All but three of a group of 20 Cambodians who were held against their will on a fishing boat in Thailand had returned after agreeing to pay a fee for “transportation”, a police official said yesterday. The men, believing they were heading to jobs in Koh ss='cambodia-color'>...

In a move that stunned his supporters and drew ire from rights groups and foreign embassies alike, independent radio station owner Mam sonando was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday on charges of insurrection. sonando, owner of broadcaster Beehive Radio and president of the rights ss='cambodia-color'>...

A company owned by a board member of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce has been accused of illegally destroying more than 80 houses in Kampot province’s Chhouk district, a claim vigorously denied by the firm and local authorities. Chan Pheng, a villager from Chi Bak village ss='cambodia-color'>...

Hundreds of people fled in fear yesterday from the village in Kratie province where a bloody security forces crackdown the previous morning left a 14-year-old girl dead. Joint police and military police forces locked down the area where a land dispute has raged this year, and ss='cambodia-color'>...

Nautisco seafood Manufacturing, once Cambodia’s premier seafood-processing company, will not undergo government-brokered restructuring after a Cambodian appeals court yesterday declared the company solvent. The ruling was a first test for the law on corporate restructuring and insolvency. The decision sounds positive for the company. But now the ss='cambodia-color'>...

A 16-year-old died at Calmette hospital in Phnom Penh yesterday morning after succumbing to an illness she contracted while working in virtual slavery as a maid in Malaysia, her family said. Toch srey Neth signed up to go to Malaysia as a maid through the now-defunct ss='cambodia-color'>...

Canadian insurance and financial services company Manulife Financial officially launched its Cambodian country office on June 28, one of several new players seeking to enter one of southeast Asia’s still-untapped markets. Britain’s No.1 insurer Prudential said last week it had approval from the Cambodian government to open a wholly foreign-owned life insurance operation. Manulife, the world’s ss='cambodia-color'>...

Ministry of Commerce officials maintained that low import taxes and increased demand from consumers were the causes behind the 45.26 increase in vehicle imports in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year. The data showed 486,827 vehicles, of all makes and ss='cambodia-color'>...

Due to the expansion of economic and business activities between Cambodia and China, since early August the Bank of China has been negotiation with National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on the promotion of business transactions in Chinese yuan. It is part of a larger but quiet ss='cambodia-color'>...

Members of the Prey Lang Community Network yesterday called on the government to approve a forest preservation sub-decree that has been in draft form since 2011. Hoeun sopheap, representative of the Kampong Thom provincial Prey Lang community, said the sub-decree would help protect the biodiversity of ss='cambodia-color'>...

Eight hundred and sixty-eight workers have been fired from the Winson International garment factory after they refused to obey a Kampong speu Provincial Court injunction last week ordering them back to work within 48 hours. Free Trade Union official Ry sithinet said yesterday that the workers, ss='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) intends to acquire seven more planes by 2015, more than doubling its existing fleet of five, as the airline plans new routes in the next few years to China, south Korea, Hong Kong and India. The plan was unveiled at an industry ss='cambodia-color'>...

An online petition has been launched calling on English Premier League football club Arsenal to break its ties with a Vietnamese rubber company accused of land grabbing and deforestation in Cambodia. A report by London-based Glob­al Wit­ness this month named Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) as ss='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia is still a way off implementing World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on intellectual property rights, despite a deadline to do so in just over a month. At the end of June, the group of the world’s 49 least developed countries (LDCs), including Cambodia, run out ss='cambodia-color'>...

Thanks to a more stable and undisturbed supply chain, sales of new cars in Cambodia have risen dramatically over the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2012. But the purchases pale in comparison to the country’s thriving second-hand market. Kong ss='cambodia-color'>...

Naza Bikes sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Malaysia-based Naza Group of Companies, will enter Cambodia’s crowded motorbike sector, according to the local brand manager. “[Business] will probably be launched on the first of next month,” Hay Chamreoun, the manager, said yesterday, adding that construction for the ss='cambodia-color'>...

It was not the hero’s welcome that greeted Mam sonando when more than a thousand boisterous supporters cheered his release from Prey sar prison Friday and lifted the popular radio station owner onto their shoulders for an impromptu parade. But for the three unheralded farmers caught ss='cambodia-color'>...

Workers in stung Treng province have begun clearing forested land with chainsaws in order to make way for the reservoir of a massive hydropower dam that has drawn ire from local villagers who say they have not been informed about the dam’s construction plans. The National ss='cambodia-color'>...

Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second-biggest clothing retailer, said some H&M garments were produced without its knowledge or approval at a factory in Cambodia where workers were injured in a partial building collapse this week. A supplier of the stockholm-based company placed two minor orders with ss='cambodia-color'>...

Co-operation on the exchange of electricity will be very important in making the 10-country ASEAN bloc move forward to a Single market by 2015, expertS Said, but a Shortage of power Supply in each country remainS a challenge. Speaking to reporterS yeSterday after the opening of SS='cambodia-color'>...