Malaysian universities will be revelling in their rise up the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings: Asia after five of the country’s institutes of higher learning cemented their places in the top-50.The country’s oldest university, Universiti Malaya climbed five places in the latest rankings and is now tied with the University of Tokyo at 13th – its highest position to date in a list which has been published annually since 2004.The other Malaysian universities in the top-50 inc

They wailed and clutched white roses, praying for their dead - families of two cousins who were among 39 Vietnamese found in a truck in Britain held emotional homecomings for the young men Wednesday.Relatives have waited weeks for their bodies to come home, after they were discovered lifeless in a refrigerated container in Essex, east of London, last month.Hoang Van Tiep, 18, and his 33-year-old cousin Nguyen Van Hung were among 39 people found in the truck, a tragedy that has paralysed commu

Vietnam on Tuesday jailed six people on various security and anti-state charges in three separate cases, in one of the harshest days of sentencing in the communist country where dissidence is routinely quashed.The one-party state has long jailed its critics, though a hardline leadership in charge since 2016 has ushered in an uptick in arrests and convictions of activists, dissidents and bloggers. On Tuesday six people were sentenced to jail in various trials across the country.The lo

The first remains of the 39 people found dead in a truck in Britain last month arrived in Vietnam early Wednesday, an airport security source said.The bodies arrived on a commercial Vietnam Airlines flight from London to Hanoi, where ambulances and security personnel waited at the airport."The plane landed with 16 bodies on board...

A series of key reports released over the past month have proven just how ineffective global efforts to address climate change have been.Greenhouse gases (GHG) keep on rising, and the planned production of fossil fuels provides countries with no chance of achieving the 2015 Paris Agreement – a treaty ratified by 184 countries which aims to limit global temperature increases to below two degrees Celsius by 2100 and no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Despite ambitious goals, the volunta

Despite the devastating impact that single-use plastic has on the environment, none of ASEAN’s 10 member countries are anywhere near joining the 80 other countries which have implemented complete nation-wide bans on it.Half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once before being thrown away, and only a dismal nine percent of plastic produced globally since 1950 has been recycled – with the remaining either incinerated or ending up in landfills, dumps or marine environments.With

Syed Mohamad was celebrating a key date in the Muslim Shiite calendar in secret when officials burst in and detained him, one of several raids in Malaysia that have set the long-persecuted community on edge.Dozens of Shiites have been rounded up recently in the Sunni Muslim-majority country, including several foreigners, fuelling fears that religious authorities are stepping up a crackdown on adherents of the minority sect.Around the world, Shiite Muslims – who are far outnumbered by Sunnis,

Despite it being 10 years to the day, justice remains elusive for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines.Exactly a decade ago, 58 people – including 32 journalists – were brutally gunned down in Ampatuan, a town in the Filipino province of Maguindanao, in what is still the single deadliest attack on journalists in the world.The casualties were part of a convoy accompanying family members of Esmael ‘Toto’ Mangudadatu on their way to file his candidacy papers for the Maguind

From the 1945 Brunei-Australia Memorial in Brunei to the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, Southeast Asia has more than its fair share of dark tourism sites. World War II, the Khmer Rouge and a multitude of natural disasters have seen the creation of dozens of museums, monuments and memorials dedicated to providing the public with a deeper understanding and greater reverence of these key events.However, discussing the merits of sites which sell themselves on tragedy – such as the “Killing f

Pope Francis led an impassioned mass for tens of thousands of emotional worshippers at a packed Bangkok stadium Thursday, urging respect for prostitutes and trafficking victims in a part of the world where sex work is rampant.The remarks came at the end of a whirlwind day of meetings for Pope Francis, who is on his first trip to Buddhist-majority Thailand where he is carrying a message of religious harmony and peace.He heads to Japan next, visiting the twin atomic bombs sites of Nagasaki and