Reuters
Thai farmers brave bullets, prison for community land titles
Somruedee Bunthonglek has not repaired the bullet holes in the pickup truck her husband was driving when he survived an assassination attempt barely a year after her father was shot dead on the same communal farm in southern Thailand. The grey truck, with about half a ...
Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by Zoe Tabary.
Land to lose: coronavirus compounds debt crisis in Cambodia
As dark clouds approached her village in northwestern Cambodia one afternoon in July, Set Sreylon prepared for the monsoon that threatened to flood her new family home. While the rains were a concern, the 37-year-old feared a bigger threat to her property – the daily visits ...
Matt Blomberg, Mech Dara
U.S. to give $153 million to Mekong countries for collaborative projects
The United States said it would provide at least $153 million (119.43 million pounds) to Mekong countries for collaborative projects in the region, Vietnamese state television (VTV) reported on Friday, citing U.S. State Department officials. The pledges, made at the first Mekong-U.S. Partnership ministerial meeting, will ...
Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Catherine Evans
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi vows victory in election as campaign starts despite virus surge
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi launched her re-election bid on Tuesday ahead of polls set for November, vowing victory at a scaled-down ceremony in the capital after her original plans were scuppered by a surge in coronavirus cases. “Today, our victory campaign has begun,” she ...
Facebook shares data on Myanmar with United Nations investigators
Facebook says it has shared data with United Nations investigators probing international crimes in Myanmar, after the lead investigator said the company was withholding evidence. A Facebook representative told Reuters on Tuesday it had given the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IIMM) data from pages and ...
Poppy McPherson
Bangkok court admits Cambodia farmers' lawsuit against Thai sugar firm
A Bangkok court on Friday agreed to grant class action status to more than 700 Cambodian families suing a Thai sugar firm for evicting them from their homes, a lawsuit that human rights experts see as a test case for transboundary disputes. The lawsuit against Asia’s ...
Rina Chandran
Flood risk for one million in Phnom Penh as wetlands destroyed
More than one million people in Phnom Penh face the risk of increased flooding and loss of livelihoods as wetlands in the Cambodian capital are destroyed to build apartments and industries, human rights groups warned on Monday. Developments – including the ING City township – will ...
Rina Chandran
Water wars: Mekong River another front in U.S.-China rivalry
The Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, environmentalists and officials say, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river’s waters. It’s a confrontation in which the Trump administration – ...
Kay Johnson, Panu Wongcha-um
Fishermen without fish as Cambodia's river reversal runs late
Crucial water flows to the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest lake, have been delayed for a second consecutive year according to river experts, severely disrupting fishing and threatening the food supply of more than a million people. The river reversal vital for Tonle Sap Lake may ...
Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Panu Wongcha-um and Martin Petty, editing by Ed Osmond
U.S. court asked to force Facebook to release Myanmar officials' data for genocide case
Lawyers bringing a case before the World Court accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority have asked a U.S. district court to order Facebook to release posts and communications of the country’s military and police. The International Court of Justice based in the Hague ...
Anthony Deutsch