Paul Rivers

Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has called for calm after one of her party’s MPs was injured by a man wielding a sword while canvassing in Yangon ahead of next week’s general election. Naing Ngan Lin, an...

Smog on the Aceh-to-Medan road Asean environment ministers on Thursday (October 29) expressed concern over the "unprecedented severity and geographical spread" of the smoke haze across the region while expressing sympathy for the millions whose lungs are ingesting the filthy air. At a summit in Hanoi,...

Laos has failed to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council in a secret vote by the UN General Assembly in New York. The vote took place on Wednesday, when Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates were...

Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen. Photo: Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/Wikimedia Commons. Asean environment ministers on Thursday expressed concern over the "unprecedented severity and geographical spread" of the smoke haze across the region while expressing sympathy for the millions whose lungs are ingesting the filthy air. At a...

Paracel Islands Vietnam has repeated requests that China respects its sovereignty and international law, abide by the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and cease “wrongful actions”, according to Hanoi’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh. When asked for...

Thick grey smoke hovers over Sumatra triggering air quality alerts The death toll from the heavy haze blanketing parts of Indonesia has climbed to 19, a minister has announced, almost double the previous figure as the crisis from widespread forest fires worsens. For almost two months,...

The Crescent Group of the disputed Paracel Islands. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Vietnam has repeated requests that China respects its sovereignty and international law, abide by the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and cease “wrongful actions”, according to...

Indonesian firefighters try to contain a blaze in South Kalimantan earlier this month. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. The death toll from the heavy haze blanketing parts of Indonesia has climbed to 19, a minister has announced, almost double the previous figure as the crisis from widespread forest...

Japan hopes to help Asean members cope with their ageing populations, reports said today. It plans to launch a public-private consultation mechanism in the next fiscal year, according to sources. Japan’s population is rapidly ageing, so it hopes it can use its experiences to help other...

Image: Asean. The EU and Asean have held their first policy dialogue on human rights in Brussels. “The first policy dialogue allowed for open and constructive exchanges on themes of common interest,” they said in a joint statement released after the October 19-20 event. These included “recent...