An exhibition celebrating the resurgence of Cambodian pottery takes place this weekend at The Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. 

Justice Minister Chem Snguon said Friday he would investigate allegations of the use of force by Military Police to reverse a court decision and re-imprison two murder suspects. 

If there is one thing Kompong Cham Chief Prosecutor Uk Touch says he is sure of, it is that 22-year-old Lim Pheng was breaking the law by having a dismantled AK-47 under a bed in his family home. Politics had nothing to do with the case, he insists. 

Military police on Thursday re­futed charges they used force to re­verse a court decision and re-im­prisoned two suspects who had been freed in connection with the murder of a fellow soldier in Phnom Penh. 

Yet another Phnom Penh company has launched a high-tech lottery game, gambling that people will continue to dream big even though the economic downturn has forced many to tighten their purse strings. 

As the deadline for voter registration draws near, some labor leaders expressed concern this week that as many as half of Phnom Penh’s factory workers have not yet registered to vote. 

A Khmer-language newspaper said Thursday that naval police based in Kandal province were to blame for the Monday shooting of a newspaper publisher. But investigators in Phnom Penh denied they had any leads. 

“Cambodia has the most wonderful light,” effuses Florence Dias Looten. “In the evening, when the sun reappears after the rain, Phnom Penh is alive with a range of light and color.” 

Members of the Constitutional Council have been called to a meeting scheduled for Monday after two previous attempts to convene the body failed because of boycotts by royal appointees. 

Any oil or gas exploration in the Tonle Sap area should be preceded by an environmental study that shows it would have no negative impact on the newly designated conservation area, a Unesco official said late last week. 

It was the realization of an idea that has been in the works for months.

First Prime Minister Ung Huot in a Tuesday ceremony handed over the keys to the first in series of public city bathrooms, officials said this week.

A fledgling and unclear partnership between Thai and Cambo­dian drug enforcement officials was unable to prevent last week’s arrest of Thai and US un­dercover agents, a senior Cam­bodian drug enforcement official said Wednes­day.

When Second Prime Minister Hun Sen met with Thai Premier Chuan Leekpai in Bangkok last month, the two agreed to further discuss how the nations could work together to stop drug trafficking along its border.

Meetings to finalize a working arrangement between the two countries will be held after the elections, said Sum Manit, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs.

“When we have the formal agreement, such a thing [as last week’s arrest] will not happen again,” he said.

Four Thai and one US anti-drug official were arrested by marine police last week when police thought the fishing boat the agents were in was doing something illegal, Cambodian officials said.

Cambodian officials disagree on what day the boat was seized.

It is known that the agents were detained for a few days in Koh Kong, said Yem Hoeun, the Koh Kong police chief. During that time, local police discussed fining the agents, thinking they were actually illegal fishermen, Yem Hoeun said.

The news apparently reached the US government’s Drug En­forcement Agency and Kenneth Quinn, the US ambassador to Cambodia. Quinn, who is currently abroad, then called Prak Sok­honn, a senior adviser to Hun Sen, on the same day the undercover boat was seized, Prak Sok­honn said.

Prak Sokhonn said he notified Hun Sen about the problem. Hun Sen in turn or­dered top-ranking military officials to solve the problem as soon as possible, Prak Sokhonn said.

The Cambodian and US agents then went to Phnom Penh to solve immigration problems, an Interior Ministry official said.

The four Thai drug enforcement agents checked into the Borei Thmei hotel near Olympic Stadium at about 7:30 pm Wed­nesday, hotel employees said. It is not known where the US drug enforcement official stayed.

The next morning, Thai and US embassy officials met with police at the hotel after which the agents and all the police checked out, hotel employees said.

Hotel records showed that anti-drug police picked up the agents’ hotel bill: about $100. No money or fine was paid to Cambodian officials for the agents’ release, Thai Embassy and Cam­bodian Interior Ministry officials said.

It is not known exactly what the undercover agents were waiting for in the waters off the coast of the island of Koh Kong last week. But Cambodia is known to be a route for opium, heroin and marijuana trafficking. Opium and her­oin is brought in over the Laos border through Strung Treng and Kratie provinces before it is shipped out across Cambodian borders, anti-drug officials said.

Had Cambodia and Thailand built up a better anti-drug relationship, the misunderstanding over last week’s incident might not have occurred, Sum Manit said. The nation’s senior drug control officer expressed optimism in future partnerships with Thai­land.

More than 1,000 garment workers from three factories converged on the US Embassy on Wednesday, with demands for overtime pay and complaints that some had been paid with counterfeit cash.

Tobacco companies have won a six-month delay in implementing a government order requiring them to put health warnings on cigarette packets.

Pol Pot had a mosquito net. The news went around the world, but not many people took notice.

The fourth attempt to discuss the reintegration of troops loyal to Prince Norodom Ranariddh

kompong cham town – Ung Muy Heang says she doesn’t know anything about politics or opposition politician Sam Rainsy.

Two local teen-agers who participated in the Global March Against Child Labor returned home Wed­nes­day, completing a trip that began in January and took them through 13 nations.

More than 80 percent of the country’s estimated 5.6 million voters are now registered for the forthcoming polls, the National Election Committee announced Wednesday.

The ongoing land dispute in­volving petroleum giant Caltex has, for some in Cambodia’s business community, become an un­comfortable example of the shifting ground on which investors can find themselves.