook in an attempt to extort money from her in exchange for deleting them. Presiding judge Mong Mony Sorphea said ...

A member of the ruling party’s election-reform negotiating team has told the Post that expectations of the depth of reforms that can actually occur before the 2017 commune and 2018 national elections need to be “realistic”. Prum Sokha, a secretary of state at the Interior Ministry, ...

Officials from Southeast Asia’s natural rubber-producing nations met in Kuala Lumpur yesterday for the 12th International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC). Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) joined ITRC core nations – Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia – for the event, which is being touted as a joint ...

A study released by the UK-based Charities Aid Foundation puts Cambodia close to the bottom of the world in terms of the charity of its citizens, despite Southeast Asia being cited as the world’s strongest performing sub-region. According to the World Giving Index, which ranks countries ...

Teachers will be able to file complaints to the government under a new commission led by Minister of Education, Youth and Sport Hang Chuon Naron. The commission will include Naron as chairman, two undersecretaries of state as deputies and a number of other officials. ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said in a statement this week that under the new minimum wage workers can actually earn up to $250 per month, though others were quick to label the figure exaggerated. The Ministry of Labour last week approved the new ...

European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists’ arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”. ...

Under an agreement with Malaysia, Cambodian migrant workers will be allowed to hold on to their passports and copies of their contracts but will be banned from any “political activities”, according to a draft version of the document obtained by the Post. The memorandum of understanding ...

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong yesterday defended the independence of Cambodia’s judiciary following concerns raised by a UN official about the whirlwind imprisonment of 11 activists arrested for protesting last week. Kuong accused Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights, of making a habit ...

Despite opposition party hopes to the contrary, the Ministry of Justice yesterday rejected the idea that it could intervene in the court system to release Meach Sovannara, a Cambodia National Rescue Party official jailed last week. According to ministry spokesman Kem Santepheap, a letter from CNRP ...

Officials at the World Bank, which in 2011 froze new loans to Cambodia amid a furore surrounding the Boeung Kak lake evictions, have approved preliminary proposals to issue funding for a project that could see families forcibly removed in Kampong Thom province. Under the World Bank’s ...

Compared to their peers in the region, Cambodian children are much more likely to die by drowning, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization. The WHO, which provided country-specific statistics alongside its new Global Report on Drowning, released yesterday, estimates that the risk of ...

More than 155,000 people in Cambodia are living as modern “slaves”, according to a global index released this week. The Global Slavery Index 2014, released on Monday by Australia-based NGO Walk Free Foundation (WFF), ranks Cambodia 14th out of 167 countries for the prevalence of slavery, ...

Former residents of two villages in Koh Kong province that were razed last week by security guards for Chinese firm Union Development Group are preparing to file a complaint to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Fourteen homes were destroyed by company security guards Thursday morning, according to ...

Hundreds of people gathered yesterday morning in front of Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison to demand the release of 17 incarcerated activists, monks and opposition members. The detainees include 10 land activists, three monks and four members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. Fifteen of ...

King Norodom Sihamoni officially appointed new members to the judicial body that oversees the Kingdom’s judges and prosecutors last week, following the passing of a controversial law earlier this year outlining its organisation and functioning. According to a Royal Decree that was signed Thursday by the ...

Officials are requesting the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) to destroy an anti-tank mine unearthed last week next to a Sihanoukville town street. According to village chief Heng Bunly, Commune 4 is rife with UXO because it was a former military base during the Lon ...