Social development
Minister encourages food, drink safety following deaths
Minister of Health Mam Bunheng on 13 December asked the public to stop drinking rice wine and eating sick animals after 19 people died and 170 fell ill in Kratie province over the past month. Improperly fermented booze can contain methyl alcohol or methanol, which is harmful ...
Police mull defamation suit against asylum-seeking officer
Police on 11 December said they were considering suing a former officer investigating human trafficking for defamation over comments he made implicating senior officials in the trade. Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin arrived in Melbourne a few days ago and told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on 10 ...
Northwest residents struggle to escape from prolonged poverty
The level of poverty in the northwest region of Vietnam is 2.7 times higher than in the rest of the country. This was announced at a conference on 10 December to discuss rapid and sustainable poverty reduction measures in the six northwest provinces of Ha Giang, Cao ...
Activist groups look to next government to solve human rights abuses
Activists marked International Human Rights Day on 10 December by setting an agenda for the next government. Land rights topped the list in an online poll for rights and business priority issues conducted by the Institute for Human Rights and Business, a co-founder of the Myanmar Centre ...
In light or dark, operations must go on
A photo that was widely circulated on social media this week cast a light onto the sometimes extreme measures taken in Myanmar’s public health sector. In the midst of an electrical blackout, doctors were seen performing an operation at the Mandalay Central Women’s Hospital by ...
Human Rights Day protest stays peaceful
Close to 2,000 people, including monks, NGO workers and citizens, marched peacefully to the Ministry of Justice on 10 December morning, defying City Hall’s ban on the Human Rights Day protest. Demonstrators from 16 different provinces marched from three separate locations – the Senate, Chenla Cinema and ...
Malaysia maid pipeline resumes
Cambodia has signed a long-anticipated agreement to resume the legal flow of domestic workers to Malaysia, putting an end to a ban introduced more than four years ago amid reports of serious migrant abuses, which had led to multiple deaths. A statement released on 10 December evening ...
Orange Line plans hit giant bump
The Transport Ministry is planning to review the western section of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority’s (MRTA) Orange Line — from the Thailand Cultural Centre to Taling Chan — after residents refused to relocate. News of the review comes a day after the cabinet approved the construction ...
Dirty greens: Why some southern farmers refuse to eat the water spinach they grow
A man takes a big bowl of waste vehicle oil from a bucket and splash the thick black liquid directly onto his water spinach field. Some of his farming neighbors in Thuong Xuan Ward in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City are showed doing the same in a ...
Child abuse costs Cambodia: study
Violence against children cost Cambodia approximately $168 million in 2013, or just over 1 per cent of GDP, according to a new report from the government and UNICEF that explores the economic impacts of physical abuse. Titled The economic burden of health consequences of violence against ...
