News

Construction of the US$100 million Kampot sea port had been further delayed by rain, materials not being available and incomplete preparations, a local investor revealed yesterday. Vinh Huor, president of the Kampot Special Economic Zone, (KSEZ) said of the delay: “We are preparing to be better, ...

Serei Saophan City has become the latest area in Banteay Meanchey province to be hit by floods, with more than 300 families evacuated to higher ground yesterday, according to provincial officials. Banteay Meanchey provincial prison has also been affected by the flooding, with some parts ...

The price of rubber jumped to $2,500 per tonne last week after months of the commodity steadily dropping, industry analysts reported. The jump of $100 a tonne, or 4.2 per cent, comes after the price for rubber dropped in June from above $3,000 per tonne, according ...

More than 60 people yesterday rallied at the National Assembly, the UN Human Rights Office, the Danish Embassy and the German Embassy as part of a petition campaign to seek the release of two jailed women from the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities. Villagers and ...

The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has summoned four villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute over charges of alleged incitement  and violence involving a company owned by the wife of government minister, a court official said yesterday. Two summoned vllagers, from Kompong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune, faced similar ...

A prime piece of Phnom Penh real estate was put up for auction last week by a South Koran government agency attempting to recoup taxpayers’ money lost during a bank collapse last year. Bids have been made that could see a new development on the site, ...

A casino in Poipet that pays wages only in Thai baht is yet to fulfil its promise to improve conditions for its 500 workers, a union representative said yesterday. Workers are still working 12­-hour days – often without a break – at the Tropicana Casino, one ...

Unprovoked violence by government and private security guards, the use of weapons to quell protests, and communities resorting to violent means in land disputes is a growing cause for concern in Cambodia, the U.N.’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in its ...

Less than a week after the arrest of alleged beauty parlour madam Chan Sreynuch, military police say they are taking a closer look at a number of hair salons and beauty shops in Phnom Penh suspected of being involved in human trafficking and prostitution. According to ...

A pair of reports to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today and tomorrow paint a bleak image of a country whose rights record has worsened considerably over the past year. An annual report from the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in ...

Military officials are attempting to squelch a potential lawsuit from relatives of three people killed Friday when Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers smuggling wood through Siem Reap province drove a military truck, donated by the U.S. government, into the family’s motorbike, police officials said. ...

At 7am, the border crossing from Vietnam to Svay Rieng’s Bavet town is already buzzing with the activity of foreign gamblers arriving for a day at the casinos along National Highway 1. But throughout the day, a steady trickle of Cambodian players make their way ...

Among thousands of residents in the Boeung Kak Lake district of the capital whose land has been targeted for redevelopment by a Chinese-financed real estate company, Tep Vanny carried a letter explaining the “sadness and suffering” caused by the project — which has turned Phnom ...

A Malaysian company has been granted three tracts of land totaling more than 23,000 hectares for oil palm and rubber plantations in Preah Vihear province, according to documents submitted to the Malaysian stock exchange. The acquisition flout the legal maximum of concession land that a single ...

Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers embroiled in longstanding land disputes with two private companies in Phnom Penh say the authorities are protecting business interests over the public, as thousands of families lose their homes under forced evictions. This has turned the protesters and government officials ...

Floodwaters appeared to be receding in Banteay Meanchey province yesterday, after almost a week of heavy rains saw several communes inundated and over 4,000 families evacuated, provincial authorities said. “The situation is now under control,” said Ngor Mengchroun, governor of Poipet City-one of the worst hit ...

Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni began a 3-day state visit to Vietnam starting on Monday at the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, local media reported. The visit, the fourth made by Cambodian king since he came to the throne in 2004, will likely elevate further ...

The future of e-business in Cambodia depends on gaining better skills, a group of students heard yesterday at the University of Puthisastra. In a panel discussion on the future of e-business as part of BarCamp Phnom Penh, T.O. Software president Heng Chamroeun offered advice to the ...

In an effort to boost tourist numbers, the Ministry of Tourism will host an eco-tourism seminar in the northeastern provinces to showcase its main attraction, the Irrawaddy dolphins of the Mekong River. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, said last week that officials attempted to hold the eco-tourism seminar ...

The Ministry of Labour has played down reports it is close to sending domestic workers to Singapore, a country that has only recently granted foreign maids a weekly day off. The two countries’ governments had been in talks with Singapore’s Association of Employment Agencies about placing ...

The Kandal Provincial Court on Friday tried a former provincial judge, Huoth Heang, and his clerk, Lim Kompheak, both of whom stand accused of corruption. On January 20, Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials arrested Judge Heang during a sting operation in which the judge was caught accepting a ...

Cambodia ranks among the lowest in the region on its ability to reform; corruption, political stasis and a rapidly widening income gap are hindering its progress, according to a recent survey of the country’s democratic institutions. Transformation Index, which every two years ranks countries considered ...

More than 24,000 Cambodians visited Malaysia during the first half of 2012, while Malaysian arrivals to Cambodia numbered 54,000, an increase of 11.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2011.   Ambassador Hussein’s remarks came during the the first three-day Malaysia Travel and Shopping ...

The government and its foreign donors are preparing for their next high-level aid meeting Wednesday, their first sine the government surprised donors in August 2011 by indefinitely suspending the meetings, citing the global financial crisis. However, officials at the Finance Ministry and the Council for the ...