The Golden Triangle is once more embracing its most infamous export

In the Hall of Opium, a group of Chinese tourists wanders through a reconstructed smokers' den. An emaciated model of an addict lies on a wooden bed beside a long-stemmed pipe. Street sounds and rough coughing drift in over the sound system to provide visitors with the full aural experience.

Last month, Vietnam chalked up a couple of firsts for recent years, including the early release of an outspoken critic of the Communist government, but analysts aren't entirely convinced that Hanoi's motives were humanitarian

Given five minutes' notice before the 50-metre-square cell she shared with more than 80 other inmates was unlocked, prominent pro-democracy activist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was unexpectedly freed ahead of schedule last month.

A legal dispute between a bankrupt German firm and the Thai government has dragged the crown prince into the limelight

When an international arbitration council decided in 2009 that Thailand is legally bound to settle the bill for a 20-year-old highway construction contract worth some $45m to a now-bankrupt German building conglomerate, insolvency administrator Werner Schneider tried several times to settle the debt with Bangkok. The tollway to Don Muang airport was built by Dywidag, which later merged with Walther Bau AG before the group went bust in 2005 with plenty of bills left open, and more to pay.

Winning the Thai elections was just the first step for Yingluck Shinawatra

Less than a month after her landslide election victory in Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra's political honeymoon has come to an abrupt end.

Convicts in blue prison uniforms march the frontlines of Burmese military operations against ethnic Karen rebels, serving as porters to transport army supplies

According to reports by human rights groups operating in the region, convicts have for as long as two decades been removed from state prisons across the country in order to serve the Burmese Army, the Tatmadaw.

Dwarfed by tropical topiary that has been manicured by the hands of 100 gardeners, the figure perched on a tiny bridge fidgets in front of the camera. "Is this OK?" She inclines her head slightly and a delicate diamante tiara, borrowed from her seamstress especially for the occasion, slides with a 'plop' into the fishpond below.

At my side, a soft French accent hints at Cambodia's turbulent past.

Cambodia is preparing to hear Case 002 in the Khmer Rouge tribunal, the latest to bear witness to mankind's apparent lack of humanity