The ASEAN Post recently published an article regarding the state of human trafficking in the ASEAN region. In that article, there was a focus on Vietnam due to the recent tragedy involving 39 people who were found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Britain.While the victims were initially identified as Chinese, it has since been ascertained that at least 20 were, in fact, Vietnamese, and almost all from the same – considered poor – province of Nghe An.

An Indonesian man working for an organisation which helped draft strict religious laws ordering adulterers to be flogged was himself publicly whipped Thursday after he was caught having an affair with a married woman.Flogging is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative Aceh region on Sumatra island, including adultery, drinking alcohol, and having gay or pre-marital sex. Aceh is the only region in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation that impo

As media practitioners across the world gather tomorrow to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, reporters in the Philippines have little to celebrate.For the third year in a row, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Global Impunity Index has named the Philippines as the country with the most unsolved murders of journalists, with perpetrators of 41 killings over the past 10 years yet to be served justice.The Philippines was second to Iraq fro

The oceans face a growing threat from plastics.

The body of a 21-year-old British tourist was found floating in the sea more than a week after she went missing from a Cambodian island, police said on Thursday.Amelia Bambridge was discovered in waters near the Thai border, said Chuon Narin, police chief of Preah Sihanouk province."We found the body of the missing British woman," Narin said, adding it would be taken to nearby Sihanoukville.He did not speculate what happened to her after she disappeared from a beach party on the isl

A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least five people and sparking searches of seriously damaged buildings that had already been rattled by two previous deadly tremors in recent weeks. The 6.5 magnitude quake hit the island of Mindanao, the US Geological Survey said, causing locals to run to safety in the same area where a strong tremor killed eight people on Tuesday.The powerful shaking caused serious damage to a condominium building in the

Recently, 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Britain. While the victims were initially identified as Chinese, it has since been found that at least 20 were, in fact, Vietnamese, and almost all from the same – considered poor – province of Nghe An.

Digital technology and Southeast Asia’s high internet penetration have transformed the region’s music industry. The global music landscape has enabled consumers to discover a wide range of genres, sound and artists via music streaming apps such as Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud.

A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Tuesday, killing six people, cracking buildings and injuring dozens in a region still reeling from a previous deadly tremor.Terrified locals ran into the streets after the 6.6-magnitude quake, which hit the island of Mindanao as schools and offices opened for the day.The shaking lasted up to a minute in some areas, damaging homes, multi-storey buildings and classrooms in a region where hundreds are still displaced by a quake that killed

Yale's Singapore college has become embroiled in a row about academic freedom after axing a course on dissent, with the controversy fuelling a wider debate on whether universities are compromising their values to expand abroad.The Yale-NUS College, a partnership with the National University of Singapore, opened in 2013, drawing criticism from activists and its own faculty over the decision to set up in the city-state, due to its restrictions on civil liberties.Such fears intensified last