News

Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng and ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak on 23 February took a yearly meeting on national crime rates as an opportunity to lavish praise on the Kingdom’s security forces for preventing protests and arresting people on what are widely considered political grounds. Delivering opening ...

Cambodia passed a key Millennium Development Goal milestone last year with half of rural areas now having access to clean drinking water, according to a Ministry of Rural Development annual report released on 23 February. The report also touted improvements to sanitation in rural areas, which ...

The tonnage of Cambodia’s agricultural exports increased by over 20 per cent last year, led by a surge in shipments of dried cassava chips, according to the latest Ministry of Agriculture data. Total exports of 66 raw and semi-processed agricultural products – chiefly cassava, rice and ...

The number of fires in Cambodia increased by 14.7 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year, killing 35 people and consuming almost 600 homes. Electrical malfunctions were the leading cause of fires, accounting for 47 per cent of all fire incidents, with carelessness the ...

As a Kandal village braces for an investigation into a cluster of HIV cases, the US Centers for Disease Control on 19 February published a new report on the now-infamous HIV outbreak in Battambang’s Roka commune, pointing to high demand for medical injections and a lack ...

A patient who has been confirmed to have swine flu is receiving treatment at Cambodia’s Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, though hospital and Health Ministry officials on 20 February downplayed the significance of the case. A 2009 swine flu pandemic saw close to 500 people infected in Cambodia, with five ...

A reporter for local television station MSJ TV was briefly de­tained and questioned by police on 20 February for allegedly inciting residents who are facing eviction from their riverside homes in Kom­pong Chhnang City, a journalist and officials said on 21 February. Ngunly Theara, a news reader ...

Fol­lowing the discovery of an apparent outbreak of HIV in Peam village, Kandal province, Cambodia, the head of the Ponhea Leu district referral hospital refuted accusations from infected residents that he was the source of the virus. Kouy Bunthoeun, director of the provincial health department, said ...

Thy Sovantha, Cambodia’s youngest political star, is still seething. A charismatic student, she rocketed to fame during the 2013 elections when she backed the opposition’s effort to unseat Cambodia’s authoritarian ruler. Her Facebook page drew hundreds of thousands of followers, making her, at 18, perhaps the ...

Cambodia’s microfinance sector experienced another year of explosive growth, with both lending and deposits surging over 40 per cent in 2015, according to new data by an industry association. An annual performance sheet released on 18 February by the Cambodian Microfinance Association showed its membership – comprising ...