Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 25th January 2023

Questions Raised Over What Led to Deadly Landslide at Malaysia Campsite

Officials in Malaysia are nearing the end of an investigation into the cause of a deadly overnight landslide that struck a farm and campsite in December, amid questions as to whether the government allowed development in an area unsuitable for these types of activities. The disaster left 31 people dead at Father’s Organic Farm in the rural community of Batang Kali in Selangor state. Authorities are looking into why the campsite and farm were developed below a steep slope that is downhill from a

Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 13th November 2022

Young Voters Poised to Determine Malaysian Election Outcome

Nazri Hashim, 29, came armed with questions Monday night. He’s married with a 2-year-old son. He and his wife together earn about $750 dollars a month, making it a struggle to handle day-to-day living costs. “Food and just about everything has gotten much more expensive,” he told VOA, adding that gentrification is blocking his path to buying a home in Kampung Baru, the neighborhood in Kuala Lumpur where he grew up. “We can’t afford to buy a new house, because the pricing is unaffordable.” Nazr

Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 21st October 2022

Crypto Scammers Are Often Victims Too

To Ali, it seemed like a great way to make more money. The 23-year-old earned $350 per month as a cleaner in a factory at home in Malaysia. But in April, he was purportedly offered a job in Cambodia making four times as much working in finance, despite having no prior experience in the field. Shortly after flying to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, Ali realized he had been duped. His passport was taken, and he was driven to a compound where he says he was trapped. Armed guards stood by the doorw

Read Article

Meiktila, Myanmar • 22nd May 2013

Living in the eye of Myanmar's sectarian storm

Nineteen-year-old Hnin Ei Phyu is on her knees at home, whispering her prayers. It’s a small sign of normality in a community where things have been anything but normal in recent months. This young Muslim woman can’t go inside her family’s mosque because it was shut down after being vandalized. And for more than a month, she had to say her prayers from inside a shelter at a nearby sports stadium in Meiktila, a city in central Myanmar. Fearing for their lives, Hnin Ei Phyu’s family fled their h

Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 30th March 2022

Malaysian Proposal to Phase Out Smoking Sparks Controversy, Concerns Over Corruption

Shortly after finishing her lunch at a Malaysian food court, Emily Lee, a 21-year-old university student, stepped outside, pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. “I usually smoke one pack per day,” she said. “I almost always smoke right after a meal.” Lee said she started smoking when she was 17, a year below the legal age to smoke in Malaysia. “I had a bunch of friends who were smoking, so I started and quickly got addicted to the nicotine.” Government statistics show that 1 in 5 Malaysians 15

Read Article

VOA • 10th September 2020

Myanmar Army Deserters Confess on Video to Mass Murders

They show little to no emotion. Their answers may have been rehearsed, but what they say is explosive. Two former foot soldiers, now deserters, from Myanmar’s army say in video-recorded confessions that they participated in atrocity crimes including mass murder and the destruction of entire villages under the orders of senior officers. “Shoot all you see and all you hear,” one former soldier, Private Myo Win Tun, says in a video about the order from a colonel before members of his battalion kil

Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 16th September 2020

Malaysian Road Safety Institute Pushes For Better Training Of Food Delivery Riders

Almost every day 26-year-old Amirul Rashid is on his motorbike delivering food. He must deal with traffic, changing weather conditions and sometimes impatient customers who keep sending messages asking when their food will arrive. Rashid says it’s the same situation for most food delivery riders and unfortunately that prompts some of them to disobey traffic rules, whether it’s the speed limit or a stop light. “Pressure usually comes from the customers because usually the customers want their or

Read Article

Pasay, Philippines • 31st May 2023

Philippine Lawmakers Target Online Casino Operators in Bid to Crack Down on Human Trafficking

Lawmakers in the Philippines are targeting the country’s offshore gaming operators, known as POGOs, and its regulators as they try to crackdown on the country’s growing network of cryptocurrency scams and the human trafficking connected to it.

Read Article

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia • 19th June 2018

Press Climate Shifting in Malaysia

In Malaysia, there’s eagerness and a bit of skepticism about what appears to be the beginning of a new dawn for press freedom. “It’s a long time coming,” Kevin Khor, a 50-year-old IT manager, said while skimming through the day’s top stories on his phone. The change is a direct result of the country’s May elections which marked the first win by the opposition since Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957. For decades, the country’s mainstream media were largely under the government’

Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 11th May 2020

Malaysian Volunteers Produce PPE at Home for Front Lines

Dr. Kathreena Kadir pumps sanitizer onto her hands and rubs them thoroughly before proceeding to put on her personal protective equipment, or PPE, including shoe covers, a gown and face mask. It’s standard procedure this oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the University of Malaya Medical Center now follows before meeting patients so she doesn’t contract the coronavirus. “Every patient that comes through the doors is considered positive until proof otherwise,“ says Dr. Kadir. “So, we need to mak

Read Article

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • 11th October 2020

Malaysia’s Renewed Health Crisis Raises Economic Toll

Alex Chong, whose company, MBA Crew, owns nine restaurants in Malaysia was having trouble last Friday luring customers in for lunch, a sign of the economic pain facing the country because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was not a lot of foot traffic at the MyTown Shopping Centre, a destination mall in a commercial area, and Chong, MBA Crew’s managing director, was standing in front of one of the company’s restaurants, Leleh, specializing in Malaysian food. “Just a couple of weeks ago, we would