Environment

Thai Railway Market Back On Track Post-Pandemic

A train bell rouses a Thai grandmother dozing in her fruit and flower stall, sending her rushing to fold in her awning before the locomotive slowly rumbles past, so close it almost touches her wares.Six times a day at the Mae Klong Railway Market, local customers and foreign tourists scramble into nooks and crannies while vendors calmly move their woven baskets of goods away from the tracks and close their umbrellas to make way.Hundreds of stallholders carve out a living along this 500-metre

8 June 2022
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Ash Covers Towns After Philippines Volcano Erupts

A volcano in the eastern Philippines spewed a huge, dark cloud on Sunday, prompting evacuations from ash-covered towns while authorities warned of possible further eruptions.The blast from Bulusan volcano in the rural Sorsogon province lasted about 17 minutes, sending a grey plume shooting up at least one kilometre (0.6 miles), according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcs).No casualties were reported, but authorities raised the alert level to one on the five-l

6 June 2022
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More Than 700 Monkeypox Cases Globally: CDC

The United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday it was aware of more than 700 global cases of monkeypox, including 21 in the US, with investigations now suggesting it is spreading inside the country.16 of the first 17 cases were among people who identify as men who have sex with men, according to a new CDC report, and 14 were thought to be travel associated.All patients are in recovery or have recovered, and no cases have been fatal."There have also be

5 June 2022
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Singapore’s Much-Loved Dish Under Threat

Rachel Chong loves chicken rice so much she eats it three times a week."It is number one on my list. It's comfort food [and] it's easily accessible," she says. A standard order at Ah Keat Chicken Rice, a stall where she eats, costs S$4 (US$2.90).For many Singaporeans, a plate of poached or roasted chicken on a bed of fragrant rice is a favourite meal. It's often referred to as the country's national dish.

4 June 2022
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Vietnamese Police Net Biggest Bear Bile Haul

Vietnamese police have arrested a bear owner for the first time after netting a record haul of hundreds of bile bottles in Hanoi, a wildlife protection organisation said Friday.The ASEAN member state is a major hub for the illegal trade in wild animals and bears are kept to drain the bile from their gallbladders for use in traditional medicine.Authorities outlawed bile extraction in Vietnam in 2005, but bear farms were allowed to keep the animals they already had.Those convicted of extracting

4 June 2022
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Big Tobacco's Environmental Impact Is Shocking

The tobacco industry is a far greater threat than many realise as it is one of the world's biggest polluters, from leaving mountains of waste to driving global warming, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.The WHO accused the industry of causing widespread deforestation, diverting badly needed land and water in poor countries away from food production, spewing out plastic and chemical waste as well as emitting millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide.In its report released on Wor

1 June 2022
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Myanmar Women Struggle With Menstrual Hygiene

A year after Myanmar erupted into civil war prompted by a February 2021 military coup, more than half a million people have been internally displaced and millions are unable to access basic food and medical needs.For women, the hardships are compounded by the challenge of managing their monthly periods. “I have to use one sanitary pad for the whole day and night.

31 May 2022
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How A Singapore Execution Set Off Wave Of Protests

The only post on Tan Mei Qian's Instagram profile is a picture of her and two friends delivering a letter to Singapore's President.The letter contained a request to spare the life of Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a 36-year-old man who has been languishing on death row for the past seven years.His crime – trafficking 44 grams of heroin, around three tablespoons worth, into Singapore."The media is heavily censored.

30 May 2022
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Marcos Era Survivors Call For Truth

In a small huddle with martial law victims and their surviving families in Manila’s Monument of Heroes memorial park, Joey Faustino wonders what has happened to the Philippines.“Should I feel betrayed that the lies have prevailed?

28 May 2022
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Freedom And Fear: America's Deadly Gun Culture

It was 1776, the American colonies had just declared their independence from England, and as war raged the founding fathers were deep in debate: should Americans have the right to own firearms as individuals, or just as members of local militia?Days after 19 children and two teachers were slaughtered in a Texas town, the debate rages on as outsiders wonder why Americans are so wedded to the firearms that stoke such massacres with appalling frequency.The answer, experts say, lies both in the t

28 May 2022
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Monkeypox Isn’t What We Should Be Worried About

In the past three weeks there have been nearly 100 cases and 18 human deaths from a rare tick-borne disease in Iraq; a fourth case of the Ebola virus and more than 100 cases of bubonic plague have been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and just two years after Africa was declared free of wild polio, new cases have turned up in Malawi and Mozambique. A dangerous strain of typhus is circulating in Nepal, India and China.

26 May 2022
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Monkeypox: How Worried Should We Be?

As the world continues to battle COVID-19 and many countries look at ways to recover from the pandemic, a new virus is making headlines worldwide.The monkeypox virus is now thought to be nearing 100 cases in 12 countries, and more are expected as surveillance is stepped up.

25 May 2022
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