People and government

Burma’s President’s Office sent a warning on Wednesday to a media company who they allege gave a large monetary gift to a government official during Burma’s Thingyan festival last week. President’s Office Minister Aung San Suu Kyi released guidelines on gifts for civil servants on April ...

President Tran Dai Quang asked for Japan’s continued assistance in responding to climate change, especially drought and saline intrusion in the central, Central Highlands and southern regions, while receiving Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Fukada Hiroshi in Hanoi on 19 April. The State leader thanked Japan for ...

Members of the National Assembly’s 8th Legislature elected Mr Bounnhang Vorachit as the new President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic at the Assembly’s inaugural session on 20 April.  Keep reading ...

Thai and migrant crewmen risk life and limb for little or no pay. Tunlin is among some 2,900 fishermen who have been rescued and repatriated by the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation. The operation, started in 2014, continues to help both Thais and migrants mostly from ...

Authorities on 20 April demolished 36 shops illegally occupying parts of popular Surin beach as part of a campaign to regulate businesses on 50 beaches in this island province. Most proprietors had cooperated before officers moved in, but not all.  Keep reading ...

Esther Htusan, 29, is one of four AP journalists who worked on an investigation into severe labor abuses within the Southeast Asian fishing industry, a sector which supplies seafood to supermarkets and restaurants abroad. The team’s reporting contributed to the freeing of approximately 2,000 slaves; ...

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi vowed on 18 April to push for constitutional amendments to build a true democracy in the Southeast Asian country as it emerges from decades of military control. “Our policies and principles are to ensure national reconciliation, internal peace, the ...

Surveillance of the poultry trade in Sagaing Division’s Monywa Township has been ramped up after an avian flu outbreak over the past several weeks. Local authorities have since killed over 20,000 chickens and restricted poultry trade from farms in the area.“With the help of the police ...

Representatives from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia gathered Monday in Vietnam’s Central Highlands Dak Lak province to discuss an agreement on trade promotion. The CLV Development Triangle Area covers four Cambodian provinces (Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri, Kratie), four Lao provinces (Attapeu, Salavan, Sekong, Champasak), and five Vietnamese ...

Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly on 7 April voted unanimously to approve an additional referendum question asking voters whether they would approve the upper and lower houses of Parliament to jointly choose the new prime minister during the five-year transition period under the new charter. Keep reading ...