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Sunday, September 6, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
THAILAND/LAOS: Hmong Refugees Starve to Resist Deportation
By going on a hunger strike, some 150 ethnic Hmong refugees in Thailand have turned the heat on Bangkok to respect their rights and treat them with compassion.RIGHTS-THAILAND: Thaksin May Yet Pay for Bloody ‘War-on-Drugs’
While arrest warrants are being readied for self-exiled, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on corruption charges, human rights advocates are keener to see him booked for a murderous campaign he led against drug peddlers four years ago.RIGHTS-SINGAPORE: Gay Events Banned for ‘Political’ Overtones
Just when it looked like time to celebrate, Singapore’s gay community has been hit with a spate of bans targeting events around a two-week-long gay pride festival.CAMBODIA: World Bank Faces Kleptocracy Test
For all its talk of good governance, the World Bank continues to choose its words carefully when reprimanding errant states it has big stakes in. What is happening in Cambodia is typical.BURMA: For Pro-Junta Militia, Migrant Workers Are Useful Cash Cows
On a recent morning, two trucks packed with about 120 Burmese drove up to a pier on the Thai side of the Moe River, which separates north-western Thailand from Burma. One, with a black exterior and with grills on the side, is often used to transport prisoners. The other, a Toyota truck, had sturdy bars and looked like a cage on wheels.SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Regional Human Rights Body with Teeth or a Paper Tiger?
At first glance, it appeared that South-east Asian governments were determined to strengthen the language of human rights across the region. A meeting of foreign ministers in Manila declared that a regional rights body would be part of a new charter for the 10-member bloc to be approved at a summit in November.ASIA: Iraq’s Fairytale Journey Gives Football a Shot in the Arm
Asia's premier football championship received unprecedented global coverage thanks to the fairytale journey of the national team from war-ravaged Iraq. On Sunday night, Iraq's footballers were crowned the new heroes of the region after defeating the more fancied Saudi Arabians in Jakarta.THAILAND: Countdown to Referendum Begins with Arrests and Warnings
Dr. Weng Tojirakan was in a defiant mood the morning after he was detained by the police at the Criminal Court in the Thai capital. "This happened because of the tyranny in our country," the 56-year-old medical doctor said in an interview Friday.CAMBODIA: Time for Answers Arrives at ‘Killing Fields’ Trial
For nearly 30 years, the Khmer Rouge regime that unleashed a reign of terror during it rule of Cambodia in the 1970s has been accused of committing genocide. But was this so?POLITICS-VIETNAM: Peasants Shoulder Pro-Democracy Protests
Democracy movements in Vietnam, a communist country, appear to have got a sudden fillip through solidarity from hundreds of farmers making their presence felt on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City over the past month.BURMA: New Constitution in Two Months – Junta
Burma’s military rulers had a surprise in store for the over 1,000 delegates who had gathered for the latest session to draft the country’s new constitution.ENVIRONMENT: UNEP Faults Asian Development Bank Project
A sharp difference of opinion between the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) and the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) has surfaced over a flagship venture of the Manila-based financial institution.
HEALTH: South-east Asia Grapples With Dengue
End June saw health officials in Singapore confronted with a worrying trend in the affluent, squeaky-clean city-state. During two separate weeks that month, dengue fever cases had reached epidemic levels.POLITICS: Thai Junta Going the Burma Way?
Thailand’s junta leader, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, is in danger of inviting comparisons with military strongmen in neighbouring Burma, where successive generals have refused to transfer power to a civilian administration for decades.HEALTH: Getting Tough With Second-hand Smoke
The global anti-tobacco movement has just armed itself with tough new language capable of clearing the air at workplaces, restaurants and bars of tobacco smoke.
ECONOMY-ASIA: Decade After Meltdown IMF Less Relevant
As the Asian financial crisis struck 10 years ago, beginning in Thailand and then spreading rapidly to eight other economies in the region, the desperate call for help was answered from the West.ENVIRONMENT: Clean or Not Thailand Sees Dollars in Palm Oil
The new governor of this southern province has set his sights on another prize to add to its list of unique features. ‘’We are aiming to be the palm oil capital of Thailand,’’ says Siwa Sirisoawaluk who has been Krabi’s chief administrator for nine months.THAILAND: Schools Prime Targets for Malay-Muslim Rebels
The soldiers assigned to provide security for students and teachers at a school in the violence-torn southern province of Yala on Friday were part of a new plan by the military-appointed government in Bangkok. But they never made it.THAILAND: Death Threat to Thaksin Thickens Political Plot
A chat room on a popular Thai-language website is drawing visitors over a troubling question: Will ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra be assassinated when he returns home?ENVIRONMENT-THAILAND: Seeing the Light With Solar Power
Till over a year ago, health officials worried over maintaining the cold chain for vaccines delivered to children on this island. These included the ten given to new-born Thais, such as those for polio, diphtheria, tetanus, Japanese encephalitis and tuberculosis.POLITICS-BURMA: 'Discipline-Flourishing Democracy' Promised
Burma's acting prime minister, Thein Sein, has summed up in four words the political direction his country is headed for once a new constitution is approved. It will be a ‘'developed discipline-flourishing democratic state,'' he says.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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