VOA

China last month inaugurated a new trade route via ship, road and rail running through Myanmar in keeping with Beijing’s dogged building spree across the Southeast Asian country to reach the Indian Ocean and points west. Analysts say it is one more strand in the ever-expanding ...

Large numbers of people here in the dry northeast region of Thailand bordering Laos and Cambodia, a region known as Isaan, are facing the consequences of changes in the natural rhythms of the Mekong River wrought by the construction in recent years of dams upstream ...

The Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers — a 5,000-kilometer waterway threading from China through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  However, dams have subverted the ecosystem, bringing drought during the monsoon season and high waters when it should be dry. That has forever changed ...

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh says it is concerned about deforestation in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, where five environmental activists were detained for documenting illegal logging in February. Ambassador Patrick W. Murphy and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Cambodia Mission Director Veena Reddy ...

The government of Laos issued new guidelines for managing hydropower dams aimed at minimizing water shortages and flooding, state media reported on Thursday, amid debate on how its hydropower boom has altered the vital Mekong River. The new decree, effective March 4, requires all hydropower operators ...

Half of Myanmar Press Council’s members resigned last week, saying they are unable to protect press freedom, uphold media ethics, or protect the safety of fellow journalists. The 15 resignations on the press council come in response to directives issued by Myanmar’s military to news outlets ...

Asia Pacific leaders set aside differences Friday with their first joint communique in three years, calling for free and predictable trade to help a global economy laid low by the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which included U.S. President Donald Trump ...

A Cambodian newspaper publisher who made critical comments about Prime Minister Hun Sen on Facebook has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.  A Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday jailed Ros Sokhet for incitement and ordered him to pay a fine of $500 (2 million riels), said Sam Sokong, ...

Rescuers in Vietnam are searching villages for dozens of people missing after a typhoon described by officials as the most powerful to hit Vietnam in 20 years triggered landslides, killing at least 35 people. The state-run Vietnam News Agency reported Thursday that nearly two dozen people ...

A recent draft of the cybercrime law obtained by VOA Khmer has drawn concerns from NGOs and rights groups over clauses that could help the government intensify its crackdown on freedom of expression, while also raising privacy and data collection concerns. The draft law, the formulation ...