Crimes

Shops and restaurants in Laos are still not following the law because much, if not all, of their signs and banners are written in a foreign language. All signboards are legally required to feature the Lao language predominantly, on top and in the most prominent position, ...

Central Bangkok descended into chaos on evening of 17 August when a bomb exploded at Ratchaprasong intersection, killing 20 people, including three foreigners, and injuring at least 125. The explosion occurred about 7pm near the Brahmin statue at the Erawan Shrine on the intersection packed with evening rush-hour ...

Seizures of large quantities of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals by Lao police in recent months point to renewed efforts by authorities to slow growing rates of addiction in the impoverished, one-party state, sources say. In a major haul on 23 July at a warehouse ...

Customs officers at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on 12 August seized 49 purported elephant tusk parts and one alleged rhino horn that were shipped from Africa. The suspicious tusks weigh 95.54kg while the horn weighs 4.76kg, customs officers said. Keep reading ...

Police in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon have arrested one suspect and are searching for another they say were involved in what may be the country’s largest seizure of amphetamines to date, an official said on 12 August. Authorities discovered more than 26 million tablets of the illegal ...

Authorities in Laos have released a young woman who had been detained for more than two months after a photo she took was posted on Facebook, allegedly showing police officers extorting money from her brother during a stop for a traffic violation, according to a ...

The United Nations on 11 August denounced “shockingly” long prison terms imposed by Thailand for insulting the monarchy and urged authorities to amend the law and release those convicted. Thai military courts on 7 August jailed two people for insulting the monarchy, one for 30 years and the ...

Amid accusations that it caved in to Chinese pressure, the government has been at pains to show that its release in a presidential amnesty last week of 153 Chinese illegal loggers was accompanied by a number of pledges it has managed to extract from Beijing. The ...

Police in the city of Yangon in Myanmar have seized methamphetamine tablets with an estimated value of more than $100m (£64m) in an abandoned truck. Police told state media that they had found almost 27 million tablets. Keep reading ...

Vietnam has a Thai man and 17 others after a blitz on drug crime uncovered major stashes of heroin, cannabis and precursor chemicals, state media have said. Six Vietnamese were arrested in Hanoi after being caught with some 120 kilogrammes of heroin hidden inside household gas ...