Cambodia

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday offered praise for poor students and condemnation for wealthy scions, who too often waste the ample opportunities handed to them.

“A few days ago, I heard that they chased to shoot each other. They have cars and they race, while the poor youths do not have even bicycle to ride,” Hun Sen said during a graduation speech at the National Institute of Education, referring to a story that appeared in local media about two rival gangs that chased one another in Range Rovers through the streets of Phnom Penh, opening fire as they did so.

Cambodia

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Twelve ethnic armed groups from Burma will soon begin a year-long search for the remains of Japanese soldiers killed in the country during the Second World War.

The groups—the 11 members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), plus the Arakan Liberation Party—reached an agreement with the Chiang Mai-based Thai-Japan Education Development Foundation (TJEDF) in January to help locate the remains of some 45,000 Japanese war dead.

Taiwan

‘BLOODY HARVEST’: More than 88% of Taiwanese who go abroad for their transplants go to China, where forced harvesting from executed prisoners is reportedly common

Foreign medical and legal specialists yesterday discussed legislative developments in their home countries on regulating organ transplants abroad and urged the Taiwanese government to recognize the seriousness of the organ-harvesting crimes perpetrated in China and to legislate against organ transplants using illicit or unknown organ sources.

China

MORE than 100 parents of gay and lesbian children have signed a letter calling for same-sex marriage to be made legal in China.

In the letter, posted online, they say: "Some of our children have lived with their same-sex partners for nearly 10 years. They love and take care of each other, but when one of them gets sick and needs a legal signature for emergency surgery, his or her partner cannot even sign as a family member."

It adds: "As their parents, we are often worried as homosexuals cannot legally get married so they would meet difficulties when adopting a child, signing for medical surgeries, and even purchasing apartments."