News
Border guards told not to turn blind eye
Cambodia’s top immigration official has warned against corrupt border police allowing foreigners to cross into Cambodia illegally. According to the National Police website, Sok Phal, director of the general department of immigration, warned on 5 January that such practices would be punished without exception. Keep reading ...
Riots keep Thai embassy in Yangon closed
The Thai embassy in Yangon has extended its closure over security concerns for its staff and Thai nationals after protests which started late last month against the Koh Tao verdict. Keep reading ...
China protests to Myanmar after landmine injures official
China said on 5 January it had lodged a protest with Myanmar after one of its border officials was blown up by a landmine after going to investigate an earlier explosion close to the frontier with the Kokang region of Shan State. A spokesperson for the Chinese ...
Masked man at Koh Tao rally demands meet with Interpol
A masked vigilante on 5 January stood up in a swell of protesters and said he has evidence that can prove the innocence of two Myanmar men sentenced to death in Thailand. Ko Zaw Lin and Ko Wai Phyo were handed guilty verdicts on 24 December for ...
Three holdouts cloud ASEAN's future of open skies
ASEAN’s ambitious open-skies scheme has clearly missed the 2015 year-end deadline, and its full implementation appears elusive. Three members of the 10-nation bloc — Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos– seem reluctant to join the scheme for full liberalisation of Southeast Asia’s aviation sector. Keep reading ...
Thailand plans 2m more tonnes of G-to-G rice sales
The Thai government aims to sell over 2 million tonnes of rice this year on a government-to-government (G-to-G) basis. But it admits a renewed attempt to sell rice to Iran may hit a snag because of escalating political conflict in the Middle East. Chutima Bunyapraphasara, Commerce Ministry permanent ...
Five foreign members of drug ring arrested on Vietnam-Laos border
Vietnamese border guards have worked with Lao police to swoop on a major transnational drug ring, capturing five foreigners in the border area between the two nations. Ha Tinh border guards, in coordination with Lao police officers, have arrested five members of the drug ring, who ...
Government promises appropriate compensation in Laos-China railway project
Compensation payouts to the owners of land and other property that will be lost when the Laos-China railway is built will be dispensed under a prime ministerial decree, a senior Lao government official has said. Deputy Minister of Public Works and Transport, Mr Lattanamany Khounnivong, said ...
Rice warehouses are put back on the table in talks with China
Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce announced last week a $400 million proposal by three Chinese firms to build state-run rice warehousing facilities to increase the Kingdom’s storage capacity. Lacking such capacity has been a longstanding issue that sector experts say has in part hampered ambitions of reaching the ...
Railway could be built sooner than planned: Official
Much has been done to move construction of the Vientiane-China railway forward following the groundbreaking ceremony that took place last month, the Deputy Minister of Public Works and Transport has said. Mr Lattanamany Khounnivong told local media last week that construction could take just over four ...
