The number of blazes in Indonesia’s rainforests has jumped sharply, satellite data showed Thursday, spreading smog across Southeast Asia and adding to concerns about the impact of increasing wildfire outbreaks worldwide on global warming.Illegal blazes to clear land for agricultural plantations have been raging on Sumatra and Borneo islands, with Indonesia deploying water-bombing helicopters and thousands of security forces to tackle them.It is just the latest such outbreak globally – huge bl

Card games and karaoke help migrant workers pass the time on the cramped houseboats of Hanoi’s Red River, swapping their privacy to eke out a living selling fruit for a few dollars a day. Temporary residents of these open-air boats have left the countryside in search of higher wages in the city.Life on a floating guesthouse can be tough.

Malaysia is known as a popular ‘destination airport’ and transit for the illegal wildlife trade, where an alarming number of wildlife products have been seized.

Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam; hospitals overrun in Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia – dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low immunity to new strains.But one group of scientists is rolling out trials to breed dengue-resistant bugs in a bid to tackle one of the world’s leading mosquito-borne illnesses, raising hopes the untreatable disease can finally be beaten.The World Mosquito Program (WMP) has pionee

Nations rich and poor must invest now to protect against the effects of climate change or pay an even heavier price later, a global commission warned Tuesday.Spending US$1.8 trillion across five key areas over the next decade would not only help buffer the worst impacts of global warming but could generate more than US$7 trillion in net benefits, the report from the Global Commission on Adaptation argued.“We are the last generation that can change the course of climate change, and we are the

Today, people are more conscious about what they eat, reading up on the ingredients used and wanting to know where their food is sourced from.

Malaysia prepared to seed clouds after air quality in parts of the country reached unhealthy levels due to smog from forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia, an official said Monday.Smog regularly blankets parts of Southeast Asia during the dry season when burning is used to clear Indonesian land for palm oil, paper plantations and other crops, sparking ire from regional neighbours.In the latest outbreak, parts of Malaysia's eastern state of Sarawak on Borneo island have been blanketed ov

Last Friday, on 6 September, Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC) along with the Department of Environment (DOE), released a statement informing the public that the government will be in talks with its Indonesian counterpart in order to address transboundary haze.

Barefoot and muddied, a group of youngsters sprint across a makeshift pitch in rural Vietnam, passing the ball in a game of touch rugby in a country where few people have ever heard of the sport.They belong to Vietnam's only rugby programme for locals, rolled out for kids in a remote commune where some players have to travel by boat to training sessions often held against a backdrop of rice terraces and curious onlookers. Few knew anything about rugby when they joined the scheme

Gridlock in Manila is costing lives as ambulances stuck in traffic face severe delays in the race against the clock to reach the city's hospitals, medics warn.Special lanes for emergency vehicles are not enforced, the infrastructure is outdated, and local drivers are often unwilling or unable to make way – a situation experts say is causing patients to die en route."You feel empty.