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Energy and the Mekong River: a future flashpoint in Southeast Asia?

Energy and the Mekong River: a future flashpoint in Southeast Asia?

Observers predict the debate over how to tap the power of the Mekong River will become a contentious regional issue for the countries through which the waterway flows. In tiny Laos, authorities want dams on the Mekong's mainstream to fuel its energy strategy to becoming the battery of Southeast Asia. But downstream in neighbouring Cambodia, the consequences may be severe. A look at the conflicting aims between energy needs and food security concerns along one of the longest rivers in the world.

Wheelchair basketball in Laos

Wheelchair basketball in Laos

A radio piece from Laos, where the sport of wheelchair basketball has become a source of strength for one athlete who had spent his life living in the shadows.

"I just felt like I was different from others," says Samnieng Thommavong, whose extended family shunned him when he lost the use of a leg to polio as a child. "I even felt that I was not fully a human being."

Will EU trade negotiations threaten access to HIV drugs?

Will EU trade negotiations threaten access to HIV drugs?

In developing countries, people with HIV rely on inexpensive anti-retroviral drugs produced in India. But critics say a new trade deal being negotiated between India and the European Union could threaten that access and put the vital drugs out of reach of many who need them the most.