With the return of the Cambodia National Rescue Party to the National Assembly this week, following a boycott that began in November, analysts say there is a chance some of the party’s activists could be released from jail. ...

The watchdog coalition Electoral Reform Alliance (ERA) yesterday voiced concern after the National Election Committee short-listed its incumbent secretary-general Tep Nytha as a candidate to hold the position, accusing the nine-member body of lacking transparency in its selection process. ...

Though Cambodia’s access to information law has been in the works for over a decade, participants at a seminar on the law yesterday said that they’re optimistic that the time is finally right for it to actually come to fruition. ...

Almost 70,000 Cambodian migrant workers were deported from Thailand through the Poipet international checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province last year, with the daily average being about 200, Poipet checkpoint Immigration police chief Sim Sam Ath said yesterday, citing an annual report. ...

A prominent anti-dam activist in Koh Kong province who has been jailed since October was convicted Thursday of illegal logging and given a suspended prison sentence, allowing him to walk free but leaving the shadow of a criminal conviction hanging over him. ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng said Wednesday that he was unconcerned by a letter sent to him by the head of the National Assembly’s health commission last month concerning a spate of recently discovered HIV cases in Kandal province.   ...

The Cambodian embassy in Thailand has come to the aid of its citizens after authorities caught two Thai fishing boats over the past month carrying 15 Cambodian laborers that they believed to be trafficking victims, according to a Foreign Affairs Ministry statement yesterday. ...

Up to 40 percent of the $100 million River Premium Development Company, a joint venture between local partners and Malaysian investors, has been completed and sold, said Houn Heng Eriya, the sales manager of the project in the city center of Ta Khmao. ...

Two homes were completely destroyed, while 35 others and four schools were damaged, by heavy rain and strong winds in the western province of Pailin on Friday.The schools remained open despite the damage, said Seng Vanntha, deputy chief of Pailin district. ...

The founding director of Meta House, Nicolaus Mesterharm, responded yesterday after the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts called off tonight’s screening of I am Chut Wutty, which was set to be publicly screened for the first time in the Kingdom. ...

Defence Minister Tea Banh will lead a delegation of about 10 other senior military officials to Vientiane, Laos, to attend the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting from May 24 to 27, which will focus on regional cooperation in defence technology and natural-disaster response. ...

About 1,000 workers and employees of the Victco Handbags Cambodia Industrial factory, an Adidas supplier before it abruptly suspended operations earlier this year, marched in Kampong Speu’s Samrong Tong district to the provincial hall yesterday morning to deliver a petition. ...

Familiar scenes of police ripping banners during heated scuffles with protesters marked the fourth “Black Monday,” as activists continued to call for the release of human rights workers who have been in Prey Sar prison for almost one month.   ...

Pan-Asian gaming company Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc (EGA) will sell 670 of its electronic gaming machine (EGM) seats placed at NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh to an unnamed Cambodian firm for $2.5 million, the Nasdaq-listed company announced on Wednesday. ...

A new report by market research firm TNS identifies five triggers that acted together as catalysts for the dramatic changes in consumer behaviour that led to China’s “explosive” e-commerce growth, and suggests other Asian economies could be on the same trajectory. ...

Thousands of cubic metres of endangered Siamese rosewood were sent to Vietnam in 2014 with export permits bearing the Photoshopped signature of a retired Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) secretary of state, a ministry official said yesterday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has decided to cut land from an economic land concession (ELC) and a rubber plantation to grant land titles to more than 1,000 villagers in Tbong Khmum province’s Memot district, according to the Land Management Ministry. ...

The Foreign Ministry last Thursday secured the release of 23 Cambodians who had been arrested and detained last month for overstaying their visas and working illegally in Malaysia. Another 16 Cambodians detained by Thai authorities for lacking passports were released as well. ...

A surge in voter registrations over the Pchum Ben holiday weekend pushed totals above 40 percent of eligible voters with just under two months to go before the deadline for next year’s commune elections, the National Elections Committee (NEC) said on Tuesday. .. ...

Violence against female staff at entertainment venues in Cambodia has dropped as education among staff, patrons and owners has increased, according to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, although it warned that the success had not been repeated at karaoke parlors (KTV).​ ...