POLITICS: Rising Border Tension Threatens China-Burma Relations

When the military regime in Burma launched a campaign last August to disarm the ethnic rebels in the Kokang region, made up mostly of ethnic Chinese and where a two-decade-long ceasefire had been in place, the push triggered an exodus of more than 37,000 refugees into China’s Yunnan province.

ISRAEL: The Only Democracy in the Middle East?

Noam Chomsky, a fierce espouser of left-wing causes, is widely admired in countries which parade themselves as "democracies". Apparently, the admiration does not extend to Israel.

CHINA: As Threat of Eviction Looms, Artists Face Uncertain Future

Ten years ago, Ai Weiwei, one of China’s best known artists, designers and activists, moved into a dusty village in the city’s far north-east corner, where he designed a compound for himself and friends, along with a gallery called China Art Archives and Warehouse.

JAPAN: Gloom Grips Land of the Rising Sun

Mitsuko and Koji Iwatsuki, both in their senior years, spend their days taking walks, playing golf occasionally and going on foreign trips once a year.

MIDEAST: Chomsky – Latest Jewish Thinker Savaged by Israel

When internationally renowned linguist, philosopher and political analyst Noam Chomsky was barred from entering the West Bank, he joined a chorus of Jewish intellectuals savaged by the Israeli government for outspoken criticism.

SRI LANKA: Tourists Return to Paradise Isle a Year After War’s End

A year since Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war ended on May 18 last year, tourists are returning in huge numbers to a popular beach destination located over 300 kilometres from where the last battles were fought.

DEVELOPMENT-BAHRAIN: Escalating Dowries Take Toll on Men

Surging dowries and the skyrocketing costs of living amid constricting economic opportunities made worse by the global financial crisis have placed a heavy burden on Bahraini men contemplating marriage.

THAILAND: Violence, Uncertainty Follow Gov’t Crackdown

Burning tyres and buses with plumes of smoke billowing from them. Sniper shots and grenade attacks. Deaths and injuries. No-go zones in the Thai capital.

THAILAND: Lese Majeste Cases Rise, But Public in the Dark

When Wipas Raksakulthai was arrested last month for violating this kingdom’s draconian lese majeste law, he could have consoled himself with the thought that at least his case was readily picked up by the local and foreign media.

Iraqi Christians Cling to Their Faith in Jordanian Exile

As the 2003 United States-led invasion of Iraq began, the country’s Christians started streaming across the border into neighbouring Jordan. Today most of them continue to live here in abject poverty with no hope of ever returning to the land of their ancestors.

RiGHTS: Villagers Pay Dearly for India’s War with Maoists

Almost a year on, Dipali Sahu still recalls with horror the day an operation by the policemen and paramilitary troopers began here in June last year to take back control of the vast swathes of eastern India captured by the Maoist rebels.

MIDEAST: Is Israel Sliding Towards a Police State?

Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has been sentenced to another three months imprisonment for allegedly refusing to perform community service in West Jerusalem.

CHINA: Women Activists on the Forefront of Human Rights Movement

Thirteen years ago a local official in north-east China’s Heilongjiang province tried to extort money from a woman named Liu Jie, who operated a successful cow farm.

Success of “The Pill” Overshadowed by Family Planning Gaps

The birth control pill, currently used by an estimated 100 million women worldwide, commemorated its 50th anniversary last week - but remains controversial in some quarters.

Changing Face of U.S. Cities a Harbinger of the Future

The majority of youth in U.S. cities are no longer white, but there is also a growing disparity in the educational background and incomes of those cities' populations, says a new report from the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

THAILAND: Inequality Gap Stains Thailand’s MDG Achievements

Thailand may have earned praise for meeting national targets to slash poverty and hunger ahead of a global deadline, but the two-month long street protests in Bangkok exposes a troubling fact – economic inequality.

POLITICS: Glitches Mar Historic Elections in the Philippines

Technical glitches, intense heat and long lines marked the historic first-ever nationwide automated elections in the Philippines as more than 50 million voters trooped Monday to over 76,000 voting centres across the country.

PHILIPPINES: On Eve of Poll, Voters Long for a Clean President

The cheers from the final campaign rallies of nine presidential candidates have faded away, and it is just hours before Filipinos go to the polls on Monday. But voters like Roberto Mendoza doubt that the next president can tackle problems like corruption that have long hounded this South-east Asian country.

RIGHTS-FINLAND: Tough Asylum Policy Opposed by Civil Disobedience

Juha Suoranta had until recently been a professor of sociology, pursuing a quiet academic career in the University of Tampere, unconcerned with issues surrounding asylum for foreigners in trouble.

MIDEAST: West Bankers Made Refugees in Their Own Country

Several Palestinians have set up a protest tent in no-man’s land in the northern Gaza Strip, near the Erez border crossing into Israel, as they protest their deportation from the Israeli occupied West Bank into Gaza where Hamas authorities have refused them entry.

AUSTRALIA: For Some Refugees, Not Yet the Land of ‘Fair Go’

After nearly 10 years of living in Australia, Sri Lanka-born Ramesh Fernandez is convinced nothing much has changed for refugees in the land of the ‘fair go’.