South Asia
Arunachal Pradesh: pawn in the new Great Game
A new diplomatic flare-up over contested Arunachal Pradesh immediately follows the US-India nuclear deal—seen by China as part of an encirclement strategy.
Tag: Burma
Southeast Asia
Harsh abuses seen in Burma opium war
Despite a democratic opening and hopes for peace with ethnic insurgencies, horrific accounts of rights abuses continue to emerge from Burma's opium-producing hinterlands.
Planet Watch
UN: world refugees break record
War across large swaths of the Middle East and Africa in the first six months of 2014 forcibly displaced some 5.5 million people, signalling yet another record, the UN reports.
South Asia
India: Bodo militants massacre tribal people
National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants shot dead at least 50 adivasis, or tribal people, in a wave of coordinated attacks across India's northeast state of Assam.
South Asia
India: Qaeda sees fertile ground for sectarian war
Ayman al-Zawahri's announcement of "al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent" comes amid growing attacks on Muslims in Northeast India as well as Burma and Bangladesh.
Southeast Asia
Burma: anti-Muslim pogrom in Mandalay
A Buddhist mob attacked Muslims in Burma's second city of Mandalay, damaging a mosque and Muslim-owned shops and leaving at least five injured.
Southeast Asia
Golden Triangle opium boom
The UN in its new Southeast Asia Opium Survey finds that opium production in Burma soared in 2013—along with renewed insurgency wars in the country's north.
The Andes
Bolivia, Venezuela reject US drug criticism
For a fifth year running, the White House "blacklisted" Bolivia and Venezuela for perceived insufficient anti-drug efforts—and both governments reacted with anger.
Southeast Asia
Blood jade empire as Burma warlords diversify
Burma’s military and the rebel Kachin Independence Army vie in control for a semi-underground jade industry in the northern jungles, with the exports going to China.
Southeast Asia
Burma marks 1988 pro-democracy uprising
Burma’s regime finally allowed commemorations of the 1988 uprising that launched the democracy movement—but there has been no accountability for the bloody repression.
Southeast Asia
Burma: new Shan state opium eradication plan
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced a new peace initiative in Burma’s conflicted Shan State aimed at facilitating poppy eradication.
South Asia
Buddhist pogroms in Burma, Sri Lanka
The campaign of ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Burma has spread from the coast to the country’s heartland, with similar attacks now mounting in Sri Lanka.