Social development

The first avian flu outbreak this year in Laos was reported in ducks and chickens in a farm located in Xayabury. Keep reading ...

Thailand and Laos have decided to set up a social development centre to help tackle human trafficking, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said on 26 September. After the 20th Thai-Lao Joint Commission meeting at a Chiang Rai hotel, Don told reporters that he had signed a memorandum ...

Deadly carnage on the country’s roads is costing billions, police say. More than 3000 people have died in accidents so far this year, with nearly 20,000 injured in more than 11,000 accidents. The toll of deaths and injuries consumes one-quarter of the national health budget. Keep reading ...

Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement is seeking more money for a planned social pension program, according to a senior official. The ministry originally requested K500 million (US$390,000) in 2015-16 to distribute to an estimated 35,000 people aged 90 years and above. However, a final ...

The haze from wildfires in Indonesia drifting into Thailand has generally improved in the southern provinces due to recent rain and strong winds. Chatchai Promlert, chief of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said the level of dust particles measuring less than 10 micrometres, or PM10, had dropped ...

Mass food poisoning suffered by 441 workers at a factory on 21 October was a reminder of the unhealthy factory lunches provided in Vietnam, which has been a major cause of wildcat strikes and the fact that its productivity is among the lowest in the world.   Truong ...

Three months after the nationwide flood disaster, civil society groups say that government has vastly underestimated the damage toll in Chin State, where locals are facing a looming food shortage. While emergency relief has found its way into many affected Chin State communities, local aid workers ...

Long beset by low-paying jobs and a lack of skilled labour, Cambodia launched its first national policy for employment last week in an attempt to provide better employment opportunities for its people. The 13-page document, which took five years to draft, aims to improve the productivity ...

A rice-milling company has admitted to letting pieces of plastic from its machinery make their way into bags of rice after residents and authorities in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town raised fears of “plastic rice” upon finding their rice abnormally sticky since the Pchum Ben holiday. Keep ...

Higher temperatures in Asia, including those during a strong El Niño cycle, can drive up the incidence of dengue fever, a group of international researchers has found. For the first time, researchers have been able to review the big picture of dengue epidemics on a continental ...