People and government
Recent arrests highlight Laos drug problems
Seizures of large quantities of synthetic drugs and their precursor chemicals by Lao police in recent months point to renewed efforts by authorities to slow growing rates of addiction in the impoverished, one-party state, sources say. In a major haul on 23 July at a warehouse ...
Thailand's public debt drops to 42% of GDP
Thailand’s public debt fell slightly to 42.36% of gross domestic product, or 5.68 trillion baht, on June 30, according to the Finance Ministry. At the end of May, the figure was 5.69 trillion baht, or 42.58% of GDP. Keep reading ...
USDP newspaper suspended amid political shake-up
Amid a flurry of speculation and rumor about Myanmar’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) after two of its top leaders were unceremoniously ousted on 12 August, the party’s private media house has been indefinitely shut down. Keep reading ...
Myanmar President Thein Sein ousts ruling party chairman ahead of elections
Myanmar President Thein Sein has moved to consolidate his power in the country’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) by forcing out his chief rival Shwe Mann as party chairman, months ahead of a November general election. Shwe Mann was removed from his position as ...
Over 95kg of alleged elephant tusks smuggled from Africa to Vietnam
Customs officers at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on 12 August seized 49 purported elephant tusk parts and one alleged rhino horn that were shipped from Africa. The suspicious tusks weigh 95.54kg while the horn weighs 4.76kg, customs officers said. Keep reading ...
Myanmar arrests one suspect, seeks second in record amphetamines bust
Police in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon have arrested one suspect and are searching for another they say were involved in what may be the country’s largest seizure of amphetamines to date, an official said on 12 August. Authorities discovered more than 26 million tablets of the illegal ...
Lao authorities free woman detained for alleged extortion photos
Authorities in Laos have released a young woman who had been detained for more than two months after a photo she took was posted on Facebook, allegedly showing police officers extorting money from her brother during a stop for a traffic violation, according to a ...
Malaysia to open trade and industry office in Vietnam
The Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry will open a representative office in Hanoi latter this year to embrace economic links with Vietnam. Minister Mustapa Mohamed made the announcement to reporters after his attendance at a dialogue with members of the ASEAN Business Club. Keep reading ...
About 71% of businesses satisfied with Vietnam's tax procedures reform
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and General Department of Taxation, under the Ministry of Finance, revealed a report on the satisfaction of businesses with the tax administrative procedures reform in 2014 in Hanoi on 11 August. Keep reading ...
The labeling problem in Southeast Asia's refugee crisis
In the ‘crisis’ involving the displaced Rohingya people in Southeast Asia, the preferred institutional label is “irregular migrants.” It is a term which implies that migration is well-regulated, which is not the case in South East Asia. The ‘labeling’ or construction of identities of social groups ...
