CAMBODIA: Democracy Bleeding From Violence, Infighting

When Cambodia held successful elections under the United Nations' watchful eye in 1993, many took it as the start of the war-torn country's journey toward democracy.

FIJI: Healing Racial Wounds Ten Years After Coup

Nearly 10 years after a Fijian army officer named Sitiveni Rabuka stormed Parliament and arrested the entire Indian-dominated Cabinet, this South Pacific nation is moving to heal racial wounds that have divided the land and set off an out-migration of educated Indians.

HONG KONG: Worries Grow As Tung Shows ‘Chinese’ Colour

Ask anyone in the streets of Hong Kong's vibrant economic centre what they think of the handover to Chinese rule just ten weeks away and they will shrug and say life will not change much.

MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE: Sibling Rivalry Tests Relations

Like jealous siblings, Malaysia and Singapore quarrel incessantly over petty things like which one of them has more computers, or which is the true shopping paradise.

BURMA: Muslims Are Scapegoats As Junta Feels the Heat

Mystery still shrouds Burma's worst outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in decades, which last month led to dozens of mosques being ransacked or desecrated by Buddhist monks.

MIDEAST: U.N. Dispute on Israeli Settlements Muddles U.S. Role

For the United Nations, a dispute between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) over settlement activity around Jerusalem has become the one issue that will not go away.

AUSTRALIA-CHINA: Rights Take Back Seat to Trade at Howard Visit

Even before Australian Prime Minister John Howard arrived in China this week on a fence-mending visit he was telling anyone who cared to listen it was strictly business. No human rights, no democracy. Just business.

PERU: Fujimori Stepping Aside for Japan in Hostage Crisis?

Three months after the seizure of the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Peru by a guerrilla commando, the government of Alberto Fujimori seems to have taken a step aside to leave Tokyo room to take the initiative in the search for a peaceful solution.

NEPAL: Communists and Royalists Make Strange Bedfellows

For the first time after Nepal replaced an absolute monarchy and returned to democracy seven years ago, the Himalayan kingdom has a prime minister with royalist antecedents.

CHILE-POLITICS: Mid-term Shows Frei Halfway There

Chilean President Eduardo Frei and his centre-left governing coalition, at the half-way mark of his six- year term in office, have made significant progress in consolidating democracy - but face a number of challenges ahead, analysts say.

PALESTINE: U.S. Veto Blocks U.N. Criticism of Israeli Settlements

The U.S. veto Friday of a U.N. Security Council resolution asking Israel not to constuct new settlements in occupied Palestinian territory caused no suprise here and diplomats said it was just other sign of enduring U.S. support for Israel.

TAJIKISTAN: End of Tajik Civil War Boosts Iran-Russia Friendship

The weekend pact signed between the Tajik government and its Islamist opposition shows the deepening friendship between Iran and Russia that has developed since the break- up of the Soviet Union in late 1991.

US-POLITICS: Sino-American Relations Remain Sensitive

The death of Deng Xiaoping - exactly 25 years after U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic trip to China - comes at an extremely delicate moment in ties between the world's last remaining superpower, and its most likely challenger.

CHINA-HONG KONG: Deng’s Death Increases Anxiety Ahead of Handover

The uncertainty following the reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty has kept Hong Kong residents nervous and the death of Deng Xiaoping has further heightened this anxiety.

DENG/CHINA-ECONOMY: Economic Reform Programme Will Not Die

Politically, China's now dead paramount leader Deng Xiaoping may be remembered variously as a survivor of purges, a pragmatist and a staunch marxist who ordered the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters.

ASIA-EUROPE: The Burma Issue Highlights Conflicting Cultures

From a public relations point of view, Western nations are putting on a big show for their constituents that they are doing all in their power to bring pressure on Burma's ruling military junta to democratise.

FINANCE-TRADE: Government Spending Comes Under WTO Scrutiny

Officials at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are mulling over a proposal that would effectively see national procurement procedures become part and parcel of a deregulated global marketplace.

INTEGRATION: Strife Between the FTAA and Mercosur Moves up a Gear

The Bill Clinton government appears ready to train its guns on the Mercosur, especially against Brazil, in order to recover control on the trade integration process in Latin America.

DISARMAMENT: India, Pakistan Likely to Oppose Fissile Cut-Off

Three weeks after the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD) reconvened at Geneva, it appears likely that India and its regional rival, Pakistan, will make an alliance of strange bedfellows to obstruct negotiations for a fissile materials cut-off treaty (FMCT) which bans the production of materials used in nuclear weapons.

PERU: Who is Bluffing in the Hostage Crisis?

The negotiations for the release of the hostages held in the Japanese Embassy will have to surmount a climate of aggressive confrontation between the two central protagonists: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and guerrilla leader Nestor Cerpa.

TAIWAN-CHINA: Hong Kong’s Hand-over May Lead to More Direct Links

An agreement reached between shipping officials from Taiwan and China may signal the declining importance of Hong Kong to Taipei, and a move towards developing more direct links with Mainland Chinese ports.