Michael Sullivan

After Cher's success freeing an elephant from a Pakistani zoo, she now wants a gorilla kept in a private rooftop zoo in Thailand freed. Activists have been trying to close that zoo for years.

A Cambodian American lawyer has returned to her homeland to join the resistance to strongman Hun Sen. She says the US needs to pay attention to a country where China is the "elephant in the room."

The anti-government protesters there have a new young face — high schoolers who call themselves Bad Students. They're demanding changes to the constitution and curbs on the monarchy.

Authorities in Bangladesh have begun relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process.

Premier Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized power in a coup six years ago, issued a statement addressing months of unrest, promising to use "all" the country's laws to quash the protests.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won in a 2015 landslide and is expected to win again. But with voting denied or canceled in some areas, more than a million voters are disenfranchised.

The Southeast Asian nation holds a general election this weekend — the second time since the military ceded absolute power in 2011. There's little doubt the National League for Democracy will win.

Southeast Asia drug cartels are thriving during the pandemic and increasingly moving their product through a cash-strapped country such as Laos — which some fear could turn into a narco-state.

Thousands of mainly young Thais were back on the streets of Bangkok on Sunday for a fifth straight day of protests. They are demanding sweeping political change.

In a pre-dawn announcement, authorities in Thailand declared a strict state of emergency for the capital — a day after student-led protests took aim at the country's monarchy.

Got that itch to travel? With many international routes still closed, Asian countries with low COVID-19 rates are offering "flights to nowhere" that start and end at the same airport.

Last week, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul took the stage at a rally to read a manifesto calling for reform of Thailand's politically powerful monarchy — a move that could land her in jail.

Thai police have arrested leaders of a student-led, pro-democracy movement. The group has been challenging Thailand's government despite strict laws against criticism of the monarchy.

Sunday saw the largest anti-government demonstration in Bangkok since a military coup six years ago. Some demonstrators called for reform of the monarchy, the country's most revered institution.

Students in Thailand have been protesting in recent days over the military's involvement in Thai politics.

The Philippines has overtaken Indonesia as the coronavirus hot spot in Southeast Asia — the country has more than 122,000 confirmed cases. Critics say it has no coherent pandemic response plan.

Parts of Asia that seemed to have COVID-19 under control have witnessed fresh outbreaks. China, Japan and Vietnam, which had few or no cases in the past month or so, are seeing a resurgence.

Vietnam had been a success story in beating the coronavirus: zero deaths and only 430 confirmed cases. But a new cluster has changed things. The prime minister warns every province is under threat.

Najib Razak was found guilty in the first of multiple trials related to the siphoning of billions of dollars from the country's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called out Beijing over China claiming most of the South China Sea and says the U.S. will stand by Southeast Asian nations with competing claims.