<p>In a sign of increasing online witch-hunting against its political opponents, ASTV-Manager daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), on Monday produced the picture and name of the latest man charged under lese majeste laws.</p>

<p>A 23-year-old university graduate was detained on Friday for alleged lese majeste - offending the monarchy - in messages written on his blog, prachatai.com on-line newspaper reported yesterday.</p>

<p>A police officer who arrested one of the two suspects for the arson attack on Central World shopping centre on May 19, 2010, admitted in court yesterday that he had relied on one blurry photograph to make the arrest.</p>

<p>A prosecution witness who claimed who have taken a photograph of one of the two adult defendants in the case of the CentralWorld shopping-complex fire in May last year, yesterday gave confusing testimony as to how sure he was that the man in the blurry picture was in fact Saichon Paebua.</p>

<p>(3 August 2011, Bangkok) The lenient sentences of 12 men who were implicated in a brutal mob attack against members of the Ahmadiyah community in Banten, Indonesia will perpetuate impunity of crimes against religious minorities, warned the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), a regional human rights organization and its member, Imparsial.</p>

<p>In a letter received by human rights defender Mr Huynh Van Dong on 22 July 2011, the Daklak Bar Association accuses him of violating the Vietnamese Lawyers' Code of Conduct because he provided legal representation to clients persecuted for being critical of the government. Huynh Van Dong is a human rights lawyer and a member of the Daklak Bar Association. He has been a practicing lawyer since 2003 and works primarily on cases concerning the protection of land rights and the right to freedom of expression.</p>

<p><b><i>Impunity in Attacks on Activists</i></b></p> <p>(Bangkok, July 30, 2011) &ndash; The Thai government should urgently and thoroughly investigate the murder on July 28, 2011, of Thongnak Sawekchinda, a prominent environmental activist in Samut Sakhon province, Human Rights Watch said today. More than 20 environmentalists and human rights defenders have been killed in Thailand since 2001, and few of those responsible have been held to account.</p>

<p>(Bangkok, 29 July 2011) - The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is deeply saddened by the news of the discovery yesterday of a body believed to be that of disappeared Sri Lankan human rights defender, Mr Pattani Razeek.</p>

<p>Brussels, 29 July 2011 (ITUC OnLine): The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) denounces the decision of the Thai Labour Court which upheld management&rsquo;s right to dismiss seven officers of the State Railway Workers' Union of Thailand (SRUT) for their part in a safety-related industrial action two years ago.&nbsp; The court further allowed a fine of 15 million Thai Bhat (~353,000 &euro;).</p>

<p>Now that the Pheu Thai Party is getting ready to form a new government, the so-called &quot;red shirts for democracy&quot; face the challenge of living up to their self-chosen tag of being &quot;truly democratic&quot;.</p>

<p><em>New report highlights need for sound environment and development policy framework in post-election Burma</em></p> <p>Bangkok, Thailand: A new report highlights how Burma lacks any meaningful frameworks on environmental protection and sustainable development that would enable citizens to take part in decision-making about their country&rsquo;s development, despite a recent transition to a military-dominated parliamentary political system. Land tenure remains weak and there are no safeguards in place to protect farmers, according to the groundbreaking report by the Burma Environment Working Group (BEWG), which is the first ever to take aim at Burma&rsquo;s environment as a whole.</p>

<p>(Kathmandu, 27 July 2011) The Second Sub-Regional Workshop on Human Rights Mechanism in South Asia concluded with calls for the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to establish an effective regional human rights mechanism, enhance civil society participation in the SAARC processes, and address regional challenges from the human rights based approach.</p>