Stories written by Zhai Yun Tan

Trans Fat Substitute May Lead to More Deforestation

By Zhai Yun Tan
Following growing concerns in the United States about the risks of trans fat since 1999, demand for palm oil, a cheap substitute for trans fat, more than doubled over the last decade and is expected to increase, eliciting concerns about deforestation in several Southeast Asian countries that provide 85 percent of the world’s palm oil.

Governments Playing Political Ping-Pong with China’s Uyghurs

By Zhai Yun Tan
Two reports released in quick succession by the international rights group Human Rights Watch have highlighted the plight of China’s minority Uyghur population and shed light on their continuing struggle to find a safe haven elsewhere in the region.

IMF Steps Up Lending to Achieve Sustainable Development

By Zhai Yun Tan
As the Third International Conference on Financing for Development opens in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Monday, all eyes are on the United Nation’s post-2015 development agenda, billed as the most ambitious and far-reaching poverty eradication plan in the organisation’s history.

Social Safety Net Not Wide Enough to Protect World’s Poor

By Zhai Yun Tan
Fifty-five percent of the world’s poor still have limited protection from hunger and economic, social or political crises despite expansion of social safety programmes in developing countries in recent years.

Syrian Refugees Face Hunger Amidst Humanitarian Funding Crisis

By Zhai Yun Tan
The United Nations’ food aid organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP), said on Jul. 1 that up to 440,000 refugees from war-torn Syria might have to go hungry if no additional funds are received by August.

U.S. Urged to Ramp up Aid for Agent Orange Clean-Up Efforts in Vietnam

By Zhai Yun Tan
A key senator and a D.C.-based think tank are calling for Washington to step up its aid in cleaning up toxic herbicides sprayed by the United States in Vietnam during the war that ended 40 years ago.

Donor Conference to Tackle Nepal Reconstruction

By Zhai Yun Tan
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Nepal in April, and the numerous aftershocks that followed, left the country with losses amounting to a third of its economy.


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