News

After allowing the MS Westerdam and its 2,000 passengers and crew to dock at its port on February, Sihanoukville, a quiet and small port city in Cambodia has commanded the global spotlight.  Aside from offering a safe departure for those on board, Sihanoukville is in the ...

The Constitutional Court has found a section of the Criminal Code to be unconstitutional for failing to hold men legally responsible for illegal abortions. The ruling will take effect on Feb 13 next year — 360 days after the ruling was made. The court ruled on the ...

Vietnam and the U.S. have announced that cooperation on cross-border crime has led to a U.S. grand jury indictment of an American teacher accused of traveling to the Southeast Asian nation to have sex with minors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California ...

NOAA/NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the hundreds of fires burning across large swaths of land in both Myanmar and Cambodia on Feb. 18, 2020. There are many reasons that fires start including weather related ones such as lightning which will ignite dry ...

Tiem Ngern-tok pointed at the water level, shook his head and talked about dragon boat races to explain how dams in China and Laos have disrupted the lives of Thai people whose villages abut the Mekong River. “During annual boat races the water was high,” said ...

Ethnic wars, security concerns and official foot-dragging have all conspired to stall China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plan to build a high-speed railroad from its southwest down through Myanmar’s volatile northern regions to the Indian Ocean.     But Beijing has an emerging alternate plan: Develop ...

The construction of more ports along the Mekong River has been planned with an aim to improve the transport of agricultural products along the river. Sun Chanthol, Senior Minister and Minister of Public Works and Transport, said that two more ports would be constructed – one ...

China has had a setback in its infrastructure building along the Mekong River after Thailand cancelled a project on the vital Southeast Asian waterway. But observers say that without more coordination between downstream countries, China’s influence in the region will continue to go unchallenged. In a ...

On 20 February, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with the press together with Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith of Laos after attending the Fifth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Vientiane, Laos. Wang Yi said that LMC is now moving from a ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on February 20 suggested that the Mekong-Lancang cooperation (MLC) should contribute to consolidating coordination between countries in handling regional challenges and bringing about long-term benefits for people. The mechanism should aim for strengthening the economy’s resilience in the face ...