<p>(Bangkok, July 27, 2011) &ndash; Vietnam should immediately release the Roman Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly, who was sent back to prison on July 25, 2011, to serve a sentence for political dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. The state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said he was returned to prison for &ldquo;compiling, storing and distributing documents&hellip;opposing the Party and the State&rdquo; and &ldquo;inciting people to&hellip;stage demonstrations,&rdquo; which the news agency claimed defied the law.</p>

<p>The Criminal Court decided yesterday to take up two lese majeste cases against Red Power magazine editor Somyos Prueksakasemsuk, who insists he is innocent.</p>

<p>When the advocates of the freedom of expression and journalists from Southeast and South Asia met in the Indonesian capital last weekend, each had their own sobering tale to tell.</p>

<p>One of the key and <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/248011/yingluck-confirms-wage-vow">most popular policies</a> that helped sweep Yingluck Shinawatra and the Pheu Thai Party to power in the recent July 3 Thai general election was the increase in Thailand&rsquo;s pitiful minimum wage.&nbsp; Having won a landslide election victory, Pheu Thai&rsquo;s avowed aim is to increase this minimum wage to a national level of 300 Baht (&pound;6.50 or US$10) a day.</p>

<p>The afternoon of May 19, 2010 was a time of chaos at Zen department store after red shirts ended their protest and the Army moved into Ratchaprasong.</p>

<p>Over 16,000 refugees fleeing escalating fighting and systematic sexual violence in Kachin State and sheltering in makeshift camps along the China-Burma border are urgently in need of aid, according to the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT).</p>

<p>Almost two weeks on, many in the educated elite and the upper middle class who oppose and abhor Thaksin Shinawatra and his younger sister Yingluck and the red shirts might still be in shock at the landslide electoral victory of the Pheu Thai Party on July 3. Some might even be praying that certain &quot;benign&quot; interventions, be they from the Election Commission, the Army, or the so-called &quot;invisible hand/s&quot;, may still save their day.</p>

<p><em>Excluded countries should be ready to issue compulsory licences to access needed drugs</em></p> <p>GENEVA, 11 July 2011 &ndash; An agreement announced today by pharmaceutical company Gilead to licence several HIV/AIDS drugs to the Medicines Patent Pool could improve access to medicines for patients, but excludes several countries with large numbers of people living with HIV, the international medical humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) said today.</p>

<p>INDIA must urgently tackle its &lsquo;vanishing&rsquo; girl population as the nation awaits the birth of the world&rsquo;s 7 billionth baby, says child rights organisation Plan International.</p>

<p><em>Twelve media organisations fighting for freedom of expression and freedom of the press all around the world cosigned, today, a joint statement calling on the Burmese government to put a stop to its harassment and prosecution of journalists and calling on the release of the Democratic Voice of Burma's Video Journalist.</em></p>

<p>Those criticising the elected red-shirt leaders and insisting that they are not supposed to hold Cabinet seats are actually out to subvert the Pheu Thai Party, Thida Tavornset Tojirakarn, acting chairwoman of the red-shirt Demcratic Alliance Against Dictatorship, said yesterday.</p>

<p>Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the release of Sun Shucai, an 87-year-old Chinese activist and journalist who fled to Thailand in November 2006 and has been detained by the Thai authorities in Bangkok since December 2010.</p>