People and government

Chinese-language posters with instructions on how to vote are causing controversy in Myanmar’s Shan State.  Lashio town, in northern Shan State where Myanmar borders China, is home to a large number of ethnic Chinese people. Some have lived there for generations. Like elsewhere in Myanmar, a combination of historic ...

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has pledged justice after the weekend’s Phuket riot sparked by the deaths of two young men, as probes were launched to find the facts behind the province’s worst street violence in recent years. Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Gen Prayut promised ...

Laos will not host a meeting of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Southeast Asia on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit next year, a local official said, citing potential criticism by participants against governments in the region and inadequate resources as among reasons for the ...

With its recent name-and-shame policy proving to be successful, Hanoi’s tax office has released the names of another 89 businesses whose back taxes have amounted to nearly VND311.7 billion (US$13.78 million). Keep reading ...

The planned upcoming deportation of Montagnard asylum seekers back to Vietnam will include 13 already recognised as refugees in March unless the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can find a third country to resettle them, the UNHCR and a refugee advocate ...

The government of Laos, in partnership with the United States, recently hosted the Lower Mekong Initiative Disaster Relief Exercise and Exchange in Vientiane.  The exercise and exchange is an annual initiative between the governments of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. Each year ...

Two Vietnamese fishing vessels, equipped with destructive fishing gear, were seized and 11 crewmen arrested for illegally fishing in Thai waters off Narathiwat on 10 October. Keep reading ...

The government is ready to help Indonesia tackle the haze pollution problem which has spread over large parts of the region after its envoy admitted the country’s efforts are not enough to stop the fires, Foreign Ministry deputy permanent secretary Vitavas Srivihok said. Keep reading ...

A progressive budgeting policy used by the Education Ministry has overloaded local administrators with paperwork for which they often lack the expertise, according to a new report, which found the system was less efficient in 2014 than the year before. Released by the NGO Forum, and ...

The wife of a jailed Polish citizen of Lao heritage has asked Poland’s justice ministry to request the Lao government to transfer her husband from a detention center in the Southwestern Asian nation to one in his European home country. Barbara Paklak-Thammavong told RFA’s Laos Service ...