PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Two anti-government activists in Cambodia were charged in court Wednesday with insulting the king and incitement to commit a felony for comments they made on social media about Prime Minister Hun Sen and King Norodom Sihamoni.
Cambodian Court Charges Activists with Insulting King Online

Velocity Global Announces New Financial Metrics; Crosses $200M ARR
Valued at $2B, the global talent solution provider reports significant momentum as the demand for remote-first workplace solutions accelerates
Denver, US – News Direct – 22 March 2023 – Velocity Global, the leading provider of global talent solutions, today announced new financial metrics and corporate momentum to include:
- Crossed the $200M ARR threshold.
- More than 40% organic growth YoY.
- Profitable YTD in 2023, as it has been seven of the last nine years.
- Nearly 1,500 customers, including Databricks, Penguin Random House, Linksys, International Justice Mission, Crunchbase, Dragonfly, and Schwans International.
- Enhancements to the employee and employer experience through partnerships with companies like Upflex and strategic integrations with leading HR technologies like BambooHR, Greenhouse, HiBob, and Namely.
- Platform updates including automated quoting and faster, self-service employment contract creation, which is already helping early customers experience 50% faster onboarding times as well as a forthcoming simplified UI to improve the customer experience.

The increase in demand for technology platforms that make it possible to compliantly hire and pay talent around the world has provided significant tailwinds for Velocity Global. That demand has been accelerated by economic uncertainty and other macroeconomic issues that make remote work, global expansion, and access to talent mission critical. Earlier this month, nearly 20% of Velocity Global’s client base was directly affected by Silicon Valley Bank, accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll. The good news: redundancies built directly into the Global Work Platform – alongside a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity – allowed us to ensure our clients’ payroll would not be disrupted.
“Velocity Global’s growth is a testament to our team’s commitment in building a solution that is defining the future of work, while navigating the complexities of compensating employees across the world in a compliant way,” said Ben Wright, CEO and co-founder. “In our industry, being right is just as important as being fast, and that’s reinforced by 70% of our customers who cite compliance measures as to why they chose our platform. The fact is that recent developments in the financial sector reminded us that building redundancies around payroll and compliance are non-negotiable. We are building a platform that isn’t just reactionary to the industry, but pioneering its future.”
Other Notable Milestones & Company Updates:
- Key Technology & Product Hires: Across design, engineering and technology including Winnie Wong, Vice President of Design, Kumar Ramanathan, Vice President of Engineering & Chief Architect, and Chuck Kim, Vice President of Cloud and Corporate Infrastructure.
- Global Expansion: Offering support in more than 185 countries with more than 7,500 supported employees across more than 60 entities around the world. This includes recent additions like Ghana, Egypt, Uruguay, Ukraine, and Argentina, with several more planned for Q2.
- Customers: Velocity Global continues to expand its enterprise clientele with more than a dozen major universities, 50+ global retail brands, dozens of nonprofits including three NGO’s, and thousands of other large companies in every major industry spanning rocket builders to amusement parks to publishers to technology companies to cutting-edge investment firms.
- New Partnerships: With Upflex, whose platform gives people access to 10,000 locations from more than 1,250 providers – including Wework, Industrious, and The Office Group, Velocity Global now has the capabilities to offer non-traditional benefits options for clients and supported employees.
- Industry Analyst Recognition: Velocity Global was named as a leader in NelsonHall’s Vendor Evaluation & Assessment Tool (NEAT) for global employer of record (EoR) services as well as Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2022 for employer of record (EoR) solutions.
- Integrations: New integrations with Bamboo HR, Greenhouse, HiBob, and Namely to source talent, onboard, and manage the workforce, remove the friction of dealing with multiple systems and data transfers. Most companies already use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and HR Information Systems (HRIS), so by integrating these into Velocity Global’s EoR solution, Global Work Platform, expanding and maintaining a global workforce becomes as easy as a click away.
“We’ve seen double-digit growth in the EoR market over the last few years and expect this growth to continue as the model addresses a very real need for companies to attract and retain top talent anywhere in the world,” said Jeanine Crane-Thompson, Principal HR Analyst at NelsonHall. “As an early player in the industry, Velocity Global stands out with its deep in-country expertise and continued technology innovation providing its customers with peace of mind and speed as it comes to employing talent across the globe.”
For more information, visit www.velocityglobal.com.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Velocity Global
Velocity Global helps you compliantly hire, pay, and manage anyone, anywhere. We simplify the employer and talent experience—combining cloud-based technology and unmatched human support in 185+ countries. Start hiring across borders at VelocityGlobal.com.
AIA Hong Kong and New World Group’s Humansa sign Memorandum of Understanding
Form strategic partnership to collaborate and set up insurance industry first one-stop Wellness Centre for high-net-worth customers
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 22 March 2023 – AIA Hong Kong announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to form a strategic partnership with Humansa, a leading integrated health and wellness management brand under the New World Group#, to collaborate and set up an insurance industry first* one-stop Wellness Centre in Hong Kong. The Centre will provide personalised and diverse health management solutions for the body and mind in the areas of preventive and prediction healthcare, exclusively for AIA Hong Kong’s local and Hong Kong visiting high-net-worth customers.
The partnership is a landmark step that symbolises a shared vision by the two parties in joining forces to provide customers in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) with excellent value-added health management services in addition to comprehensive insurance protection.
Underpinned by a “preventive healthcare approach”, the Wellness Centre is the industry’s first joint project between an insurance service provider and a health and wellness management organisation. Leveraging Humansa’s professional team of health management experts, the Wellness Centre provides personalised and effective health management solutions to support AIA Hong Kong’s high-net-worth customers in achieving their health management goals with a keen focus on “wellness nourishment” through balancing the body, mind and soul.
With an extremely busy work and daily life, high-net-worth customers often struggle to prioritise their physical and mental wellbeing, and may even be living in a “suboptimal health” state and suffering from conditions such as insomnia and anxiety, while lacking remedies to address the issues. Meanwhile, they are seeing greater importance on managing their physical and mental wellbeing as they believe “health is wealth”, and would like to resolve and rectify their “suboptimal health” status, so it does not impact their daily lives and can enhance their long-term physical and mental health.
AIA Hong Kong understands that high-net-worth customers value their health and seek high-quality services, yet they lack the time and energy to select quality healthcare resources that best suit their needs. With the establishment of the Wellness Centre dedicated for high-net-worth customers, they can simply visit the Centre to enjoy the industry-leading one-stop comprehensive health management services.
Mr. Alger Fung, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Hong Kong & Macau, said, “As an industry leader, ‘customer-centricity’ has been the cornerstone of AIA Hong Kong’s philosophy. Through strategic investments and collaborations with top industry partners who share the same vision, we are committed to building an ecosystem of quality services in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA that integrates physical and mental health as well as wealth and medical protection, as we proactively break the boundaries of insurance to become customers’ strongest health and wealth support. We are delighted to be partnering with New World Group’s Humansa to take another step closer to our goal of protecting our customers’ health through the professional and quality services they provide.”
Mr. Don So, Chief Executive Officer of Humansa, said, “We are thrilled to be an exclusive strategic partner with AIA on wellness. Humansa is committed to providing leading thoughts and services to the health and wellness industry. Therefore, our partnership marks a significant milestone for us to explore a unique opportunity together to expand our reach and offer first-in-market wellness services for AIA’s top customers, starting first with Hong Kong. We firmly believe that this partnership will enable us to deliver high quality service across GBA in the future, paving the way for a successful and mutually beneficial relationship.”
The Wellness Centre is scheduled to officially open this summer in a prime commercial location on Hong Kong Island, offering AIA Hong Kong’s high-net-worth customers an easy access to a distinguished and relaxing wellness experience.
Remarks:
# Founded in 1970, New World Development Company Limited (“The Group”, Hong Kong stock code: 0017) was publicly listed in Hong Kong in 1972 and is a constituent stock of the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index.
* As of 22 March 2023
Hashtag: #AIAHongKong
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About AIA Hong Kong & Macau
AIA Group Limited established its operations in Hong Kong in 1931. To date, AIA Hong Kong and AIA Macau have close to 18,000 financial planners1, as well as an extensive network of brokerage and bancassurance partners. We serve over 3.4 million customers2, offering them a wide selection of professional services and products ranging from individual life, group life, accident, medical and health, pension, personal lines insurance to investment-linked assurance schemes with numerous investment options. We are also dedicated to providing superb product solutions to meet the financial needs of high-net-worth customers.
1 as at 31 December 2022
2 Including AIA Hong Kong and AIA Macau’s individual life, group insurance and pension customers (as at 31 December 2022)
About Humansa
Humansa is a healthcare organisation under New World Group that is building a ground-breaking health and wellness ecosystem across the Greater Bay Area. Actively care for your health, being the best version of yourself is our philosophy. To date in March 2023, Humansa has established 34 healthcare and wellness centres in prime locations across Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other core cities of GBA.
The first flagship centre of Humansa | Victoria Dockside debuted in Q4 of 2022, it covers an expansive area of over 14,000 square feet, overlooking a stunning 270-degree view of the Victoria Harbour. The flagship centre brings together experts from multi-disciplinary practices to formulate an integrated preventative healthcare program. In these 34 centres, Humansa provides diverse and professional health and wellness services, helps clients and their families to achieve different health management goals. Such as health check, medical imaging, endoscopy, dentistry, eye care, postnatal care, skin, physiotherapy, high-performance training, OBGYN and pediatric, supplements and dietitians etc.
ECOVACS Group Showcases Premium Lifestyle with Innovative Technologies at China’s Machinery Electronics Show in Singapore

At the show, ECOVACS ROBOTICS and TINECO are showcasing their full range of outstanding products across numerous categories. As the global leader in service robotics and the smart household appliances industries, headquartered in Suzhou, China, ECOVACS Group has established itself as the market leader in both sectors in Asia Pacific, especially in Singapore, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia. At the exhibition, many of its ground-breaking products are making their first overseas appearance – including the robotic lawn mower GOAT G1, the commercial robot cleaners DEEBOT PRO K1 & M1, launched in 2022, as well as their latest robotic vacuum cleaner, the DEEBOT N10 PLUS, which premiered this month.
“We are confident that the APAC market has many exciting opportunities for us to explore, especially in Singapore,” Vice Chairman of ECOVACS Group and CEO of ECOVACS ROBOTICS David Qian, said “As showcased here today, ECOVACS is bringing more advanced technologies and diversified products, providing consumers with even greater convenience than before – for both indoor and outdoor usage scenarios.”
In the APAC region, the robotics industry is expected to be the fastest growth market for robotics in the world, with a CAGR of 23.6% from 2020 to 2025 [1]. Factors such as increasing labour costs, advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, and government initiatives supporting automation, are driving the growth of the robotics industry across APAC.
Founded in 1998, ECOVACS Group has become the global leader over the past 25 years and a pioneer in multiple industries with its strong manufacturing and innovation capabilities. The Group continues to leverage its advanced technologies to address the diverse needs and demands of the various markets in which it operates. ECOVACS Group created its floor cleaning robot product line, DEEBOT, with the first Chinese robotic vacuum cleaner in 2007, and its window cleaning robot product line, WINBOT, with the world’s first robotic window cleaner in 2011, as well as its air purification robot product line, AIRBOT, in 2010. Now its brands and products are available in nearly 150 countries/regions, serving more than 50 million households globally. Backed by its continuous advancements in hardware such as chips, motors, sensors, and a constant drive for innovation in software, including AI, SLAM, algorithms, and navigation, ECOVACS Group has introduced numerous products that can be used in a broad variety of use scenarios.
ECOVACS ROBOTICS, serves in service robotics industry, has launched its new mission of “Robotics for All” in 2022, has expanded the application scenarios of its products from indoor to outdoor, and from home to commercial use with the innovative robotic lawn mower GOAT G1 and the industry breakthrough commercial robot cleaners DEEBOT PRO K1 & M1.

Committed to engineering premium smart household appliances, TINECO has also been investing into new product categories to make household appliances smarter and easier to use with its smart vacuum cleaner, smart wet dry vacuum cleaner, an all-in-one food processor and many more.
With its user-centric R&D and innovation capabilities, ECOVACS Group is redefining the meaning of convenience for people’s lives. Driven by real consumer needs, the Group continues to offer people-focused products that are designed to bring tangible user benefits to the market.
Hashtag: #ECOVACS
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
ABOUT ECOVACS Group
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Suzhou, China, the ECOVACS Group has developed into a group of listed companies that are driven by independent R&D and innovation, mastering core robotics and intelligent technologies, owning two international consumer technology brands “ECOVACS Robotics” and “TINECO”, as well as a complete industrial chain layout.
As a leader and pioneer in the service robot and high-end intelligent household appliances industries, the ECOVACS Group is built on the commitment of being fully people-focused, with a dedication to continuously innovate so that people around the world can enjoy a better life through the benefits of our technology and products. The ECOVACS Robotics brand launched China’s first robotics vacuum cleaners DEEBOT and the TINECO brand launched China’s first smart wet dry vacuum cleaner Floor One, both of which have won the favor of global market and built up a wide user base. Currently, the annual revenue of ECOVACS Group exceeds RMB 13 billion, and its brands and products are exported to 145 countries and regions worldwide, serving more than 50 million household users.
China, Russia Maintain United Front Against US in Joint Statement

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement on Tuesday with plans to strengthen bilateral ties, signaling a united front against the US and other western countries.
BingX Launches its Arbitrum Carnival with a Prize Pool of $50,000 for New Users

With the backing of optimistic Rollups technology, Arbitrum offers an innovative Layer 2 solution to address Ethereum’s scalability, speed, and privacy issues. For Arbitrum Listing Carnival, spot traders will enjoy zero fees for 24 hours and receive a 10% cashback when depositing 200 or more ARB. On top of that, they can share a pool prize worth over $30,000.
Those interested in spot grid and infinite grid trading can participate in the Arbitrum Grid Trading Week. The first 1,000 users to sign up and create the ARB Spot Grid and Spot Infinity Grid strategy during the event period will be rewarded with an equal share of 10,000 USDT bonus. With this fantastic incentive, traders can hone their skills and potentially earn some significant rewards.
During the Arbitrum Futures Trading event period, newly registered users who sign up and participate in it and trade ARB futures with a cumulative trading volume of 10,000 USDT or more will earn corresponding bonuses based on when they first trade ARB.
“We are committed to providing cutting-edge activities and events for users and traders, and BingX’s Arbitrum Carnival is no exception. Arbitrum is a favorite token for many traders, and we are delighted to launch these three events. What is perhaps most important to note is that this event presents an exciting opportunity for users to elevate their trading game. We welcome everyone to participate.” said the PR and Communications Director at BingX, Elvisco Carrington.
He adds: “BingX keeps an eye on the markets and ensures a rigorous evaluation of potential projects. And we will continue to select and provide high-quality assets in the first place. Our users can expect a comprehensive and enriched trading experience on BingX.”
Hashtag: #BingX
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About BingX
BingX is a leading crypto exchange that offers spot, derivatives, copy, and grid trading services to over 100 countries and regions worldwide with over 5 million users. BingX continues to connect users with expert traders and the platform in a safe and innovative way.
Australia Supports Laos With Highly Skilled Volunteers

A new Memorandum of Subsidiary Arrangement (MSA) under a broader agreement between Australia and Laos on development cooperation was signed by Australian Ambassador to Laos, Mr. Paul Kelly, and the Vice Minister of Planning and Investment, Ms. Phonevanh Outhavong, on 22 March in Vientiane.
Tradewind Finance Provides Export Factoring Facility for Tiles Trader in Hong Kong
Established almost 15 years ago, the company has been focusing on exporting tiles and natural stones from China to Australia and New Zealand. With high-quality products and an all-in-one service, including design and project monitoring during production, the trader not only appealed to suppliers but it also developed qualified buyers across the world.
However, as more buyers requested credit terms, which was different from the original payment term T/T before shipment, the self-financing company found it hard to grow its business. Piled-up account receivables resulted in a significant gap in cash flow, which made it difficult to meet financial obligations for suppliers and caused it to decline orders from new buyers in the USA.
Attracted by the 23-year solid track record in trade finance, the client contacted us to ease intense capital pressure. Tradewind’s immediate tailor-made funding solutions enabled the trader to accelerate cash flow and reduce trade risks. With the flexible and scalable facility, the company was able to maintain operations, increase business with existing buyers and accept open account orders from new buyers without the fear of a working capital shortage.
“The experienced client is a professional in tiles trading. With our timely support, the client received stable access to the working capital they needed to operate efficiently,” said Dickson Au, Regional CEO – Far East, at Tradewind Hong Kong. “The client is expected to deliver business growth in the near future and we are honored to grow with our clients.”
Hashtag: #TradewindFinance
https://www.linkedin.com/company/tradewindfinance/
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Tradewind Finance
Founded in 2000, Tradewind Finance maintains a network of offices all over the world, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, India, Pakistan, Peru, Turkey, UAE, and the USA as well as the headquarters in Germany. Combining financing, credit protection, and collections into a single suite of trade finance products, Tradewind brings streamlined, flexible, and best-in-class services to the world’s exporters and importers.