Quetta hospital bombing: Pakistan Taliban claim attack

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban has said it carried out a suicide bombing that killed at least 70 people at a hospital in the city of Quetta.

The attacker targeted a crowd that had gathered as the body of a prominent lawyer murdered earlier on Monday, Bilal Kasi, was being brought in.

Lawyers and journalists were among the dead. About 120 people were injured.

Vietnamese structure on border draws ire

Wed, 10 August 2016

The construction of a police station in undemarcated border land between Cambodia and Vietnam has prompted Cambodia’s Border Affairs Committee to call a meeting with its counterpart across the border, a senior government official confirmed.

Vietnam secretly built the new police station last month on the disputed land in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district, said Var Kimhong, senior minister for border affairs.

Desperate Times for Cambodia's Farmers

After facing a long drought, Cambodian farmers now fear the arrival of La Niña and possible floods.

The Diplomat, By Ana Salvá, August 9, 2016

A man works at a dried up pond at the drought-hit Kandal province, Cambodia (April 26, 2016).
Image Credit: REUTERS/Samrang Pring

Pursat, Cambodia: The first rainfall this year did not arrive until early June to Pursat, a province located in the northwest of the country, where land looked bare and thirsty at the height of the planting season. The devastating drought, which the government has described as the worst since 1979, adds to poor rainfall last year, when peasants had to dip into the drinking water dispensed by the government to irrigate their crops.

China launches first mobile telecoms satellite from Beijing

China has launched its first mobile telecommunications satellite.

The Tiantong-01 satellite will establish a mobile network serving China, the Middle East, Africa and other areas, the state run Xinhua news agency reported.

It was sent into space after midnight local time in Beijing (16:00 GMT) on Sunday.

The ground service will be operated by China Telecom, which is owned by the Chinese state.

New counter-terror troops on way

Tue, 9 August 2016

The Ministry of Defence’s counter-terrorism force, headed by the prime minister’s eldest son, Hun Manet, will get an injection of several dozen new troops, according to a decree signed last month by the premier.

The document, which Hun Sen signed on July 8 and which has circulated in local media, said

PM: Vote Near Your Work

Tuesday, 09 August 2016

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that citizens working far from their homes can register to vote near their places of employment, a change that could save many citizens from a lengthy and costly trip to their home province.

At a ceremony commemorating a new bridge in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district, Mr. Hun Sen told the crowd that voter registration, which will start on September 1 and last until

Laos' thirst for Mekong River dams imperils fishing, farming

In this June 20, 2016, photo, a fishing boat passes near a construction site of the Don Sahong dam, near Cambodia-Laos borders, in Preah Romkel village, Stung Treng province, northeast of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Landlocked Laos is the poorest state in Southeast Asia but by virtue of geography and growing Chinese influence, its secretive authoritarian leaders wield a huge and unaccountable power over a river that winds through six countries.

Chiang Khong, Thailand (AP) — Dismissing its neighbors' pleas, impoverished Laos is rapidly building a Mekong River dam that threatens fisheries crucial to millions of Southeast Asia's poorest people.

The site of the Don Sahong dam, less than 2 kilometers (1 mile) from the Lao-Cambodian border, is in an area famous for spectacular waterfalls and deep pools that is among the few habitats of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. A "coffer dam" blocks one of the Mekong's main channels to allow construction of the hydropower project, which will suck in as much as half of the river's water during the dry season.