News

A resort complex in northwest Laos targeting Chinese visitors has become a “lawless playground” for the trade in illegal wildlife ranging from tiger meat to bear paws, an advocacy group has said. Customers “can openly buy endangered species products” in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone on ...

The hit to the value of Laos’ mineral commodity exports inflicted by lower international prices have been confirmed by figures showing an 8.7 percent decrease in returns despite increasing production, local media has reported. Falling prices for gold, potash and copper inflicted the greatest downward pressure ...

The Phnom Penh police’s fire brigade is creating a new committee to determine the cause of a blaze at O’Russei market on Sunday night, an official said. The flames, which started at about 10:30pm on the ground floor, completely burned down five stalls and damaged five ...

Cambodia’s recently approved road project leading to the border with Vietnam in Mondulkiri would do irreversible damage to the province’s protected forest and threaten future attempts to reintroduce tigers to the Kingdom, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In a statement released yesterday, the group said ...

A fire ripped through Phnom Penh’s Phsar Chas, otherwise known as Old Market, on 24 November, destroying about 300 of its 914 stalls and causing an estimated $1.5 million in damages, authorities said, although no one was injured or killed. The blaze began at 7am and ...

Health officials were insisting last week a cholera outbreak in Yangon’s South Okkalapa township was under control, after hundreds of patients presented at an emergency clinic and Thingangyun Sanpa Hospital for treatment. The outbreak had originally been diagnosed as gastroenteritis but Dr Tin Thit Sa, an ...

Laos has announced that it will submit the proposed Don Sahong dam on the Mekong River for “prior consultation” within a regional mechanism but will not suspend development of the controversial project that has been criticized by its neighbors and environmentalists. Previously, Laos has refused to comply with a ...

China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), builder of the controversial Myitsone Dam in Myanmar’s Kachin State, has cut off food assistance to at least two families—among hundreds displaced by the project—after they backed protests against the dam. The two families were from Aungmyinthar village, one of two ...

In response to reports that China has prohibited state-owned companies from bidding on public projects in Vietnam, Transport Minister Dinh La Thang said the ban, if true, will have no effect on Vietnam. Thang, speaking to press on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting, said that many Vietnamese ...

Hydropower dams in parts of Southeast Asia are being canceled or suspended as governments face stronger opposition, forcing them to take greater responsibility for environmental and social impact or look to other sources of energy. The resistance, in a region where vast hydropower potential remains untapped, ...