News
Deserted Thai beaches lure rare turtles to build most nests in 20 years
Thailand has found the largest number of nests of rare leatherback sea turtles in two decades on beaches bereft of tourists because of the coronavirus pandemic, environmentalists say. From wild boars patrolling the Israeli city of Haifa to deer venturing into London suburbs, virus closures are ...
Jiraporn Kuhakan
Local Workers on Lao-China Railway Say They Have Gone Without Pay For Months
Up to 30 Lao workers building a nearly completed railway project that will connect landlocked Laos with China say that they have not been paid in three to four months, because their Chinese employers left the area and went home early this year amid the ...
Reported by RFA’s Lao Service, Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin
Anti-drug campaign aided by pandemic checking
More than 5,800 suspects have been arrested and 233 million methamphetamine or “speed” pills seized during a regional anti-drug campaign that has benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic. Niyom Termrisuk, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said the mushrooming number of checkpoints due ...
KING-OUA LAOHONG
Data sharing, cooperation for Mekong River management
The greater data sharing, transparency and cooperation between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and dialogue partners will improve management of the Mekong River, the Mekong River Commission said. The MRC said, in its 13-page long commentary note on a 2020 study exploring the effect of Chinese ...
Pech Sotheary
Sanctuaries now state land
The Ministries of Environment, and Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction have listed the Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary in Koh Kong province and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province as state land to eliminate land grabbing offences. The operations have gained support from community members ...
Soth Koemsoeun
COVID-19: Vietnam Winning New War Against Invisible Enemy
Vietnam, just south of coastal China, is the 15th most populous country in the world with 97 million people. According to its Ministry of Health (MoH), as of April 13, there were 262 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 144 recovering or discharged from hospitals, and no ...
Anis Chowdhury in Sydney and Jomo Kwame Sundaram in Kuala Lumpur
Children killed as clashes between Myanmar army, fighters rage
The Myanmar army is carrying out “almost daily air strikes and shelling” in the restive Rakhine and Chin states amid a surge in clashes with fighters, with reports of at least 32 civilians killed in recent weeks, according to the United Nations human rights office. The ...
AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
National forest reserve encroached in Mae Sot
Three large tracts of woodland — about 45 rai altogether — were found to have been encroached on inside the Mae Sot National Forest Reserve in Phop Phra district, according to a local media report. The encroachment was reported to the 6th Forest Protection Unit in ...
ASSAWIN PINITWONG
A miracle as turtles return to Thailand's empty beaches, closed due to virus outbreak
Popular beaches in southern Thailand, empty of tourists due to closures and restrictions related to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, are seeing the return of rare wildlife, officials said on Sunday (April 19). “As we fight the Covid-19 outbreak, nature is also rejuvenating and creating balance,” Warawut ...
Vietnam 9th safest place in Asia-Pacific amid Covid-19 pandemic, study finds
Vietnam is the ninth safest place in the Asia-Pacific to get through Covid-19, a study released by Hong Kong’s Deep Knowledge Group says. It scored 594.91 to become one of only three Southeast Asian nations to make the top 10 along with Singapore and Thailand, the ...
Minh Nga