News

UN: Poverty, conflict drive opium production in Myanmar-Laos

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s latest opium survey for Myanmar and Laos, released 15 December, said poverty and conflict are the driving forces behind poppy cultivation, the second largest behind that of Afghanistan. In its latest production assessment, UNDOC said although Southeast Asia’s opium ...

More Montagnards opt to return home

More Montagnard asylum seekers are planning to return to home amid cuts in United Nations-provided food rations. Vivian Tan, regional spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said more than 10 indigenous Christian Montagnards had requested assistance in returning to Vietnam. She said the group had decided ...

Many jobs ‘vulnerable’: UN human development report

The persistence of dangerous and demeaning forms of work remains a major challenge for the Cambodia’s development, according to the UN’s annual Human Development Report (HDR) launched on 14 December by the United Nations Development Programme. Dubbed “Work for Human Development”, the 2015 report finds the Asia-Pacific region home ...

Organiser arrested over march

The organiser of a protest by community members who face eviction from their homes to make way for a railway project in Banteay Meanchey province was detained on 14 December after demonstrators burned an effigy and dragged its decapitated body through the streets. About 50 protesters marched ...

Curfew imposed in Lao province after deadly violence

Lao authorities have imposed a curfew in north-central Xaysomboun Province after a spate of violence in which three government soldiers and three civilians were killed, police and other sources said 11 December.The authorities blamed the violence last month on bandits, but a source close to ...

Party General Secretary advocates close defence ties with Cambodia

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong urged Vietnam and Cambodia’s defence ministries to strengthen their co-operation at a reception on 12 December for Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Tea Banh. Keep reading ...

Experts call for dam review to consider earthquake risks

If there is one place most ill-equipped for a mega hydropower dam holding back cascades of water, it might very well be along a fault line. Yet China’s Myitsone project is slated for such a quake-prone site not far from the Sagaing Fault. In addition to ...

Trash dumping threatens Yangon waterways

As the National League for Democracy embarks on a volunteer program to keep the country’s streets clean, experts said that Yangon’s water quality is at risk because people keep throwing garbage into rivers, creeks and ditches. Keep reading ...

Vietnam shipyard launches $230m oil rig

PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard JSC in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, launched a US$230-million jackup rig 13 December.   Tam Dao 05 weighs 18,000 tons and can drill to a depth of nine kilometers.   Keep reading ...

Vietnam will face severe water shortage for treating rivers badly: experts

Vietnam is using its major rivers as dumping grounds or excavation sites, and this poses a risk of severe water shortage for tens of millions of people in the near future, experts warn.   Members of Vietnam Rivers Network (VNR), the country’s largest advocacy group for water ...

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