Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Centuries-old cultural artifacts that had been illegally smuggled out from Cambodia were welcomed home Friday at a celebration led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who offered thanks for their return and appealed for further efforts to retrieve such stolen treasures.

PHNOM PENH, March 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 15,000 people died of smoking every year in Cambodia, Mom Kong, executive director of the local non-government organization, the Cambodia Movement for Health, said on Thursday.

According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Health, there are an estimated 1.6 million adult cigarette smokers, or 13 percent of the kingdom's adults aged 15 years old and above, Kong said.

"The rate of adult cigarette smokers had dropped by 4 percent between 2014 and 2022," he told Xinhua.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A court in Cambodia on Friday found Kem Sokha, leader of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, guilty of treason and sentenced him to 27 years imprisonment to be served under house arrest.

Judge Koy Sao of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said Kem Sokha, backed by foreign powers, had used human rights and politics as a guise to organize people to stage a “color revolution” aimed at toppling the legal government. The maximum sentence on the charge is 30 years.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s beleaguered pro-democracy forces face another day of reckoning Friday, as the country’s most prominent opposition politician not in exile is scheduled to hear the verdict in his trial for treason.

Kem Sokha was head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party when he was arrested in September 2017 based on an old video that showed him speaking at a seminar about receiving advice from U.S. pro-democracy groups. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government said it was proof of collusion with a foreign power to illegally take power.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A top World Health Organization official, reacting to the death of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia infected by bird flu, said Friday the recent global spread of the virus and human infections are “worrying.”

Dr. Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the U.N. agency is “in close communication with the Cambodian authorities to understand more about the outbreak.”

PHNOM PENH, Feb 24 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdech Techo Hun Sen, said here today that, Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, will pay an official visit to the kingdom on Mar 27.

“New Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim will make an official visit to Cambodia, and will also attend the Ramadan Iftar (breaking-of-the-fast) dinner,” he said in a speech, during a graduation ceremony at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn on Friday concluded his two-day official visit to neighboring Thailand.

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Sokhonn and his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai "attached great importance to the joint endeavors to realize the bilateral trade target of 15 billion U.S. dollars by 2025."

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- An 11-year-old girl from southeast Cambodia's Prey Veng province had died of H5N1 human avian influenza, the Ministry of Health's Communicable Disease Control Department said Wednesday.

The girl fell ill on Feb. 16, with the symptoms of a high temperature of 39 degrees Celsius, cough and sore throat, the department said in a news release, adding that she first sought local health service, but her condition had worsened, having rapid breathing, so she was then transferred to the National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh.

PHNOM PENH, Feb 21 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Prak Sokhonn, will pay an official visit to Thailand on Feb 23 and 24, to increase cooperation between the two neighbours, said a foreign ministry press statement, today.

“The two deputy prime ministers will hold a bilateral meeting, to deliberate across-the-board aspects of the excellent bilateral relationship and thriving cooperation, ranging from trade, investment, tourism and labour, to connectivity, education, health, and culture,” it said.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A spectacular collection of centuries-old Cambodian jewelry has been returned to the Southeast Asian country, the latest treasures to be retrieved from the estate of well-known antiquities collector and dealer Douglas Latchford, who was accused of buying and selling looted artifacts.