Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit has left the cleared area of Phnom Tamao forest after occupying it for about a month starting in August, seeming to transform a piece of the protected forest into an apparent park after a land giveaway controversy embroiled the area just three months ago.
A flamboyant real estate entrepreneur with connections to larger property firms has been arrested for a second time for writing checks without sufficient funds.
International credit rating firm Moody’s downgraded Cambodia’s financial outlook from stable to negative over a “severe widening” in the gap between imports and exports and a lack of transparency.
Watching from outside the Sokha Hotel, activists and human rights defenders in Cambodia and Myanmar shrugged: As usual, they said, it was doubtful the yearly summit would lead to any material change for their situations.
A string of high-level meetings has continued back-to-back in Phnom Penh this weekend, with Asean stating it could reconsider Myanmar’s participation in future meetings and the U.N. chief calling for human rights defenders and climate activists in Cambodia to be protected.
Meetings played out behind closed doors on the first day of the Asean Summit in Phnom Penh on Thursday as hundreds of workers scurried throughout the Sokha Hotel’s labyrinthic interior to tape down innumerable red carpets and arrange flowers.
Phnom Penh is gearing up for the Asean Summit with fresh restrictions: street sellers downsizing stalls, residents taking down drying clothes, streets blocked around major hotels and nightclubs closed.
CHBAR MON CITY, Kampong Speu — Waters and spirits were high as the annual Water Festival boat races resumed after a two-year hiatus, bringing thousands to the banks of the Prek Tnaut river to watch competitors soar, or sink, through its currents.
Collecting jewel orchids has become a new source of income for remote residents in Kampong Speu, worrying botanical experts who warn the rare plant could be picked to extinction.
Indonesian nationals rescued from a Phnom Penh scam compound say they were targeting Facebook users every day to cheat them out of thousands of dollars. Most are relieved to have gotten away from the criminal work and threat of violence that hovered over them.
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