News
How Laos escaped coronavirus community transmission and deaths — until now
The official coronavirus death toll in the South-East Asian nation of Laos remained at zero until this month. Amid a rapidly spreading outbreak in neighbouring Thailand, the Laotian government sealed its borders and imposed a lockdown on April 22. Everybody except for essential workers was required to stay home ...
Max Walden
Four homes collapse into the Mekong River
Four of the 26 houses in danger of sliding into the Mekong River collapsed on Sunday leaving 16 families homeless. The accident took place at around 2.30pm in Kandal province’s Loeuk Dek district, in Prek Dach commune, due to heavy rain and wind. Major Lonh Samnang, Prek ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
Myanmar rebels claim police killings as Aung San Suu Kyi appears in court
Dozens of Myanmar security force members have been killed in fighting, rebel fighters have claimed, as Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in person at a court hearing for the first time since her government was overthrown by the military in February’s coup. In one battle on Sunday, the ...
350kg of compressed marijuana seized off Mekong River
Navy officers in the Laos-bordering province of Nakhon Phanom seized a compressed marijuana shipment of about 350 kilogrammes as it was being offloaded from the Mekong River. 2 men were arrested while 3 more fled and have not been apprehended yet in the bust that ...
Neill Fronde
Turtle hatchlings released into Mekong
Marking World Turtle Day on May 23, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS Cambodia) in collaboration with the Fisheries Administration and Kratie provincial Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have released 100 endangered Cantor’s giant softshell turtles into the Mekong River in Kratie province. WCS country director ...
Ry Sochan
Asean leaders urged to back protection of 30% of land and oceans ahead of CBD conference
Scientists and experts in the region under an umbrella, Campaign for Nature, a coalition of more than 100 conservation organizations around the world including the Wyss Campaign for Nature and National Geographic Society, have called for Asean leaders to publicly throw their support to save ...
B. Tribune
Mekong crisis could deepen fault lines within Asean if not seen as regional issue: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute report
ASEAN, as a regional bloc, needs to take full ownership of the issues surrounding the Mekong River’s environmental crisis instead of relegating it to be of sub-regional importance for fear of displeasing Beijing, said researchers at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. “The Mekong River ecosystem is on ...
SHARON SEE
As Banks Shun Coal, Vietnam Emerges an Unlikely Solar Champion
Nguyen Tuan was watching the sun shine down on his four-hectare cantaloupe farm in southern Vietnam when he realized it could do more than help his crops grow. The 46-year-old installed 40 solar panels on greenhouses at his farm 55 miles outside of Ho Chi Minh ...
Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen, Dan Murtaugh, John Boudreau
Downstream Mekong project success proves China’s commitment to improving livelihoods, boosting hydropower capacity in Mekong region
After an in-person visit to China’s reservoir and learning dam-building skills, the Mekong River envoys relay how infrastructure projects undertaken by China in their countries, especially hydropower projects, have served local people, boosting their wellbeing and socio-economic development along with other concrete benefits. The Mekong River ...
Hu Yuwei and Sun Guangyong
‘Drastic forest development’: Vietnam to plant 1 billion trees — but how?
In October and November of 2020, a relentless barrage of nine typhoons and tropical storms slammed into Vietnam, setting off record floods and countless landslides. Nearly 200 people died, and property damage was estimated at $1.5 billion. Then-Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc responded on Nov. 10 ...
Michael Tatarski
