POLITICS-SRI LANKA
By MAR 22
Scepticism Greets Human Rights Plan - Pressured by the west and international groups over its human right record, the Sri Lankan government is close to finalising a roadmap on safeguarding civil and political liberties.
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CHINA
By Mar 22
State Media Pushing for a Global Voice - Expanded overseas bureaus, more Chinese and foreign-language editorial products reaching global audiences and now, a reformatting of the country’s most widely read English-language newspaper. These are signs of the expansion of China’s state media, one that President Hu Jintao has described as an "increasingly fierce struggle in the domain of news and opinion".
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RIGHTS
By Mar 21
JSOC Interests Snag Plan to Free Afghan Detainees - An initiative to revise the procedures for reviewing the cases of detainees in order to free marginal insurgents and innocent Afghans has run afoul of the interests of officers of the powerful Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in defending their role in earlier detention decisions.
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POLITICS-NEPAL
By Mar 21
Statesman’s Death Leaves Worries About Peace Process - The death of Girija Prasad Koirala, who played a role in some of the biggest political changes in Nepal in recent decades, has many wondering about what will happen to the fragile peace process that he is widely credited for having made possible.
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IRAN
By Mar 19
New Budget May Add to Uncertainties, Political Strains - Iran's 347-billion-dollar budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, finally approved by the Guardian Council in Tehran Tuesday - just days before its scheduled implementation on the Iranian New Year Mar. 21 - appears likely to add to the tensions and uncertainty that have bedeviled the country since the disputed June 2009 elections.
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Q&A
By Mar 19
Sri Lanka Remains Defiant of U.N. Chief - The Sri Lankan government continues to challenge U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's right to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on the human rights situation - euphemistically called "accountability issues" – following the end of a protracted conflict against a secessionist group widely considered a terrorist organisation.
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POLITICS-BURMA
By Mar 19
A Poll, Yes, But Not Political Change - In teashops and markets, the national election due this year in Burma is the talk of the town, so much so that Thuzar, who did not take part in the 1990 poll, is quite eager to cast her vote this time.
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NEPAL
By Mar 19
Crippling Power Outages Throw Life Out of Gear - When it gets cold during Nepal’s winter nights, Yem Prasad Gurung turns on his heater run by liquefied petroleum gas. When it gets dark, he switches on the lights that rely on a solar inverter – and to make sure he gets water, he turns on a generator-powered water pump.
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MEDIA-ASIA
By Mar 19
Exiled Radio Plays A Cat-and Mouse Game - For exiled journalists working on shortwave radio programming aimed at Burmese and Tibetan listeners, dodging the ‘enemy’ in the name of freer speech is often a cat-and-mouse game.
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POLITICS
By Mar 18
The Pentagon's Propaganda Networks – Part 2 - Propaganda networks that conduct "psychological warfare" for the Pentagon have been in vogue for a long time. Mike Furlong, a senior Pentagon official who is now being investigated for running a covert network of contractors to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, had a long history of working in this field.
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