One of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates was handed some 6 hectares of beach and lake on prime Sihanoukville land after the company made a donation to the city’s road renovation.
Sihanoukville’s centrally located administrative buildings are being relocated to the city’s outskirts in a move that will open up parcels of land each worth a few million dollars.
Environmental advocacy group Mother Nature Cambodia is known for their confrontational videos, with activists exposing crimes against nature. But with three members jailed, and others facing harassment, the group has decided to conceal their identities.
In the past several months, some of the most powerful people in Cambodia have been granted Preah Sihanouk land that boasts stunning ocean views and proximity to key tourist developments. Much of the area sits empty, and interviews with hired guards and local officials suggest there is a web of elite landholdings as many hold onto the plots while their value steadily climbs.
A small number of remaining old masters are fighting to preserve Cambodian martial arts l’bokator after surviving the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Through their passion, the martial art is slowly regaining its popularity — with some of its ritualistic and violent traditions transformed as they are passed onto younger generations.
A general contractor in Texas who has never set foot in Cambodia is among more than a dozen foreign citizens called up to a mass trial of the banned main opposition party. Their experiences suggest Thai authorities supplied a Cambodian court with their names.
A government sub-decree named the daughter and son-in-law of a CPP senator as the new owners of 600 hectares of land in Preah Sihanouk, claiming the state land and flooded forests were unused and not of public interest. Residents there disagree.
The government has granted nearly 200 hectares of Ream National Park and flooded forest land that a local official said was disputed in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nob district to companies and private individuals, to the surprise of two commune officials.
Cambodia banned commercial surrogacy in 2016. Since then, about 100 surrogate mothers have been ordered by courts to raise the children they carried for others — a costly but happy result for one.
The leader of the outlawed opposition CNRP has been traversing the nation on what he and his lawyers say amount to goodwill excursions. But is Kem Sokha testing the boundaries of his bail conditions — and Cambodia’s political floodwaters?
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