News

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said there needs to be a complete update of the mechanisms and policies to spur socio-economic development in ethnic minority-inhabited regions. Phuc made his statement at a conference held by the Government’s Committee for Ethnic Affairs and the ...

A blaze authorities have attributed to a forest fire ripped through a nearly 4,000-cubic-metre timber stockpile on a social land concession in Preah Vihear’s Kulen district on the weekend, although the company yesterday said it suspected a case of arson. Si Kiri, Preah Vihear provincial police ...

Drug use in Cambodia’s prison system is not limited to inmates alone. Prison guards too have been found to be using illicit substances, senior prison officials have acknowledged, with the government set to launch an investigation into the prevalence of drug use among prison staff ...

Chinese money accounts for the overwhelming majority of investment in Cambodia’s anaemic energy sector, but while the government has been happy to take Beijing’s loans for the construction of hydroelectric plants, a study published last month found that such investment came with both ecological and ...

Thailand’s Marine Department on 27 February said it had not been able to clean up the oil spill from the capsized cruise liner Ocean Dream off Koh Nok in Chon Buri’s Si Racha district due to high winds and waves impeding their operations. In a press statement, the department ...

A Myanmar government inspection committee has uncovered almost 242 billion kip in lost assets due to corruption in 2015, resulting in 95 officials being disciplined. The shocking figures were released in a report that summarised the work of the Inspection Committee of the Party Central Committee, ...

Dozens of Kachin anti-narcotics campaigners were injured after a poppy eradication campaign was met with gunfire and grenades on 25 February. After a week-long stand-off, Pat Ja San reached an agreement with Kachin State authorities to re-launch the eradication mission, despite protests of angry poppy farmers ...

In Myanmar, Tatmadaw air strikes have put a quick end to an ethnic armed group’s foray into poppy field eradication. The Ta’ang National Liberation Army began clearing fields in Nam-hsan and Kutkai townships in northern Shan State on 16 February, according to Tar Gyoke Ja, vice ...

The Lao Association of Travel Agencies (LATA) is asking its members to conduct safety checks on all tour vehicles following the tragic bus and minivan collision on 21 February which claimed the lives of four Korean tourists. The road accident in Kasy district, Vientiane province also ...

Laos kicks off its Asean chairmanship on 26 February with an agenda-setting foreign ministers’ retreat in Vientiane, its capital on the east bank of the Mekong River. Analysts say this year could be a coming of age for the “lower-middle income economy”, where poverty continues to be ...