News stories by Robert Carmichael

When villagers in Kandal province near the Cambodian capital blocked National Road 2 in early April, it was just the latest protest by rural villagers angered by yet another alleged land grab.

One of Cambodia’s oldest languages — S’aoch — appears headed for extinction in the next decade. Other languages spoken by its minority people are lining up to take the place of the 6,000-year-old language in the most endangered category.

Under a shady trellis of rice sacks in the province of Kampot in southern Cambodia, 42-year-old Nuon Yan tends his crop of pepper vines.

Siamese crocodiles once ranged far and wide across South-east Asia, from Indonesia to Vietnam, Laos to Thailand. But habitat loss and poaching virtually wiped out the three-metre long animals. Twenty years ago they were classified as effectively extinct in the wild.

As one of the world’s poorest nations, Cambodia is by definition one of those least able to protect itself from the effects of climate change. As an agrarian society, it is one of those most susceptible to climate change.

After 72 days of hearings, the first international trial of a Khmer Rouge regime member has wrapped up its often horrific testimony in the Cambodian capital.

Dozens of families this week started dismantling their homes and moving away from lakeside land in the centre of the capital after giving up on their lengthy struggle to remain. By the end of the eviction process at this site, around 30,000 people will have been moved off now-valuable land.

The ongoing Khmer Rouge tribunal here of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, has heard some highly charged testimony in recent weeks, as civil parties have told the court of how the murders of their loved ones ruined their lives.

'They cuffed me and told me to lie on the floor with my face facing down,' the old man told the judges.

The voice of Comrade Duch reverberates daily through the speakers at the 500- seat courtroom in Phnom Penh as he gives testimony in his trial for crimes against humanity.