Lauren Day

Kratom has been used for centuries as a traditional medicine in South-East Asia, but as its popularity has soared in the United States, so too has the controversy around it. 

After the deaths of six young backpackers, including two Australians, due to methanol poisoning in Laos, a distiller explains how untrained or unscrupulous brewers can easily create a deadly concoction.

A Laos government document obtained by the ABC suggests the source of a methanol poisoning outbreak that killed six tourists is a rundown factory outside of Vientiane that was making vodka and whisky.

Australian government website Smartraveller has issued a fresh warning about drinking in Laos, urging Australians to avoid Tiger Vodka and Tiger Whisky, due to "serious safety concerns". 

In the days after backpackers in Laos began falling violently ill due to suspected methanol poisoning, travellers tried desperately to warn each other about the hostel at the centre of the scandal.

Weeks on from the first case of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, fellow backpackers investigate the culprit in lieu of information from police. 

Australian methanol poisoning survivors have shared their experiences of consuming tainted alcohol after two teenagers fell ill in Laos and died this week.

The owner of a backpackers hostel where two young Australians were staying before they fell violently ill from methanol poisoning has been detained by police for questioning in Laos.

Thai police have confirmed the death of Melbourne teenager Bianca Jones, who became ill after drinking tainted alcohol during a backpacking holiday in Laos.

The parents of Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones remain at their bedsides in separate Thai hospitals as the Melbourne women fight for their lives after drinking tainted alcohol.

The two teenage girls from Melbourne are reportedly fighting for their lives in Thai hospitals after drinking suspected tainted cocktails in Laos.

Cut off from the world and mired in a deadly conflict, Myanmar is suffering from a forgotten war. But the ABC embedded with one of the many resistance groups who have banded together — and, against all odds, finally appear to be winning.

Australian boxing champion Jayson Tonkin is in a coma after he was found next to the body of his dead friend and fellow boxer, Joshua Goldstone, at a hotel in Thailand.

Indonesian authorities confirm the 56-year-old's body was found by locals about one kilometre from where he was last seen.

Craig Laidley has not been seen since he was swept out to sea after saving a struggling swimmer at a Bali beach.

There are some shocking statistics around the violence and abuse children in Cambodia suffer, and a new program led by the country's venerated Buddhist monks is helping to drive change inside families. 

A lawyer representing the estranged wife of ex-AFL star Ricky Olarenshaw claims his client is the victim of dodgy police work, exploitation, and threats by another Australian man to bring in "very powerful people." 

Essendon premiership player Ricky Olarenshaw's estranged wife Sarnanitha was arrested following a raid at the Flame Spa in Seminyak in early September.

In the shadow of a garbage tip lies a multi-generational haven for women and girls in Phnom Penh. Free from the world of men, they study, work and support each other. 

Four years after charges were dropped against the heir to the Red Bull empire over an alleged hit-and-run, eight people are under scrutiny, accused of helping him avoid court.

Thousands of long-tail macaques are following increasingly aggressive ringleaders into attacks on tourists and schoolkids, and now they're wising up to the "Anti-Monkey Unit's" tactics, leaving the town no choice but to try and round them up before they storm another police station.

As Israel faces the prospect of a dangerous multi-front war, there are also growing internal divisions over the alleged abuse and torture of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces.

Mounting scandals involving Buddhist monks are eroding public faith in a key pillar of Thai society.

Tess Ingram was part of a UNICEF convoy that came under fire just one week after Zomi Frankcom was killed, and says the system to protect aid workers is not working, and promised changes have not been made.

Thailand has the strictest lèse-majesté, or royal defamation, laws in the world and right now, they're threatening to bring down the opposition and a former prime minister.