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Justice Denied

The US tries to shame Sri Lanka into accounting for atrocities during its civil war’s horrific final days After numerous failed attempts at a reckoning over human rights atrocities during its bloody civil war, Sri Lanka faces a new bid by the United States to embarrass it into delivering belated justice to the victims. On March 7, the US unveiled a draft resolution against Sri Lanka to the United Nations Human...

It’s Getting Worse

US Congress resolution further strains already frayed US-Pakistan relations Relations between the US and Pakistan hit a new low when Republican congresswoman and US house foreign affairs committee member Dana Rohrabacher proposed a nonbinding resolution on February 17 stating that the Baloch people, who live in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and also in parts of Iran and Afghanistan, “have the right to...

For the Greater Good

Less than three weeks before a summit between BRICS powers — Brazil, Russian, India, China and South Africa — the two Asian members of the group are trying to close ranks and resolve their differences. Yang Jiechi, the Chinese foreign minister, met with his Indian counterpart SM Krishna on March 2 in New Delhi, in a clear bid to reduce tensions between the two countries ahead of the March 28-29 summit. India...

Extreme Impact

Modern day socio-political reasons, and not culture, drive today’s extreme protests In 1963 a Buddhist procession led by Trang Nha Quang Duc stopped at a major intersection in Saigon, Vietnam. The elderly monk then assumed the lotus position, as other monks around him doused him in gasoline. Moments later, he set himself on fire. A simple monk’s extreme protest against the alleged persecution of Buddhists...

Emergency Mindset

Malaysia’s struggle to give up the giddy powers of the Internal Security Act illustrates Asian governments’ difficulties in changing their emergency mindset (9 Dcember 2011) — Two months after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak declared the repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA), which — among other emergency-related ordinances — allowed detention without trial, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein...

Deep Sea Menace

Asia’s next arms race may play out underwater as militaries ramp up spending on submarine fleets (17 February 2012) — Asia’s waterways are becoming more dangerous as a new kind of predator stakes out its territory. Almost every Asian country with a coastline is turning to submarines as a first line of defence. The race to get deep and deadly in Asian waters entered a new phase on January 23, when India...