The Thai government must suspend plans to buy electricity from a dam in Lao, conservationists said Friday, as water levels along the kingdom's section of Mekong river plummet to near-record lows.The Thai-built Xayaburi dam, a few hours from the northern Lao town of Luang Prabang, is set to be completed in October, the latest in a welter of barriers across the waterway.It has been cloaked in controversy since construction began in 2012, with environmentalists raising alarm about its likel

Seattle coffee franchise, Starbucks Inc. recently opened its largest store in Southeast Asia – the Starbucks Dewata Coffee Sanctuary, in partnership with licensee PT Sari Coffee Indonesia. The store is a tribute to Indonesia’s role, as the fourth largest Arabica coffee growing region in the world, and for bringing Starbucks customers the highest quality coffees.

An Indonesian woman sentenced to six months in jail for exposing her lecherous boss won a parliamentary pardon Thursday after the case sparked an outcry over victim's rights.Loud applause broke out in the House of Representatives as lawmakers unanimously voted to quash the prison sentence handed to Baiq Nuril Maknun over a recording she made of her former employer's sexual harassment.The mother-of-three, who was in the chamber, broke down in tears at the decision -- her last hope to

Indonesia’s Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry and the National Land Agency (BPN) have an ambitious target of distributing 60 million land certificates for land ownership by 2025. 11 million land certificates are expected to be distributed in 2019, under its Agrarian Reform program.

Thousands are languishing in displacement camps in Lao a year after a dam break unleashed floodwaters and killed dozens of people in the impoverished state, a new report on the anniversary of the disaster said Tuesday.For the past decade, Lao has been on a dam-building spree to serve as the "battery of Asia", but experts have long warned about environmental dangers and the breakneck construction pace.An auxiliary dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydroelectric project in southern Lao col

It is undeniable that plastic waste contributes to the earth’s ecological devastation and issues in human health. In 2017, industrial ecologist, Roland Geyer, led a study on the ‘Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made’ and estimated that there are more than 8.3 billion metric tons (Mt) of plastics that have been produced since the 1950s.

Ministries and child protection non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Cambodia recently established a joint-committee for the implementation of the Action Plan to Prevent and Respond to Violence Against Children. According to Touch Channy, a Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation spokesperson, the committee is headed by its minister, Vong Soth, and comprises 22 members – 15 from various ministries and institutions and seven from NGOs.While Cambodia has certa

In a previous article, The ASEAN Post highlighted the fact that today, in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Chinese mainlanders own more than 90 percent of all businesses. While this has increased land prices in the once sleepy-coastal town, the fact that the Chinese are willing to pay millions of dollars to buy land there only serves to heighten worries that Sihanoukville is becoming a small Chinese colony.

Parents in Thailand are split as to whether corporal punishment for their children is the right way to go. A recent survey of 999 Thai parents by YouGov found that two in five believe that physical punishment should be illegal, while another two in five believe that physical punishment is normal.

Giant snails inch across a plate of pumpkin and cucumber in central Thailand, an "organic" diet to tease the prized collagen-rich mucus from the molluscs, which to some cosmetic firms are now more valuable than gold.The snails at Phatinisiri Thangkeaw's farm were once the scourge of rice farmers, loathed for eating the buds of new crops. "Farmers used to throw them on the road or in the rivers," Phatinisiri said.