Tobacco use is massively entrenched in developing countries, where one of the biggest worries is the rise of smoking among women, according to a study published on Friday in The Lancet.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered a probe into alleged involvement of politicians in widespread bushfires in peat swamp forests in Nakhon Si Thammarat and other provinces.

The spurt in tiger poaching in India is being directly attributed to the increasing demand of tiger parts especially in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Indonesia.

India has been vociferous in demanding that both China and Vietnam end all tiger farming as these are known to be fronts for a thriving illegal market in tiger parts. Vietnam has 11 registered tiger farms while China has 20 large farms, which are breeding nearly 5,000 tigers in captivity. The US also has an estimated 5,000 tigers in captivity (owned largely by individuals) and it is well known that captive tigers are easy targets for black market sales.

A 3,200-km trilateral highway linking India, Myanmar and Thailand will become a reality by 2016.

Thai opponents of a planned multi-billion dollar dam in Laos submitted a lawsuit to a court in Bangkok on Tuesday seeking to prevent their country buying power from the hydropower project.

Authorities have closed two chemical waste disposal plants in Plaeng Yao and Phanom Sarakham districts for polluting the environment.

The UK and India have called on China and other countries to ban tiger farms because they undermine conservation efforts.

Two cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) have been detected in Surin following an outbreak in Cambodia which borders the northeastern province.