News

At least 600 families in the remote Svay Chek district of Banteay Meanchey province are being threatened by a shortage of drinking water that began earlier this month, a provincial official said on 16 February. The water in the wells and rivers has been drying up ...

The Ministry of Mines and Energy plans to release the environmental impact assessments of two controversial sand-dredging companies in Koh Kong “soon”, ministry spokesman Meng Saktheara said on 15 February. Activists from NGO Mother Nature – three of whom have been arrested for interfering with the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has dismissed calls to allow Cambodians living abroad to vote in the next election, claiming it would be impossible under the Kingdom’s proportional representative electoral system. But a vast string of other countries – including Indonesia and several European nations – operate ...

Indonesia has thrown its support behind Laos’ chairmanship of ASEAN, urging the country to maintain the group’s unity and centrality as it entered a new chapter in the establishment of the community.President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo conveyed his remarks to new ASEAN chair Laos during a ...

Renovation of the Hor Pha Keo Museum is now about 80 percent complete, according to the Vice Mayor of Vientiane Mr Saythong Keoduangdy. Speaking at a press conference at the museum on 16 February, Mr Saythong said the first phase of the restoration was almost 100 ...

Over 200 residents of Shwelinban ward on the industrial outer ring of Yangon fear they will imminently be swept from their homes and driven from the area. They believe eviction is inevitable, after a similar neighbourhood in Mingalardon township was forcibly dismantled on 26 January. Last month, ...

Myanmar is to develop a corps of rice experts, specialists who will be tasked with making the most of what may be the country’s single most important product. Yezin Agricultural University, the only university producing agriculturalists, is preparing to expand its courses by introducing a specialisation ...

At least 3,000 people have fled their homes in northern Myanmar following clashes between two ethnic rebel groups, the United Nations said on 16 February, raising fears the government’s fragile peace efforts could be fracturing. Heavy fighting in the northern state of Shan broke out last ...

Currently, migrant workers from other countries possessing “pink-card work permits” can work in Thailand for one year and are required to renew their permits if they want to continue working. Under a new proposal, migrant workers can work for two years before renewing theirpermits. The workers ...

Seventy per cent of enterprises with high energy needs and emissions and 50 per cent of industrial production establishments will apply clean and energy-saving technologies by 2020. This is the agenda of a newly approved national action programme on sustainable production and consumption for the period ...