Southeast Asia

Worldwide despots: Orwell still dangerous

Protesters in military-ruled Thailand have been silently reading 1984 in public to outwit a ban on gatherings—leading to the book itself being banned. Egypt could be next.

Iraq

China factor in the fight against ISIS

China's participation in the Paris summit on building an international effort against ISIS comes as Uighur militants were detained on suspicion of recruiting for the "Islamic State."

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.

Southeast Asia

Burma: pipeline plans behind Rohingya cleansing?

The Burmese port of Sittwe, epicenter of violence against the Muslim Rohingya people, is to be the starting point for the new Shwe pipeline linking Burma’s west coast with China.

Southeast Asia

China: drug lord’s execution sparks dissent

Chinese TV broadcast images of a Burmese drug lord and his accomplices on their way to a death chamber in Yunnan, prompting online protests from rights activists in Beijing.

Southeast Asia

Thailand: insurgents launch Army of Pattani?

The Thai military says Islamist insurgents in the country's south have formed a "Pattani Army" after an audacious raid on a government base near the Malay border.

Southeast Asia

Burmese warlord confesses to Mekong massacre

Burmese warlord Naw Kham, hunted down in the Golden Triangle by elite Chinese forces, pleaded guilty before a court in Yunnan to a massacre of Chinese merchant crewmen.