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Sri Lanka refugees 'to be freed'

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - Nov. 21 (News Report) - Sri Lanka says refugees living in camps after the fight against the Tamil Tigers will have freedom of movement from next month.

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In Obama's China trip, stark contrast with past

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Andrew Higgins, Anne E. Kornblut - Nov. 18 (News Analysis) - The changes reflect not so much a policy shift by a new administration in Washington as a dramatic and much bigger change in the power dynamic, particularly in economics, over the past decade -- a change that has been the central undercurrent of Obama's swing through China this week.

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Renouncing Islamism: To the brink and back again

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - In the mosques across the city, I hear a fringe of young men talk dreamily of flocking to Afghanistan to "resist". Yet this whisper never has an immigrant accent. It shares my pronunciations, my cultural references, and my national anthem. Beneath the beards and the burqas, there is an English voice.

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Asia awaits Obama's Apec debut

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Aljazeera - Nov. 14 (News Report) - The economic agreement is seen as bringing the two sides closer to normalising and systemising their economic relations. During a speech to Apec business and political leaders on Friday, Chinese President Hu

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Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Chan Akya - Oct. 02 (Special Report) - Behind the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud are stories of countries creating bands of terrorists to do things that were impossible for those in power to be seen to be doing directly. In this dangerous game, blowback is inevitable. (Oct 2, '09)

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Japanese Voters Oust Conservative Party, PM-Elect Hatoyama Critical of US "Market Fundamentalism"

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Steven Clemons, Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous - Sep. 01 (News Report) - In Japan, voters have ousted the right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, after fifty-five years of nearly uninterrupted governance. In elections on Sunday, the populist Democratic Party of Japan captured a record 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament. Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama, who is expected to become Japan’s new prime minister, has questioned the role of the 50,000 American troops deployed throughout Japan and, in a recent New York Times op-ed, blamed the global financial meltdown in part on what he called US “market fundamentalism.”

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The Women’s Crusade

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, SHERYL WuDUNN - Aug. 19 (Special Report) - The liberation of women could help solve many of the world’s problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism.

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Asia facing unprecedented food shortage, UN report says

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By John Vidal - Aug. 17 (Special Report) - But the extra 1.5 billion people expected to live on the continent by 2050 will double Asia's demand for food, says the report from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank-funded International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

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The Economic Effect of Japan's Election

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Rana Foroohar - Aug. 16 (Special Report) - Japan is heading into a landmark election in a state of freefall. Stagnant since the early 1990s, Japan's economy fell off a cliff in the last quarter, dropping 15.2 percent in the worst collapse of any industrial nation in decades. Automakers—Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, once the heart of the Japanese industrial miracle—saw exports fall 70 percent in April, and were forced to shutter factories to clear inventory. Since pocketbook issues decide elections, it's not surprising that Japanese voters appeared poised to toss out the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), only the second time it has lost power in half a century.

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Senator Webb Secures Release of U.S. Prisoner in Burma

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Tim Johnston - Aug. 15 (News Report) - U.S. man imprisoned in Burma for visiting residence of detained democracy leader Suu Kyi will head back to U.S. with Va. Senator Jim Webb.

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Myanmar: Locked up

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Aug. 12 (News Analysis) - AFTER many delays, a court in Myanmar at last handed down its verdict on Tuesday August 11th, concluding the trial of the country’s main opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The staunchest foe of the ruling junta has been consigned to another 18 months of house arrest, as punishment for a bizarre incident in May when an American eccentric swam to her lakeside villa, forcing her to break the terms of her previous house arrest. The verdict was expected: the government has, in effect, found an excuse to prolong her detention, which was about to expire, until after elections that are planned for some time next year. Her defence, that as a prisoner she was in no position to fend off uninvited visitors, was brushed aside by the court.

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Afghanistan's presidential election campaign an exercise in peril

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Laura King - Aug. 11 (News Report) - The security problems exacerbate the logistical challenges in a country where road conditions are so poor and districts so remote that a 3,000-strong donkey corps is helping deliver ballots. Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost was on a routine campaign stop in the eastern Afghan city of Khowst one day last month when he heard a thunderous explosion. Then another.

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Hundreds Feared Dead in Taiwan After Typhoon

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Wines - Aug. 11 (News Report) - The toll from the already deadly Typhoon Morakot in the Pacific threatened to soar on Tuesday, as huge mudslides buried a rural village in south-central Taiwan and seven apartment buildings in coastal China, leaving two dead and hundreds of people unaccounted for.

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Suu Kyi returned to house arrest

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - Aug. 11 (News Report) - Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's detained opposition leader, has been sentenced to another 18 months under house arrest after being found guilty of violating an internal security law.

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Thai Judge Refuses to Extradite Suspected Arms Trafficker - washingtonpost.com

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Tim Johnston - Aug. 11 (News Report) - BANGKOK, Aug. 11 -- A Russian air cargo magnate suspected of being a major arms trafficker won the first stage of his battle to avoid extradition from Thailand to the United States on charges of offering to supply weapons to Colombian rebels. Viktor Bout, 42, has spent more than a year in prison in Bangkok since being caught in a sting operation by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group known as FARC.

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TTP leader dead in succession fight?

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dawn - By Pazir Gul - Aug. 09 (News Report) - A key Taliban commander was killed in a struggle over succession to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud at a shura meeting in South Waziristan, government and security officials said on Saturday.

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Filipinos Mourn ‘People Power’ President

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Carlos H. Conde - Aug. 02 (News Report) - Filipinos across the country mourned former President Corazon Aquino on Sunday, with thousands lining up outside a Catholic school in the capital for a last glimpse of the woman they credited with ushering in Philippine democracy nearly a quarter of a century ago, ending two decades of dictatorial rule. The same reverence for Mrs. Aquino — who served as president for six years after leading the movement to oust Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 — had been evident across the archipelago since Saturday morning, when it was announced that she had died of colon cancer at 76. Yellow ribbons, Mrs. Aquino’s symbol of defiance against Mr. Marcos’s rule 23 years ago, were everywhere Sunday — on arms, trees, lampposts, car antennas and Web sites. Prayers and Masses for the former president were scheduled across the country.

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Philippines mourns Corazon Aquino

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Aug. 02 (News) - The Philippines has declared 10 days of mourning for its former leader Corazon Aquino, Asia's first female president, who has died at the age of 76. Flags are at half-mast and hundreds of people have tied symbolic yellow ribbons to cars and trees. Mrs Aquino had been suffering from colon cancer for more than a year and recently refused further treatment. She became president when the 1986 "people power" uprising deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

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Campers for Peace

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

flypmedia.com - By Tara Kyle - Jul. 29 (Special Report) - A summer camp famous for bringing Israeli and Palestinian teens together takes on the conflicts of South Asia.

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Singh Faces Doubts on Pakistan Strategy

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Ketaki Gokhale, Paul Beckett - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is preparing to explain an agreement to improve relations with Pakistan after facing sustained political flak from his opponents -- and lukewarm support from his own party -- on the issue. Mr. Singh is scheduled to address parliament Wednesday in a speech an official from his party said "will set at rest all questions, apprehensions and speculations relating to the India-Pakistan joint statement." In the joint statement two weeks ago, Mr. Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani agreed to decouple discussions about terrorism from broader talks between the two countries on issues such as trade and travel.

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Pakistan and the Taliban: Better news from the frontier

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Jul. 27 (News Analysis) - Long reviled for their reluctance to fight the Islamist militancy that they themselves helped unleash, Pakistan’s generals have a rare victory to boast of. In a three-month offensive against the Taliban in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the army has regained control of the lofty Malakand region, killing hundreds of militants. This has done less damage to civilian life and property than two previous, failed offensives in Malakand. The local Pushtuns, over 2m of whom were displaced by the fighting, are now returning home. They mostly support the army’s efforts. This success is not hard to fathom. The Taliban’s takeover in Malakand caused an outcry not just in Washington, DC, but also in Pakistan’s own media. Many blamed it on the army, which had made several truces with the militants in Malakand. Thus goaded, the top brass launched an unusually serious attack. Having previously failed to control Swat, the Taliban’s regional base, with a division, the generals sent in three divisions. Rather than allowing the militants to withdraw in good order, this time they chased them into Malakand’s hills.

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The new old

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

himalmag.com - By Aditya Adhikari - Jul. 27 (News Report) - The 4 May resignation of Pushpa Kamal Dahal (‘Prachanda’) from the prime-ministership ushered in a period of high spirits in Nepal, even jubilation, among the Nepali Congress, the centrist Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and other political forces in Nepal opposing the Maoists. These parties (the Congress in particular) had entered a period of despondency and demoralisation following their poor showings at the Constituent Assembly elections in April 2008. During the nine months the Maoists were in government, this had developed into a frustrated helplessness bordering on rage.

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Naked girls plow fields for rain | U.S.

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - Jul. 23 (News Report) - hPATNA, India (Reuters) - Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday

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Web crackdowns spread

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By David L. Stern - Jul. 21 (News Report) - With less than six months until it takes over the chairmanship of one of Europe’s flagship human rights organizations, Kazakhstan has thumbed its nose to Western governments and introduced a draconian internet law.

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Explosions at 2 Hotels in Indonesia Kill at Least 9

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Norimitsu Onishi - Jul. 17 (Breaking News) - JAKARTA, Indonesia – Nearly simultaneous explosions hit two neighboring American hotels in central Jakarta early Friday morning, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, according to local officials. The explosions damaged the Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The blasts shattered windows just above the ground floor of the Ritz-Carlton, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the site.

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