News
Methamphetamines from Myanmar are causing problems across Asia
The Chinese cemetery in Kutkai, a town in the north of Myanmar’s Shan state, is a popular spot to get high. Twitchy men with gaunt faces and wild eyes lurk near its entrance. The ornate tombs provide a good place to stash drugs and weapons ...
US House calls on Myanmar to release journalists
The US House of Representatives called nearly unanimously on Thursday (Dec 13) for the government of Myanmar to release Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were imprisoned one year ago in a landmark free speech case. Keep reading ...
Chinese companies top human rights ‘dirty list’ of firms complicit in Myanmar violations
Chinese companies make up the bulk of a “dirty list” of corporations accused of involvement in human rights and environmental violations in Myanmar, or of doing business with the country’s military. The list of 49 companies from the US, UK, France, Switzerland, China and elsewhere, compiled ...
Number of Journalists Jailed For Doing Job Near Record High: Report
A near-record number of journalists around the world are behind bars for their work, including two Reuters reporters whose imprisonment in Myanmar has drawn international criticism, according to a report released on Thursday. There were 251 journalists jailed for doing their jobs as of Dec. 1, the ...
Cambodia to officially launch Asian Cultural Council in Siem Reap
Cambodia, with Unesco support, is set to host the launching of the Asian Cultural Council next month, a government official said yesterday. According to Ek Tha, spokesman for the Office of the Council of Ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin had a meeting on Tuesday ...
Curbing Asia’s Corrupt Governments
Representatives of civil society organizations from nine ASEAN nations have been meeting for the past two days in Bangkok, seeking ways to fast-track implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in what has to seem like an uphill struggle. Keep reading ...
Arts festival for Lancang-Mekong countries opens in southwest China
The annual culture and arts festival for countries along the Lancang-Mekong River opened Wednesday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. More than 260 artists from countries including China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand attended the opening ceremony of the event, which is held in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous ...
157 ’new' Mekong species discovered
A bat that could be a member of an American boy band, a gibbon with a Star Wars name and a toad straight from Tolkien’s Middle Earth are among the 157 newly discovered species in the Greater Mekong region described by the world’s scientists in ...
Mekong women pressed into marriage in China
Everyone did well from Nary’s marriage to a Chinese man, except the young Cambodian bride herself, who returned home from the six-year ordeal destitute, humiliated and with little prospect of seeing her son again. Keep reading ...
South China Sea disputes: Makings of a new Cold War?
Tensions in the South China Sea have somewhat abated but the latent flashpoint remains. In mid-October 2018, a near collision took place between a US and Chinese warship. The US has attacked Beijing’s expansionism. In September 2018, Japan conducted its first-ever submarine drills in the ...
