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Two controversial cases have put a spotlight on surrogacy in Thailand. Now the government is drafting new laws to stop abuse.

The former sergeant allegedly helped recruit others from Europe and the U.S. to help carry out contract killings.

Based out of a conservation center for former work animals, the Thai Elephant Orchestra is just what it sounds like: a group of elephants trained to play enormous percussion instruments, holding mallets in their trunks and sometimes trumpeting along.

A year after an embarrassing match-fixing scandal at the London Olympics, badminton is back in the news for an unexpected brawl.

The citizens of Thailand are breathing a sigh of relief, after a breakthrough moment in panda relations was reached with China Friday. After much negotiation, Lin Ping, a female giant panda who became a reality TV star after being born in Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo, will be allowed to stay in Thailand for 15 years.

Myanmar and other parts of Southeast Asia are awash with shoddy and phony malaria drugs. Some fakes are almost indistinguishable from authentic drugs. The counterfeits can be deadly for patients, but they also threaten to undermine major weapons against the disease.

Global deaths from malaria have dropped sharply in the past decade, thanks in part to powerful drugs called artemisinins. But on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, doctors are starting to see cracks in artemisinin's armor. The medicine is working more slowly, and sometimes not at all.

President Obama is in Thailand as part of a trip to Asia that will include a regional summit and the first ever visit by a sitting U.S. president to Myanmar, also known as Burma. The president's visit is seen as a sign of his commitment to focus American foreign policy on the region, but fighting in Gaza is pulling away attention. Host Rachel Martin speaks with NPR's Scott Horsley.

Southeast Asia is a hot spot for drug-resistant malaria. In the past few years, parasites in two regions have become less responsive to the last, best drug we have against malaria. Researchers report that this new type of drug resistance may be spreading to Vietnam and central Myanmar.

Myanmar's opposition leader dazzled in her first trip abroad in more than two decades, but her attention to Burmese refugees showed her political situation at home remains precarious.