News

More than 100 students and villagers crowded into a northeast Thailand college forum to hear about American gas companies conducting drilling operations in their region. A lieutenant colonel and dozens of soldiers and police officers followed them in. The armed police began photographing members of the ...

Thailand’s junta has detained a senior newspaper reporter and columnist, his paper says, the latest in a string of arrests targeting those who speak out against the government. Thepchai Yong, the editor-in-chief of the English-language Nation, said “there is no justification whatsoever” for Pravit Rojanaphruk’s detention. Keep ...

Tropical storm Vamco was over the central South China Sea and centred about 350 kilometres off Danang, Vietnam, with maximum sustained winds of 65km/hour, the Meteorological Department announced at 5am on 14 September. Keep reading ...

Vietnam’s Communist Party chief will embark on a four-day visit to Japan on 14 September, seeking not only investment opportunities but geopolitical assurances as China continues its aggressive maritime posturing, according to experts. Nguyen Phu Trong will also become the first party leader to have visited ...

The Vietnam Administration of Forestry and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Co-oporation and Development have launched the “Programme on Conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity and ecosystems services in Vietnam”. Keep reading ...

A group of independent unions say they will push for a new monthly minimum wage of $207 for garment workers when three-way negotiations with the government and factories begin in earnest next week. Keep reading ...

Lao authorities have failed to properly account for the disappearance almost three years ago of civil society activist Sombath Somphone, who was last seen in police custody at a checkpoint in the capital Vientiane, and must commit themselves to a “real and renewed” effort to ...

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Lao counterpart Thongsing Thammavong on 13 September attended the opening of a large potash mine in Laos. It will be one of Vietnam’s largest international projects. The ground breaking ceremony was held in Nongbok district in Khammouane province. Keep reading ...

Over 100 election hopefuls – mostly minority candidates – were knocked out of the running in the Union Election Commission’s final list, with citizenship status by far the most common stumbling block. The final list was short 124 rejected candidates, according to the commission’s announcement on ...

In the aftermath of the deadly flooding that devastated Rakhine State, one third of paddy acreage in the northern part of the state is littered with fallen trees and branches, dead animals and the detritus of wrecked houses. Deep deposits of mud dumped by the ...