News
Dams, Sand, Rice: The Life and Possible Death of the Mekong Delta
What would Vietnam be without the Mekong Delta? Envisioning such a reality is difficult, but it is entirely possible that this will come to pass, albeit long after anyone reading this in 2020 is dead. The delta is Vietnam’s most vital agricultural region, producing 50% of the ...
Michael Tatarski
General hit by links to land grabs, arrests
NGO Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organisation (NRWPO) director Chea Hean and two families have accused two-star general Chea Yothin of suing them at the Kampong Speu provincial court for defamation in a 105sqm land dispute in Phnom Sruoch district. Hean said on Thursday that the ...
Soth Koemsoeun
Uncooperative China makes it worse as drought hits downstream nations: experts
China’s dams are worsening drought conditions downstream the Mekong River, storing and controlling up to 50 percent of its waters, experts say. China on average contributes around 14 percent of the Mekong River’s flow, “but an annual average can be misleading,” says Brian Eyler, director of ...
Viet Anh
How governments shut the internet down to suppress dissent
Access Now, a non-profit digital rights advocacy group, has released its annual report on global internet shutdowns. The report reveals governments around world increasingly shutting down the internet, often to stifle dissent, and frequently doing so during times of protest or elections. The annual report, entitled ...
Rich Haridy
Thammasat University to collaborate on new 'smart city'
Universities and their buildings and infrastructure are more than just the physical space where students and their professors meet for lectures. These learning institutions improve and rejuvenate the areas they are situated in, and become inexorably linked to the communities which they serve. One recent example is ...
SUPOJ WANCHAROEN
Northeastern folk voice fears over new Mekong dam
Unseasonal drought, floods and the negative impact of hydropower projects on the Mekong River’s ecology were major concerns raised by residents of northeastern provinces at a public hearing on the Luang Prabang Dam on Tuesday. Pradap Klatkhemphet, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the National Water ...
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
ANZ compensates Cambodian families forcibly evicted to make way for sugar plantation
ANZ has agreed to compensate hundreds of Cambodian families who were forcibly evicted from their land to make way for a controversial sugar plantation and refinery. Phnom Penh Sugar, owned by tycoon and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat, received a $40 million loan from ANZ joint ...
4,200 Line accounts hacked in Feb, including 2 in Thailand
A total of 4,225 registered accounts on messaging app Line, including two in Thailand, have been hacked in the last two weeks, with some used for phishing scams, according to the operator. Line Corp said 4,073 accounts in Japan, two in Thailand, 81 in Taiwan and ...
KYODO NEWS
Myanmar to be 1st country in ASEAN Region to launch free and open national research portal
Access to research in Myanmar will increase thanks to a new collaboration agreement between national and international partners, signed in Yangon today, and paving the way for a new national open access portal. The Myanmar Education, Research and Learning (MERAL) portal, to be launched in March, ...
RESEARCH ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS
As the Mekong Withers, China Releases Water from Controversial Upstream Dams
A top-ranking Chinese official declared that the country is releasing more water from its dams on the upper Mekong River in order to aid drought-stricken downstream neighbors. The announcement from Foreign Minister Wang Yi, made at a meeting of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation group, comes as the beleaguered ...
Kayla Ritter