In 2019, Zuraidah Daut, a social activist in the east coast state of Kelantan in Malaysia initiated an investigation into the mystery of a girl’s absence from school. What she discovered was appalling. The girl was too poor to buy sanitary products and missed out on days of school. This motivated the activist to start the “Projek Oh! Bulan” (Oh! Moon Project) where she would set empty boxes at grocery stores and salons for people to donate menstrual supplies for those in need.

The world has been taking a beating from environmental abuse by industries, particularly where waste management is concerned. In a traditional economy, mainly dominated by a linear model of take-make-and-dispose, not much consideration is given to the material’s end-of-life. Resources or inputs are harvested from the environment, manufactured into materials, and channelled into the industrial process to make products.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency over the new coronavirus, as China reported Friday the death toll had climbed to 213 with nearly 10,000 infections.The United Nations (UN) health agency based in Geneva had initially downplayed the threat posed by the disease, but revised its risk assessment after crisis talks."Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tol

Thai authorities arrested two people for posting "fake news" about the coronavirus as a senior official on Thursday warned internet users to think twice before sharing incorrect information about the pathogen.The Southeast Asian country has detected 14 cases, the second-highest number outside China where 170 have been killed since the outbreak emerged in the city of Wuhan.Thailand's digital economy minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said that a man and woman were charged with vio

Recently, The ASEAN Post published an article which focused on the perception in Thailand that crime was on the rise. This was based on a survey conducted by the Suan Dusit Rajabhat University which, among other questions, had asked Thais which security threats they most feared.

Asian nations have sealed borders and clamped down on Chinese visitors as they try to protect themselves from a deadly virus epidemic.The outbreak has killed some 130 people in China, sickened nearly 6,000 and sparked progressively more urgent precautions around the region. Here are some key measures taken outside mainland China:Papua New GuineaThe impoverished island nation shut air and seaports Wednesday to all foreign travellers coming from Asia. The ministry of immigrati

Indonesia said Wednesday it has cut ties with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as it accused the global conservation group of overstepping its mandate in the country and unfairly criticising efforts to extinguish out-of-control forest fires last year.The Southeast Asian nation said it had sent a letter to the WWF’s domestic office last week terminating a cooperation agreement that stretched back to 1998.The agreement involved joint work in the area of wildlife conservation and forestry, i

The novel coronavirus, originating from Wuhan, China, has shaken the world.

As fears of a deadly virus sweep the globe, panicked members of the public are depending on a flimsy first line of defence - surgical masks that are coveted, but in short supply and of limited use.While Asian commuters cover their noses and mouths with the blue-green paper-thin covers - and social media buzzes with mask emojis, rumours of stockpiles and shortages - the humble medical mask has become an essential weapon in the battle against an invisible enemy.Cheap, mass-made and usually read

The masked woman nervously approaches her target, shuffles into position and then unleashes a flurry of lashes - proving herself as the newest member of the first female flogging squad in Indonesia's Aceh province.The new recruit initially needed some coaxing to punish the offender - an unmarried woman caught in a hotel room with a man.Such behaviour constitutes a morality crime in Aceh, the only region in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation that imposes Islamic law - known a