A pack of cigarettes in Laos costs as little as 32 U.S. cents, thanks to a secret deal between the Lao government and British tobacco giant, Imperial Brands. In a new report, The Examination, a news site that focuses on global health threats, looks into who benefited from the 2001 deal and how an agreement capping excise taxes has hit government revenues in the Southeast Asian nation and kept the price of cigarettes among the lowest in the world. That’s had serious public health consequences for Laos, which has very…
Category: RFA
Amnesty accuses Cambodia of ‘gross failure’ to stop rampant abuses in scam centers
Cambodia’s online scamming industry is a cesspool of “mass scale” rights abuses where hundreds suffer torture, forced labor, human trafficking, and slavery in at least 53 scam centers across the country, a new report says. The Amnesty International report, released Thursday, says it is a human rights crisis enabled by state complicity. cambodia-amnesty-scam-center A map showing the 53 scamming compounds in Cambodia documented by Amnesty International. (Copyright Amnesty International, 2025) Cambodia and neighboring Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have seen a massive proliferation of scam compounds that rely on a large…
Treatment of ailing independent journalist in prison ‘a disgrace to Vietnam’
Independent journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan, who is serving 11 years for “conducting propaganda against the state,” has told his family that he is facing serious health problems in prison. A human rights group says his treatment is “a disgrace to Vietnam.” Tuan, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, is incarcerated at Xuyen Moc Prison in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. According to his family, on April 19, Tuan made his monthly phone call home and reported that he had been suffering from prolonged rectal…
Tempers rise at Thai-Cambodia border as stranded travelers demand passage home
BANGKOK – Tempers frayed at the Thai-Cambodian border on Wednesday as travelers left in limbo by the closure of international land crossing points amid a bilateral territorial dispute demanded to be allowed to return to their home country. Video: The land border between Thailand and Cambodia is closed.On Tuesday, thousands of Cambodians working in or traveling to Thailand could not cross back to Cambodia before Thailand closed the seven border checkpoints. Some said they did not even know of the closures. Under pressure from stranded travelers, authorities briefly reopened border…
Lawyers fear Vietnam’s new licensing rule could have chilling effect
Lawyers across Vietnam are voicing concern over a new government decree regulating the issuance and revocation of law practice licenses, with many taking to social media to publicly express their grievances. Decree 121, issued on June 11, shifts the authority to grant, revoke, and renew law practice licenses from the Minister of Justice to provincial chairpersons — a move seen as part of a broader agenda to restructure Vietnam’s state apparatus. Government officials have not offered a direct explanation for the decree. However, law professionals have raised alarms over the…
Four arrested after knife attack on exiled Lao democracy activist in France
French police have arrested four suspects in connection with a knife attack on exiled Lao democracy activist Joseph Akaravong, including the man who stabbed and seriously wounded the activist before fleeing the scene, local media reported Wednesday. The main suspect – a man in his 30s who stabbed Akaravong three times in the throat and torso on Saturday – was arrested on Tuesday in Nîmes, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the city of Pau, Pau public prosecutor Rodolphe Jarry said in a statement on Wednesday. The suspects were not…
Hong Kong grows more opaque on arrests in national security cases
Hong Kong authorities are declining to provide details of six recent arrests under a national security law, fueling growing concerns about government transparency as it tightens controls on dissent. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said Tuesday that since the promulgation of the National Security Law in 2020, 332 individuals have been arrested. That was an increase of six arrests since Secretary for Security Chris Tang stated on June 1 that 326 people had been arrested under the law, with 165 convictions. When local media asked about the new arrests,…
Veteran Chinese dissident faces ongoing police harassment despite prison release
Three months after his prison release, veteran dissident Chen Yunfei is in the cross-hairs of police over his social media posts and has faced multiple rounds of questioning and harassment amid ongoing surveillance, Radio Free Asia has learned. The Chengdu-based human rights activist and Chinese performance artist was released on March 24 after serving a four-year prison sentence in the southwestern province of Sichuan. But his friends say his freedom has been largely illusory, as police have repeatedly summoned him for interrogations and severely restricted his movements and ability to…
Cambodia leak of phone call puts Thai PM’s political future in peril
A leaked phone conversation between Thailand’s prime minister and Cambodia’s Hun Sen about a worsening border dispute pitched the Thai government into crisis as its second-largest coalition partner withdrew its support. The Bhumjaithai Party, holder of 71 seats in the 500-seat lower house of the Thai parliament, announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s government, leaving her ruling coalition with only a slim majority. The party said it was leaving due to the impact on the nation of a leak of a private phone call between Paetongtarn…
U.S. lawmakers honor Dalai Lama with bipartisan resolution ahead of 90th birthday
Ahead of the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday on July 6, U.S. lawmakers have introduced bipartisan resolutions in both chambers of the U.S. Congress to honor the Tibetan spiritual leader and designate the anniversary as ‘A Day of Compassion.’ The resolution – introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday and in the Senate on Tuesday – reaffirms that only the Dalai Lama himself should determine his successor and that any attempt by Beijing to select or appoint one would be an “invalid interference” and violation of religious freedom rights.…