THAI officials rejected calls from civil society groups to halt the planned deportation of migrant workers, including tens of thousands from Cambodia, during a meeting held this week before the Thai government’s National Human Rights Commission.

THE National Assembly has passed, without amendment, the government’s Anticorruption Law more than 15 years after it was first proposed, prompting renewed concerns from opposition members that it will do little to reduce the Kingdom’s endemic graft.

SIX villagers in Kampong Speu province were questioned in provincial court on Thursday over allegations they incited 1,000 people to protest, prompting claims that authorities are trying to intimidate those involved in a land dispute with a well-known businessman.

Asoldier accused of shooting a villager who was transporting timber in Oddar Meanchey’s Anlong Veng district was sent to court by district officials on Thursday to face a murder charge.

LOCAL officials announced plans Thursday to rebuild a dormitory near Tuol Kork district’s Neak Von pagoda where Prime Minister Hun Sen studied as a young man, after it and other dwellings were destroyed in a Monday fire.

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court has opened investigations into criminal complaints filed against opposition leader Sam Rainsy by government lawyers last month over an ongoing dispute over the demarcation of the Cambodia-Vietnam border, court officials said Thursday.

DAUN Penh district authorities raided four cafes and massage parlours in Srak Chork commune on Wednesday, detaining nine alleged prostitutes in a crackdown that received praise from local residents.

OFFICIALS have confirmed that the cream that killed a 23-year-old woman last week belonged to the Vietnam-based Bao Dam line of skin-whitening products, the director of the Banteay Meanchey health department office in Poipet town said Thursday.

THE Apsara Authority plans to file a complaint against villagers who tried to prevent the destruction of an illegally built home in Siem Reap’s Kokchak commune Wednesday, saying they threatened workers and damaged government property.

A FRIEND of a British national who was scalded with boiling oil during an apparent domestic dispute in January met on Wednesday with a Siem Reap provincial court judge, who said he did not know when the case could be brought to trial because the victim is in the UK.

FIGURES released by the Ministry of Tourism Thursday suggested Cambodian tourism is starting to recover after a difficult 2009, as total visitors rose an annualised 6.36 percent in January, which included a nearly 5 percent increase in all-important air arrivals.

NEARLY 300 former staff members of the Las Vegas Sun Casino and the Win Casino in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town filed a complaint against the casino owners with provincial authorities on Thursday, saying that they were sacked without justification, a former worker said.

SUDAN has expressed an interest in investing in Cambodian agriculture, the spokesman for Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday.
Eang Sophalleth told reporters after a meeting between the Kingdom’s premier and the Sudanese Special Envoy and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Ahmet Karti Mohamed, th

ABOUT 20 residents of Boeung Tumpun commune met with the commune chief on Thursday to demand the speedy construction of a road they partially financed more than a year ago.