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- ANN Dispatch — Your Weekly Digest from Asia News Network
ANN Dispatch — Your Weekly Digest from Asia News Network
🗓️ This Week’s Focus: “The Good, the Bad, and the Brave: People at the heart of Asia’s headlines”

🎯 Malaysia-brokered Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire a step toward peace but more work needed to ensure it lasts: experts
By Benjamin Lee | Thailand & Cambodia, The Star

PHOTO: AFP
The Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire marks a hopeful turning point, but experts stress it’s only the beginning. With Malaysia stepping in as mediator, the challenge now lies in setting clear conditions, resisting external influence, and building lasting regional mechanisms for peace.
🔗 [Read Full Story →]
Related:
Cambodia, Thailand agree to ‘immediate and unconditional ceasefire’ to de-escalate border row
🔗 [Read story]
Truce between Cambodia and Thailand secured under Asean chair Malaysia, but can it hold?
🔗 [Read story]
US grateful for Malaysia's role in brokering Thai-Cambodia truce
🔗 [Read story]
Displaced villagers at Thai-Cambodian border hope to go home as leaders set to meet for talks
🔗 [Read story]
✨ Spotlight Stories from Across Asia
Timely, thoughtful, and deeply reported pieces from our partner publications
🔹 Bidding farewell to a heroic teacher who died while trying to save students in Dhaka jet crash
By The Daily Star

PHOTO: COLLECTED/ THE DAILY STAR
Maherin Chowdhury, 46, was responsible for escorting students to the gate to ensure they safely reached their parents. According to news reports, she managed to lead around 20 children out of the premises even after sustaining severe injuries herself.
🔗 [Read more]
🔹 Philippine President Marcos under scrutiny as presidency hits halfway mark
By Luisa Cabato, Philippine Daily Inquirer

PHOTO: PCO/ POOL/ PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
At the midway mark, President Marcos faces political turbulence after midterm defeats triggered a mass cabinet reset. His once-powerful alliance with VP Duterte has fractured amid impeachment and polling woes.
🔗 [Read more]
🔹Malala, the girl who needs no introduction, just reintroduced herself
By Dawn

PHOTO: AFP
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai shares a candid look at her personal journey—from vulnerability to strength—in a revealing new profile.
🔗 [Read more]
🔹 ‘Shoot directly’: Bangladesh ex-PM Hasina’s order and deadly aftermath
By Sirajul Islam Rubel & Martin Swapan Pandey, The Daily Star

PHOTO: THE DAILY STAR
Former PM Sheikh Hasina gave a covert shoot-on-sight order during the 2024 student protests, instructing forces to “shoot wherever they find” demonstrators. The directive, exposed in an investigative report, unleashed one of Bangladesh’s deadliest crackdowns in recent history—raising troubling questions about state power and accountability.
🔗 [Read more]
🔹 The ‘honourable’ men of Pakistan’s Balochistan
By Kiyya Baloch, Dawn

PHOTO: AFP
Despite laws on paper, Balochistan remains a place where women are punished for choice, tribal 'justice' dictates life and death, and the state watches from the sidelines — unless a video goes viral.
🔗 [Read more]
🔍 In Case You Missed It: Last Week’s Highlights
Unique temple frog-jumping festival takes a leap in the heat in Japan’s Nara – Japan
It has its origins in a legend about a man who, after insulting an ascetic, is taken by an eagle and left on a mountain. A high-ranking priest from Kinpusenji temple transformed the man into a frog to rescue him and later returned him to human form through his power.
🔗 [Read more]Revisiting the complex history of Indonesian cooperatives – Indonesia
Indonesia plans to launch 80,000 new village cooperatives, reviving a long-held economic model—but critics warn it risks repeating past mistakes of top-down control over grassroots efforts.
🔗 [Read more]The crime of being Bengali: The untold story of Bengali internment in Pakistan – Bangladesh, Pakistan
Half a century has passed since Bangladesh's birth, but the moral reckoning for what happened to these people is far from complete.
🔗 [Read more]
📣 Voices from the Region
Op-eds, expert analysis, and perspectives that matter

PHOTO: THE KATHMANDU POST
🗣️ A nation of gods deserves a law to match
By Ila Sharma
The writer says that Nepalis who honour dogs with garlands once a year should also protect them every day.
🔗 [Read more]
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📝 Asia News Network is a coalition of leading news organizations from across Asia. We bring you stories that matter, beyond borders.
