Topic: Mekong River

New Cambodian tailorbird is an unlikely bird, in an unlikely place

Scientists have discovered a new bird unique to Cambodia in the unlikeliest of places: the teeming capital.

Rare giant catfish faces new threat in Southeast Asia's Mekong

Laos' controversial Xayaburi Dam could bring the Giant Catfish to extinction, as well as devastate the Mekong River's other fisheries. The challenge: How to build a dam that allows a 600-pound fish to swim up stream?

Difference Maker David Hunt saves lives by teaching swimming in Cambodia

Drowning is the top cause of death for children in Cambodia over the age of 1, according to a recent report.

Dog meat trade: Activists step up campaign to stem 'rampant' illegal smuggling

Dog smuggling from Thailand to Vietnam is part of an inhumane meat trade that slaughters some 5 million dogs for human consumption a year, say animal rights groups.

Reader recommendation: The River's Tale

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

3 outstanding 2012 novels

Three outstanding novels about protagonists who travel far to fight for those they love.

Antarctica started warming 600 years ago, study finds

Centuries before fossil fuel emissions began warming the globe, Antarctica was heating up, indicates a new research published in Nature.

Stir It Up! Chao Ca Vietnamese fish porridge

Ever tried cooking with a whole fish? Chao ca is a flavorful and nourishing fish stew.

Why Chinese workers are getting kidnapped abroad

Kidnapped Chinese workers were freed today in Egypt, but as more Chinese workers become easy targets abroad, citizens back home are calling for action.

Why Thailand has become a popular path to freedom for North Korean defectors

A growing number of North Korean defectors are crossing illegally into Thailand via a new 'underground railroad' because Thailand processes defectors and sends them to South Korea quickly.
09/07/2011 10:40 am

China pushes rail links into southeast Asia: Is Laos aboard?

China's ambitious rail project in Laos could bring prosperity, some say. But others in region doubt that’s high on Beijing’s agenda.
06/14/2011 01:02 pm

Difference Maker Publishing children's books – and delivering them by elephant

Sasha Alyson hauls (sometimes by elephant) children's books in the local language to kids in rural Laos eager to learn to read.
02/21/2011 11:14 am

Dracula fish, lipstick gecko, 23-foot carnivorous plant, among new species discovered

Dracula fish: Some 145 new species discovered in Southeast Asia's Mekong River last year are highlighted in a new WWF International report.
10/08/2010 12:57 pm

Americans flock to do business in Vietnam - Asia's next economic tiger?

American Jim Okuley is one of many who have recently opened a business in Vietnam not far from where Viet Cong guerrillas once fired rockets.
10/06/2010 02:56 pm

Gallery Largest living things

Southeast Asia: a correspondent's Vietnam revisited 35 years after the fall of Saigon

Every conflict has its own scribes. Southeast Asia's had a singular take.
05/19/2010 04:21 pm

Green Economics Economic impact of Iceland volcano

04/21/2010 04:30 pm

Do Hmong deported by Thailand face danger in Laos?

Thailand deported more than 4,500 ethnic Hmong to their homeland of Laos, saying they were largely economic migrants, not persecuted refugees. But the US government condemned the move.
12/29/2009 09:24 am

The Monitor's View Act now to prevent future world hunger

Climate change will drastically reduce wheat and rice production if nations don't take steps now to prepare. Solving this problem is doable, if the world has the will to tackle it.
09/30/2009 01:00 am

Tibet shepherds live on climate frontier

Shrinking glaciers mean longer hikes to water flocks
01/21/2009 12:00 am

Bright Green Report: Mekong region 'a biological treasure trove'

A striped rabbit, a rodent thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago, a frog with green blood and turquoise bones, and a hot-pink millipede that secretes cyanide are just a few of the new species that have been discovered in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia in just the last decade, according to a new report by the WWF.
12/17/2008 12:00 am

A Hmong refugee finds power in the written word

Kao Kalia Yang's memoir aims to make her people less 'invisible' to the world.
06/16/2008 01:00 am

A Hmong refugee finds power in the written word

Kao Kalia Yang's memoir aims to make her people less 'invisible' to the world.
06/16/2008 01:00 am

In Cambodia, a case for localizing climate-change research

Researchers know global temperatures are rising. Now scientists from as far away as Finland are studying what that means for the 1 million floating residents of the Tonle Sap Lake.
06/06/2008 01:00 am

One reporter's odyssey tracking his uncle's legacy in Laos

Lou Connick was a charming humanitarian who ran aid programs in Indochina in the 1970s – and moonlighted for the CIA. Just how far did he go in fighting communism?
04/22/2008 01:00 am