The curtain has come down on Cambodia’s year-long political crisis but the stage is set for an encore in the courts with leaders serving lawsuits on each other and their critics. Political life was halted as the country’s three main parties rowed over the make-up of a new government following inconclusive national elections in July…
Read moreCambodia’s PM tightens grip on political power
As his new government finally gets to work, Cambodia’s prime minister is tightening his grip on power, shrewdly snubbing or quashing his top rivals, analysts and activists say. Hun Sen, the region’s longest serving leader, formed a coalition government last month with his former royalist coalition partner after a year-long impasse following July 2003 elections…
Read moreMomentum to stamp out foreign paedophiles builds in Cambodia
From billboards warning of harsh penalties to eagle-eyed hotel workers being called on to report suspicious people, Cambodia is stepping up its fight against foreign paedophiles preying on its children. After decades of war that ended just six years ago, the freewheeling, poverty-stricken kingdom has earned a dubious reputation as a haven for paedophiles, with…
Read morePiece by piece, Cambodia’s unique archaeological heritage up for grabs
At a bustling market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s heritage is being sold off, piece by piece: ancient beads are snapped up at two for a dollar, while 15 dollars secures a 3,500-year-old stone tool. Sales of such ordinary antiquities are booming at markets across the kingdom, robbing it of a rich history archaeologists are only…
Read moreClamour rises for Khmer Rouge trial as political crisis ends
After a year-long political deadlock, the formation of a new government in Cambodia has finally cleared the way for ex-Khmer Rouge leaders to stand trial over the killing of up to two million of their compatriots. Cambodia wants to see the Khmer Rouge regime in the dock, but as the clock ticks on the final…
Read moreBattle of the bulge ahead in bloated new Cambodian government
A deal cut by Cambodia’s feuding parties to form a government after a year-long power struggle will create a bloated political elite that threatens a new wave of infighting, analysts say. A slew of new top-ranking posts and a ministry were announced under a power-sharing agreement struck Friday to end a stalemate between long-serving Prime…
Read moreDespite year of drama, Cambodia’s political scene flips back to square one
After a year of drama and intrigue, a coalition deal snared at the weekend allows Cambodia’s politicians to get back to work but the power balance has barely changed, diplomats and analysts say. A deal between Prime Minister Hun Sen and his coalition partner in two previous administrations, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, was snared Friday, finally…
Read moreCambodia’s dangerous roads exact a heavy toll as fatalities soar
Cambodia’s traffic fatality rate is double the Southeast Asian average and as more vehicles squeeze onto the kingdom’s roads, deaths are expected to soar still further, experts say. Large numbers of motorcycles jostling with creaking agricultural vehicles, cars smuggled from Thailand with steering wheels on the "wrong side", and huge trucks on a rapidly developing…
Read moreCambodian capital fraught with danger for migrating women jobseekers
Lured by the hope of a better future, young women are flooding into the Cambodian capital, where experts note they are vulnerable to being trafficked into the sex trade or winding up on the streets. Among the many impoverished Cambodians shifting to Phnom Penh, the kingdom’s only major city, women are drawn in large numbers…
Read moreIll-prepared Cambodia grapples with mounting drug crisis
Slumped across a bag of rubbish near a busy Phnom Penh market as he awaits his first heroin hit of the day, Yim is one of a soaring number of drug addicts in Cambodia. He is the human face of a crisis threatening to unwind development progress in this war-scarred society. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt…
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