People and government

Two Christians were arrested by the police in the province of Khammouan, in the east of Laos, on charges of alleged proselytizing. The police broke into the house of a Christian in the village of Nong-hang, and arrested Bountheung Phetsomphone, 43, a Christian leader from another ...

A council appointed by Thailand’s military rulers has rejected a controversial new constitution drafted after last year’s coup. A new committee must now be appointed to write another draft, further setting back elections. The draft has been widely criticised, in particular a clause which enables a 23-member ...

A UK academic has spent the last four days in detention at an airport in Thailand over a dispute arising from a UN report he wrote nine years ago. Agricultural consultant Wyn Ellis was stopped at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport and told he had been reported as ...

The Ho Chi Minh City government plans to invest VND950 billion (US$42.3 million) on building three reservoirs to store rainwater in the next five years in a bid to reduce flooding in the city. Keep reading ...

A group of Thai supporters arrested in Laos for causing disturbance during Thailand’s football match against Vietnam were released on 5 September after spending a night in detention. The Thai Embassy in the Lao capital issued an official statement to apologise for their act, which threatened to affect ...

A group of Thai football fans were arrested after violent clashes with Lao officials during a youth match in Vientiane.  Keep reading ...

Lao police on 5 September released 25 Thais who stirred up violence during a football match in Vientiane on 4 September, the Thai embassy said. The embassy said Lao authorities contacted Thai diplomats in Vientiane to arrange for the hooligans to be sent home and they ...

Thailand will prohibit family members from joining migrant workers coming to Thailand from neighbouring countries beginning in 2017, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said 4 September. He hinted that health insurance and education costs for non-working spouses and children of foreign workers was creating a burden on government ...

Police are giving weight to possible connections between the Erawan shrine and Sathon pier bombings and Uighur smuggling rings allowing migrants to flee China and head to Turkey. National police chief Somyot Poompunmuang on 3 September said as police pieced information together, it was becoming increasingly clear that those ...

Lack of funding is impeding a new – and potentially significant – mechanism for decentralising social services, a recent study has found. The Asia Foundation study, “Municipal Governance in Myanmar: An Overview of Development Affairs Organizations”, was released on 1 September. The findings focus on development ...