News

Cambodia’s badly overcrowded prison population leapt by nearly 20 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, government data show, raising serious health concerns. The figures, released by the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons on 15 December, show that there were 17,522 prisoners ...

The United Nations on 15 December called on the government to do more to protect its homeless after years of so-called street sweeps and a lack of social care have left destitute Cambodians vulnerable to health risks and violence. “Cambodia is growing fast economically, and the signs ...

The pool of climate finances available to Southeast Asia is set to expand following an announcement by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that it plans to double its climate funding to the region by 2020 – a move welcomed by the Cambodian government and climate ...

Laos’ Savannkhet province is looking to increase rice exports to China to more than 10,000 tons a year after the first order for 8,000 tons was received from the Chinese market this year. Laos on 10 December officially exported its first batch of rice to China from ...

More than 40 hotels in one of the country’s prime tourist attractions cannot accept a single guest – because the authorities refuse to grant them licences. The “limbo hotels”, some of which are still under construction, are located in the protection zone declared by the Ministry of ...

Already tired of lengthy delays on the promised return of confiscated land, farmers in Pyin Oo Lwin district are now furious officials stood them up at a negotiation meeting. The farmers said they were summoned by the Township Farmland Management and Statistics Department to discuss a ...

The Criminal Court on 15 December dismissed a petition filed by the head of a student activist group seeking to have the arrest of Thammasat University student Thanet Anantawong ruled unlawful. Keep reading ...

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on 15 December dropped a controversial bill regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), saying the bill currently was unnecessary.  The legislation was initiated long ago and its consideration should stop as there was no pressing need for it, the prime minister said after the ...

The Supreme Court on 14 December handed a life sentence to the man who led red-shirt protestors to torch Ubon Ratchathani’s provincial hall in 2010, overruling a lower court’s sentence of only one year.  The high court initially gave the death penalty to 60-year-old Pichet Thabutda, a ...

A new report from the Vietnam government says power monopoly Electricity of Vietnam tops the list of entities with foreign debts with debts of VND162 trillion (US$7.2 billion) as of the end of 2014.   Vietnam last year signed 41 agreements for $4.7 billion worth of official development ...