People and government

Myanmar, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom. The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence ...

Citizens of countries participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, strongly prefer clean energy over the coal projects that have become Beijing’s calling card, a new survey shows. The findings, from a multi-country survey, commissioned by environmental group E3G, were published ahead of an international forum hosted in ...

ASEAN and the Myanmar government agreed to immediately commence practical measures to alleviate the situation in Rakhine State following a high-level coordination meeting today in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. Secretary-General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi, Executive Director of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance ...

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has expressed commitment to support the development of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) by continuing to provide grant aid and loans after it transferred its shares of PAS to Japanese logistic firm Kamigumi Co Ltd. The announcement came after Jica’s ...

Suriyan “Hook” Kla-thalae, a 36-year-old Moken born on Koh Surin, keeps dreaming that he’ll get his community’s boat, known as a kabang, back out on the Andaman Sea.  But it remains anchored on shore on the island, which lies 60 kilometres off the Phang Nga coast, ...

The 82nd Mekong River joint patrol led by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand was concluded Friday afternoon at Guanlei Port in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Eight vessels and 150 law enforcement officials from the four countries participated in the mission, which covered 560 km in ...

Reuters reporters U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo were recently released from prison in Myanmar. They spent 16 months behind bars on charges related to their reporting on the Inn Din massacre of Rohingya civilians in September 2017. Their imprisonment and the Myanmar courts’ repeated rulings against their appeals ...

The 7th Mekong River Commission (MRC) Regional Stakeholder Forum was held in Lao capital Vientiane over Monday and Tuesday, with participants discussing urgent issues facing the Mekong region, the Secretariat of the MRC has said. Attending the two-day event were 180 representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, ...

Mr. Niwat Roykaew, founder of the Rak Chiang Khong Group in northern Thailand, has shared a letter he received on behalf of the Network of Thai People in Eight Mekong Provinces from Mr. Don Pramudwinai, the Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs, that confirms media reports in March ...

THE GLOBAL community has to take immediate action to conserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems in order to avoid catastrophic consequences to every life brought about by the impact of human activities. On the occasion of International Day for Biological Diversity today, international environmental experts insisted ...