News
Thailand reduces quarantine, paperwork for vaccinated
Thailand on Thursday began halving the quarantine time for vaccinated visitors as a first step to allowing inoculated people into the country without the need to isolate. The pandemic has devastated Thailand’s tourism industry, a key income earner, but strict border measures have left the country ...
Green Group Records 100 Cases of Illegal Logging in Protected Cambodian Forest in Three Days
An environmental watchdog group in Cambodia has recorded at least 100 cases of illegal logging in the country’s protected Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary over the course of just three days, prompting it to call on the government to strengthen enforcement and allow activists to carry ...
RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum and Samean Yun.
Myanmar Internet Shutdown Chokes News Flow, Raises Citizens Fears
Myanmar’s embattled citizens struggled with a drastic cut-off of internet and wireless data services Friday following a military junta order aimed at staunching the flow of videos and photos of atrocities to a global audience, activists and web users said. The Ministry of Transport and Communications ...
RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane, Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Welcome to 'year of fact-checking'
More than 30,000 people have joined Collaborative Fact Checking (Cofact) Thailand to combat fake news during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), Cofact Thailand, the International Fact Checking Network and other anti-fake news organisations yesterday held a seminar to mark International Fact-Checking Day ...
‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice
“It started when some people from the government came around the community telling us that we were illegally occupying the land,” Chhae Kimsrour said in June 2020. “I’ve lived here since 1995, but six months later they came back and started filling in my lake. ...
GERALD FLYNN, PHOUNG VANTHA
Vietnam to borrow $2 bln to fortify Mekong Delta against climate change
Vietnam plans to borrow around $2 billion to develop the Mekong Delta, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said. The money, to come from the World Bank, Germany and France, would be used for the sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in the face of climate change, ...
Viet Tuan
Thailand taps groundwater as it enters hottest season
Facing severe drought as it enters its hottest season, Thailand has launched groundwater extraction operations in its most arid regions to tap sources deep beneath the soil, as it looks at ways to harness future supplies. The groundwater department has sent geologists and more than 80 ...
REUTERS
Chaos in Myanmar poses threat of meth trafficking surge for Thailand
A village watchman trains his binoculars on a suspicious fishing boat – the first line of defence as Thailand braces for a fresh methamphetamine influx after a coup in neighbouring Myanmar. The kingdom’s narcotics bureau has already seized more than 80 million “yaba” pills just in ...
AFP
Can the EU's climate change plan work in Southeast Asia?
After the European Union became a “strategic partner” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc in December 2020, both blocs pledged to make climate change policy a key area of cooperation. The EU, already the largest provider of development assistance to the ASEAN region, has committed ...
David Hutt
UNDP, OECD present corruption solutions for ASEAN
In Southeast Asia, as everywhere else, Covid-19 has fundamentally disrupted business as usual. A damaging side-effect of the pandemic on companies in the region, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is the emergence of new corruption risks – the urgent demands of emergency procurement have ...
KANNI WIGNARAJA And JEFFREY SCHLAGENHAUF