Category Archives: Cambodia

Revealed: US allowing long-tailed macaque imports despite risk of disease

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Campaigners urge government to stop ‘cruel trade’ as documents show highly pathogenic agents entered the US with monkeys

US authorities are continuing to allow imports of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia, despite revelations that deadly pathogenic agents, including one deemed to be a bioterrorism risk, are entering the country with primates and recent charges of illegal trafficking of wild macaques falsely labeled as captive-bred into the US biomedical industry from Cambodia.

Animal rights campaigners are urging the US government to stop the “cruel trade”, saying it’s impossible to prove provenance and that the risk of disease is significant.

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Death toll rises in Cambodia casino hotel fire

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At least 19 people now known to have died but figure could rise as rescue teams have not reached all areas

A fire that lasted more than 12 hours in a Cambodian hotel casino killed at least 19 people and injured scores more, with an official warning that other people could be missing.

“There are 19 dead so far as we see bodies and bones,” said Sek Sokhom, the director of the Banteay Meanchey provincial information department, warning “the dead figure could be higher” as rescue teams have not reached many parts of the complex.

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Albanese and Biden discuss climate action and Aukus pact ahead of G20 summit

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In a 40-minute meeting, the prime minister also invited the US president to address federal parliament next year during meeting of the Quad

Anthony Albanese has compared notes with the US president ahead of Joe Biden’s landmark meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday at the G20, and discussed Aukus and climate cooperation in a warm catch-up spanning 40 minutes.

Australia’s prime minister met Biden on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit on Sunday in Phnom Penh. That catch-up followed Albanese speaking on Saturday night with the Chinese premier Li Keqiang – which is the first leader-level contact between Australia and China in three years.

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Albanese meeting with Chinese premier heralds potential thaw in diplomatic freeze

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Meeting with Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, is first between leaders of Australia and China since 2019

Anthony Albanese has met the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, at a gala dinner in Cambodia, opening the first leader-to-leader dialogue between the two countries since 2019.

The Australian prime minister’s office confirmed on Sunday the two leaders had a brief exchange after arriving at the dinner in Phnom Penh. The last conversation between the leaders of the two countries occurred when Scott Morrison and Li met in 2019.

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Anthony Albanese signals to China that Australia is open for dialogue without ‘preconditions’

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Australian prime minister says it ‘would be positive’ if he and Xi Jinping met at Asean summit

Anthony Albanese has sent a clear public signal to the Chinese leadership that Australia is open for dialogue during international summits over the coming days, saying he is prepared to meet his counterpart without “preconditions” .

With the US president, Joe Biden, set to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at the G20 summit in Bali on Monday, Australia’s prime minister told reporters at the Asean-Australia summit in Cambodia on Saturday a conversation was “not locked in at this point” and he was awaiting “finalisation of any meeting”.

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PM appoints new special envoy to south-east Asia – as it happened

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PM gives address at Asean summit in Cambodia underscoring Australia’s commitment to partners and to regional values

Infectious diseases specialist Dr Noor Bari says the situation unfolding with the Majestic Princess is serious for more reasons than many believe.

She says that despite cruise line companies upgrading their HEPA/UVC air intake systems, a critical number of cases on board can quickly overwhelm the limited facilities on board.

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‘Nature is striking back’: flooding around the world, from Australia to Venezuela

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Heavy rain and rising waters continue to take a deadly toll in countries including Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam

It has been a drenched 2022 for many parts of the world, at times catastrophically so. A year of disastrous flooding perhaps reached its nadir in Pakistan, where a third of the country was inundated by heavy rainfall from June, killing more than 1,000 people in what António Guterres, the UN secretary general, called an unprecedented natural disaster.

While floods are indeed natural phenomena, a longstanding result of storms, the human-induced climate crisis is amplifying their damage. Rising sea levels, driven by melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of water, are increasingly inundating coastal areas, while warmer temperatures are causing more moisture to accumulate in the atmosphere, which is then released as rain or snow.

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Cambodia court rejects genocide appeal of last surviving Khmer Rouge leader

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Judge upholds conviction of Khieu Samphan, 91, in what is likely to be UN-backed court’s last judgment

Cambodia’s UN-backed tribunal for the Khmer Rouge has upheld a genocide conviction against the regime’s last surviving leader, more than 40 years after Pol Pot’s brutal communist regime fell.

The tribunal, known as the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia (ECCC), rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, 91, in what was expected to be the final judgment by the court. Khieu Samphan, who was a former head of state, was found guilty in 2018 of crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, and of the genocide of ethnic minority Vietnamese.

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Hundreds of Taiwanese trafficked to Cambodia and held captive by telecom scam gangs

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Police forces in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam have launched major operations to rescue their citizens and shut down trafficking syndicates

Hundreds of Taiwanese are among unknown numbers of victims being held captive and forced to work in telecom scam networks by human trafficking operations in south-east Asia, authorities have said.

Police forces in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam have launched major operations to rescue their citizens and shut down the trafficking syndicates.

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Largest freshwater fish ever recorded caught in Cambodia

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Giant stingray snagged by local fisher in Mekong River weighs nearly 300kg

The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists.

The stingray, captured on 13 June, measured almost four metres from snout to tail and weighed just under 300kg, according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project.

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Prominent lawyer among dozens jailed for treason in Cambodia

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Theary Seng receives six-year sentence in ongoing mass trial of government critics in Phnom Penh

A prominent Cambodian-American lawyer has been sentenced to six years in jail for treason in an ongoing mass trial against critics of the ruling party.

Theary Seng and dozens of activists, many of whom are members of the dissolved opposition group the Cambodia National Rescue party (CNRP), were found guilty at Phnom Penh municipal court on Tuesday. The trial is one of four covering nearly 130 defendants, seen by many as prime minister Hun Sen’s attempt to stamp out growing dissent to his 37 years of rule.

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‘Ironclad brothers’: what China wants from its role in Cambodia’s biggest naval base

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Analysis: reports the Chinese military will get exclusive use of part of Ream base have been denied, but experts say nature of the arrangement remains unclear

At a ceremony this week, Cambodian and Chinese officials proclaimed their friendship as they announced a new construction project. Holding spades decorated with red bows, they turned over soil to signal the start of building work at Cambodia’s biggest naval base, Ream. It will be expanded and renovated, thanks to a Chinese grant of an undisclosed sum – a development that has alarmed the US.

“China and Cambodia have become ironclad brothers,” said China’s ambassador to Cambodia, Wang Wentian, at the ceremony.

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Cambodia and China deny naval base scheme as Australian PM voices concern

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Cambodia says facilities at Ream naval base will not be for exclusive use of Chinese military, while Beijing denounces ‘malicious conjecture’

Chinese and Cambodian officials attended a ceremony for a controversial naval port expansion on Wednesday, dismissing reports that the base will provide a crucial strategic foothold for Beijing.

Officials broke ground at the Ream naval base, turning over shovels of dirt as work commenced on a China-funded renovation of Ream, Cambodia’s biggest naval base.

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Chinese military ‘to have exclusive use of parts of Cambodian naval base’

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Reports of presence at Ream base on Gulf of Thailand would significantly expand its presence in Indo-Pacific

A Cambodian naval base being constructed with the assistance of China will include a portion for the exclusive use of the Chinese military, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The Chinese and Cambodian governments have previously denied reports that Cambodia will allow a Chinese military presence at the Ream naval base on the Gulf of Thailand.

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Illegal logging threatens Cambodia’s indigenous people, says Amnesty

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Country’s ‘corrupt’ approach to conservation leaves protected forests facing ‘oblivion’, human rights watchdog warns

Rampant illegal logging of protected forests is threatening the cultural survival and livelihoods of indigenous people in Cambodia, according to Amnesty International.

Members of the Kuy people, one of the largest of Cambodia’s 24 indigenous groups, told Amnesty how deforestation in two protected forests, along with government restrictions on access have undermined their way of life and violated their human rights.

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Kill the Bill and period protests: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Cambodia to Costa Rica

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Landmine-hunting hero rat dies in Cambodia after stellar career

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Magawa, a giant African pouched rat, was awarded a gold medal for heroism for clearing ordnance from 42 football pitches’ worth of land

A landmine-hunting rat that was awarded a gold medal for heroism for clearing ordnance from the Cambodian countryside has died.

Magawa, a giant African pouched rat originally from Tanzania, helped clear mines from about 225,000 square metres of land – the equivalent of 42 football pitches – over the course of his career.

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Seven people in Cambodia die after drinking disinfectant alcohol

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Health ministry says labourers at Covid quarantine camp in north-west province mixed substance with water and soft drinks

Seven Cambodian labourers have died after drinking alcohol they were given as a disinfectant while in quarantine, having mixed it with water and soft drinks, the country’s health ministry has said.

The labourers had returned from Thailand and were placed in a coronavirus quarantine camp in the north-western Banteay Meanchey province.

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New Thai temple sparks controversy over claims it imitates Angkor Wat

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Cambodia to send inspectors to see if site is too similar to 12th-century complex that is a national symbol

A temple complex being constructed in the north-east of Thailand has become mired in controversy, after it was claimed the design was an attempt to replicate Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument.

The Cambodian government reportedly plans to send archaeologists and temple architects to inspect whether the site is too similar to Angkor Wat, the national symbol depicted on the country’s flag.

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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