Laos

Thai authorities said on Aug. 17 they have seized more than a ton of pangolin scales worth over 50 million baht ($1.4 million) that are believed to have been headed out of the country through a land border.

The Chinese air force is sending fighter jets and bombers to Thailand for a joint exercise with the Thai military on Sunday.

The training will include air support, strikes on ground targets and small- and large-scale troop deployment, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Afghanistan is the country with the most negative emotions in 2021, and in the second-ranked country, Lebanon, almost half of respondents regularly experience anger.

8th August 2022 marks an important occasion of the 55th anniversary of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), an intergovernmental organization of 10 member states in Southeast Asia (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam), founded in Bangkok in 1967.

China's top diplomat on Saturday arrived on his first visit to Myanmar since the military seized power last year to attend a regional meeting that the government said was a recognition of its legitimacy and opponents protested as a violation of peace efforts.

Although China claimed that they have no intention of building a military base in Honiara however a secret leaked document depicts the contrary picture as it exposes China of its intentions to solidify its military presence in the Solomon Islands.

A monkey with ghostly white circles around its eyes is among 224 new species listed in the World Wildlife Fund's latest update on the greater Mekong region.

The conservation group's report, released on Jan. 26, highlights the need to protect the rich biodiversity and habitats in the region, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

Nearly 7 million tourists visited Istanbul in the first 10 months of the year, while foreign tourist arrivals in the city leaped almost 116 percent in October from a year ago.

Turkey's cultural, commercial and financial capital welcomed 1.15 million visitors in October, which marked the highest number of international holidaymakers visiting the city on record this year.

Some 5.8 million foreign tourists have visited Istanbul in the first nine months of the year, while in September alone the number of visitors leaped more than 100 percent on an annual basis. 

Asia suffered its hottest year on record in 2020, the United Nations said on Oct. 26 ahead of the COP26 summit, with extreme weather taking a heavy toll on the continent's development.

In its annual "State of the Climate in Asia" report, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said every part of the region had been affected.