AP
Thailand scrambles to contain outbreak, secure vaccines
For much of 2020, Thailand had the coronavirus under control. After a strict nationwide lockdown in April and May, the number of new local infections dropped to zero, where they remained for the next six months. Thailand closed its borders, enforcing mandatory quarantines for its own ...
BILL BREDESEN
Indigenous activists clash with UN over proposed park
When farmer May Cho Win learned that a conservation project proposed by the U.N. Development Program in Myanmar would include the land she’s worked for over a decade, the 28-year-old wondered how she and her husband would be able to support their three children. “Without our ...
VICTORIA MILKO
Thai official warns of water shortages due to weather, dams
Thailand should brace for serious water shortages when the hot season begins in March after a year with unusually little rainfall, one of the country’s top water management officials said Monday. Retention of water by dams in upstream areas of the Mekong River also is seen ...
Grant Peck
UN: Nearly a half-billion in Asia-Pacific still going hungry
Nearly a half-billion people in the Asia-Pacific are still malnourished and eliminating hunger by 2030 requires that millions escape food insecurity each month, according to a report released Wednesday by UN agencies. Data compiled by the United Nations show slow progress and even backsliding in the ...
Elaine Kurtenbach
Thailand returns orangutans to their Indonesian homeland
Wildlife authorities in Thailand sent two orangutans back to Indonesia on Friday as part of a collaborative effort to combat illicit wildlife trade. Ten-year-old female Cola and 7-year-old male Giant were transported from wildlife sanctuaries in the western province of Ratchaburi to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where ...
Busaba Sivasomboon
Thai marine biologist pleads for dugong conservation plan
A top marine biologist has urged Thailand’s government to speed up conservation plans for the dugong, an imperiled sea mammal, after their death toll for the year in Thai waters has already climbed to a record 21. Thon Thamrongnawasawat said on his Facebook page that the ...
Busaba Sivasomboon
Inaugural ASEAN Tourism Awards Japan Presented to Excellent Tours to the ASEAN Member States
he ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) has awarded eleven tour products in six categories for the trips with destinations to the ASEAN Member States (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) as winners of the ASEAN Tourism Awards Japan 2018. With the ...
UN rights envoy says Laos focus on big projects hurting poor
The U.N. rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston, said Thursday that Laos’ impoverished economy can only thrive if its leaders do a better job of educating and caring for all of its people. The current strategy of favoring big-ticket projects with Chinese investors and granting big ...
Myanmar panel probing Rohingya crisis pledges independence
Members of a commission established by Myanmar’s government to investigate human rights violations in western Rakhine state, where 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority fled brutal army operations, addressed critics Thursday with a pledge to be impartial. Keep reading ...