Laws and regulations

The ten signatories to the National Cease fire Agreement started a five-day meeting at Chiang Mai from May 14-18 to discuss about the agreement and how to move the peace process forward. It looks that having been brought into the “bag”, the smaller groups which have ...

Having watched popular protests, from the color revolutions in the former Soviet Union to the Arab Spring, challenge their counterparts’ power, the world’s autocrats have been adopting legal measures aimed at incapacitating civic groups, including pro-democracy movements and human-rights NGOs. Among the most sweeping measures are those enabling officials to ...

In a classroom on the outskirts of Myanmar’s biggest city, a thin, bespectacled university student led about a dozen peers in boisterous chants of “Censorship is a shame!” and “We don’t believe in censorship!”  It was the final rehearsal of a troupe performing “thangyat”, a centuries-old ...

Myanmar’s parliament is expected to approve in May a bill that would authorise the setting up of foreigner-only casinos in the country, the Myanmar Times newspaper reported on Sunday. The parliament is expected to sit again later this month after an April holiday break. Keep reading ...

An investigator has called on the international body that polices trade in wildlife to crack down on the illegal trafficking of young elephants across borders in south-east Asia. Secretive agents in Laos are sending dozens of animals each year across the country’s land border with China and fly others to the Middle East, earning up ...

A primary school principal in Cambodia became the first person to be charged under the kingdom’s new lese majeste law on Sunday over a comment he wrote on Facebook, officials said. Cambodia made insulting the king a crime in February, triggering alarm from rights groups who ...

Cambodia has been accused of ‘killing off democracy’ after the country’s supreme court dissolved the opposition party and outlawed over 100 politicians ahead of a general election next year. Thursday’s ruling to disband the Cambodia National Rescue Party, in a Southeast Asian country visited by about 159,000 ...

Twenty-three law enforcement officers from Australia, Asia and Europe are in Hà Nội for the next three weeks for the 44th Asia Region Law Enforcement Management Programme (ARLEMP). The officers will study management, communication and cultural topics, and develop their skills in investigating transnational cybercrime, ...

Senior police are pressing the Land Transport Department for new regulations that would allow pickups to carry passengers, not just cargo, in cabs or beds – as long as they have safety belts installed. Until the new regulations are issued, police have no plan to ...

Mandalay authorities warned that they will revoke Thingyan pandal permits that are resold to third parties by winning bidders. Mandalay City Development Committee revenue department head U Win Maung said the authority was now auctioning off the building permits for pandals near the Mandalay moat, ...