Philippine police were ordered Wednesday to arrest anyone caught vaping in public, just hours after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced he would ban e-cigarettes.The abrupt prohibition, revealed by Duterte late Tuesday adds to a growing global backlash against a product once promoted as less harmful than tobacco smoking.Duterte, a former smoker, called the devices "toxic" and said vaping introduced "chemicals" into the user's body.He ordered the arrest of a

The poor implementation and enforcement of policies is painting a bleak future for marine turtles in ASEAN.

On 26 September, Indonesia was hit with yet another deadly earthquake, killing 37 people and damaging more than 6,000 houses. The country is one of the most disaster-prone in Southeast Asia and the world. Two weeks after the earthquake, however, news reports began emerging that Indonesians were still holed up in shelters. The reason?

A group of Myanmar satirists on Monday racked up a second prison sentence for a performance that criticised the military, a decision the artists said showed the judges were "puppets" of the military.The group of seven, known as the Peacock Generation, were arrested after performing "Thangyat", a Myanmar art similar to slam poetry, in April.Wearing military uniforms, they mocked the army through their fusion of poetry, comedy and music.But the authorities were unamused and

The construction sector is complicit in the threat of climate crisis, emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) gas through greenfield development, material production and the use of fossil fuels.

Chinese drug police are working with Mekong countries to strike at the heart of a mega-rich meth syndicate, a senior Beijing drugs tsar said, as the region targets top-level drug traffickers instead of street dealers.The porous lawless border areas of Myanmar, Thailand and Lao have for decades been a hub for heroin production, but the so-called "Golden Triangle" drug trade is now pumping unprecedented quantities of synthetic drugs into the global markets – fuelling a US$61 billion d

Indonesian Mirnawati once ate rice with every meal, but its link to diabetes convinced her to join a growing movement to quit a staple food in As World Diabetes Day was held last Thursday, the Southeast Asian nation is struggling to tackle a disease that affects as many as 20 million of its 260 million people, and has emerged as one of its deadliest killers behind stroke and heart disease.But kicking the rice habit isn't easy, with Indonesia's favourite dish nasi goreng (mi

Southeast Asia’s population will reach 740 million by 2035, according to the United Nations Population Division (UNDP).

E-cigarettes have become hugely popular in the past decade but a rash of vaping-linked deaths and illnesses is feeding caution about a product, already banned in some places.On Thursday an 18-year-old man died in Belgium in a vaping-linked death, the first such case in the country.Here are five things to know about electronic cigarettes.Around for two decadesEarly designs for an electronic cigarette were drawn up in the United States (US) in the 1960s but Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik is acknowl

The recent announcement that 10 of the world’s largest palm oil producers and buyers are supporting the development of a “new, publicly available radar-based forest monitoring system” may be nothing more than a publicity stunt.After all, technology is not the answer to solving one of Southeast Asia’s most pressing environmental problems – the effective implementation and enforcement of policies is.The slash-and-burn method is the cheapest and fastest way to clear land for farming, and over th