News

Eight villagers arrested in connection with an alleged uprising in Kratie province in which government security forces shot one girl dead have been charged with inciting insurrection, rights workers said yesterday. “All eight have been charged by the prosecutor already of committing insurrection against public authority. According ...

Nearly 100 Boeung Kak lake villagers took to city hall yesterday carrying mattresses, umbrellas and food to protest what they called government inaction on the long-standing land dispute over their eviction from the lake. ...

Authorities in Battambang province’s Phnom Proek district shut down eight unlicensed gold mines Saturday and Sunday after a study revealed they were producing toxic runoff blamed for the deaths of three cattle last week, officials said. Deputy governor Pech Choun said four mines in the area ...

Despite recent efforts by the authorities to improve drainage systems around the capital, heavy flooding and swamped roads were the norm over the past week as the kick-off to the rainy season saw pelting rain almost every afternoon, residents say. Old drainage systems put in place ...

More than 60 families in Mondulkiri province’s Roveak village in Rayum commune are worried about their safety and that of their housing after authorities deployed forces to surround their village on Sunday following eviction orders from the government. Bun Sokchea, 49, said that on Saturday, Koh ...

Going back on an earlier promise not to make any more public speeches before next month’s commune elections, Prime Minister Hun Sen gave the opening address at a two-day conference on food security and nutrition in Phnom Penh yesterday. At the event, organized by the Council ...

A 50 per cent stunting rate among Cambodian children contributed to lower-skilled labour and slower economic development for the Kingdom, a senior government economist said yesterday at a workshop on food security. Stunted growth as a result of malnutrition led to ineffective learning among children and ...

A garment factory in the capital’s Meanchey district yesterday denied hiring a group of 10 “gangsters” to beat and injure workers as they protested. Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) official Ney Bunthoeun said a gang of thugs hired by Haiyun garment factory bosses ...

An explosion at a steel mill in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district left two employees seriously injured over the weekend, authorities said. Mao Saroeun, Stung Meanchey commune police chief, said that around 10pm on Sunday there was a small, loud explosion at a mill owned by the ...

Surrounded by 100-armed police officers, authorities in Mondolkiri province yesterday said the roughly 200 families living on a rubber company’s land concession in Koh Nhek district have until Friday to leave their homes. After having already seen district police burn down three of their homes over ...

Housekeeping and front offices at hotels around Cambodia are set to change as the country prepares to adopt regional standards that all ASEAN nations are trying to put in place. The draft document on housekeeping and front-office standards, and related training courses, had been finalised by Tourism ...

Villagers detained during a bloody crackdown in Kratie province last week in which a 14-year-old was shot dead have accused security forces of brutal acts of cruelty, including forcing pregnant women to stand naked in the sun for hours. The villagers from Pro Ma village in ...

The website of the Cambodian National Police was hacked and defaced yesterday by a mysterious group apparently attempting to challenge the website’s security measures. For part of the morning, visitors to the police.gov.kh site were greeted by singing in Arabic and an image of four Guy ...

Female union leaders in the garment industry – where women constitute 90 per cent of the work force – are effective at bargaining for better working conditions, but their voices aren’t being heard in a union landscape dominated by men, a labour expert said yesterday. Veasna ...

In an effort to bolster bilateral trade, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh and his Thai counterpart, Boonsong Teriyapirom, agreed in Bangkok on Sunday to establish a special economic border zone, Thai media reported yesterday. Though it remained unclear when or where the zone would be set up, ...

The Kingdom’s first life insurance company, Cambodian Life, launched yesterday, courting a market almost entirely unfamiliar with the service. Industry insiders said demand for the products would need time to grow. The establishment of Cambodian Life in the Kingdom would develop confidence in the market and ...

A worker was slightly injured and more than US$100,000 in property destroyed yesterday in a fire at an oil factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district, police said. Thach Phalla, Ang Snuol district deputy police chief, said the fire started at noon when some oil overflowed ...

Three Banteay Meanchey gold vendors accused of buying stolen goods were arrested yesterday then released four hours later after about 200 fellow gold sellers demonstrated on their behalf outside Mongkol Borei district police headquarters. The district governor personally intervened and mediated the release, district police chief ...

The number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia and Cambodians visiting Vietnam has increased recently, according to new data released by the Cambodian tourism ministry. Vietnam has the largest number of tourists visiting Cambodia at 600,000, or 21 per cent, of all international visitors. ...

The man police allege was behind a so-called secession plan in Kratie province – an accusation used to justify a crackdown in which a teenager was killed last week – plans to hold a press conference to defend himself in the next two days, his ...

A study the Lao government has used to claim the Xayaburi dam would be harmless if redesigned has been criticised for not addressing concerns about the project’s effect on fish in the Lower Mekong river. Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong was reported ...

Cambodia’s Power Partner Profit Group has signed 10 memoranda of understanding with Chinese companies for cooperation on agriculture, mineral resources and electronics. Insiders said the penning of the MoUs, which do not guarantee a final agreement, was another step toward realising a US$5 billion bilateral trade ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) remained at odds yesterday over an expired deal to cut down on strikes despite an appeal from some major brands that they renew the arrangement. GMAC Chairman Van Sou ...

When it became the first—and still the only—company to list on Cambodia’s stock market on April 18, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority saw its share price shoot up some 50 percent on its first day of trading before beginning two weeks of steady decline. Since ...