Dismissing the case the court said that the companies were acting “on the orders” of the US government, which was engaged in a “sovereign act”.
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Envoys refute China’s water hegemony on Mekong River with in-person visits
“When I heard Western countries talking about the damage by the Chinese dams to the Mekong River, I felt like it is serious. But when I came to see, the fact is very different from what they said. The dams are very good to protect the environment and rare animals, and especially for preventing floods and drought in downstream countries,” Sreng Sataro, minister counselor of the Embassy of Cambodia in China, told the Global Times after his visit. “You see the Western media ignore the facts as they did with my country,” he noted.
Hunger Stalks Many in Myanmar After Double Whammy of Coup And COVID-19
he 3.4 million threatened with hunger are mostly urban residents and are “over and above the 2.8 million people considered to be food insecure in Myanmar before the military takeover,” the U.N.’s food-assistance branch was quoted by the U.N.’s news agency on April 22.
Enduring battle to save beaches from erosion
Inclusive and sustainable solutions are in urgent need to rescue beautiful beaches along Vietnam’s central region amid the increasing frequency of landslides and sea erosion in the area.
Implications of new draft law on NGOs
Indeed, the government’s concerns over the state’s security, especially those pertaining to the monarchy, are one of the major reasons for the new draft. In the past five years, local NGOs with foreign funding have adopted an active platform calling for political and constitutional reforms — some with references to the royal institution in the most radical ways. This trend has intensified over the past year leading to all kinds of conspiracy theories between donors and recipients regarding the country’s political landscape.
‘Untie knots’ in Mekong Delta infrastructure growth: PM
Local authorities should not be reluctant to begin work because of the projects’ high price tag of projects, he said, advising that priority be accorded to studying the possibility of building a port in Soc Trang Province to receive 100,000-ton ships as well developing aviation infrastructure for the region.
Struggle for justice for Agent Orange victims to continue
Talking via videoconference, Nga, who is currently in France, said regardless of the rulings to be issued by the court, the 10-year struggle will still continue, noting that she and her friends have been prepared to keep going for many more years.
Cambodia ready to exit LDC status
Four LDCs – Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Nepal – met at a virtual workshop last week to explore potential solutions for managing a smooth exit from their UN designations, discuss potential challenges in the post-LDC era, and assess the impact of Covid-19 on the textile and garment sectors.
Thailand: Land Rights Activist Gunned Down
During the past decade, at least five land rights activists in southern Thailand have been killed. All were leaders in campaigns seeking community ownership of agricultural land used by palm oil companies in which the lease with the government for the land had expired.
Colonization by other means: China’s debt-trap diplomacy
The latest to fall prey to China’s debt-trap diplomacy is small Laos, which recently signed a 25-year concession agreement allowing a majority Chinese-owned company to control its national power grid, including electricity exports to neighboring countries.