PAKISTAN: Soup Kitchens Spring Up to Stave Off Growing Hunger
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - Until meagre resources began dwindling to almost nothing, 43-year-old Firdaus Begum had not ventured into the Khana Ghar (Food House), which serves up inexpensive but filling meals.
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JAPAN: Obama Visit Hailed, But Left Crucial Questions Unanswered
Analysis by Catherine Makino
TOKYO - Setting foot on the Land of Cherry Blossom over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama waxed nostalgic, recalling his first visit to Japan as a young boy, when his mother brought him there.
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SRI LANKA: Hopes High for Fresh Leadership as Election Looms
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO - Political developments are rapidly unfolding as the public eagerly awaits the President’s announcement on Sunday of the date for the next presidential or parliamentary polls—an event widely expected to bring about a new leadership that could bring to fruition the people’s collective yearnings for a return to law and order as well as discipline.
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CHINA: Simmering Issues Boiling Up in Run-up to Obama Visit
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - His victory speech is a smash hit on Internet sites; his image vies for popularity with those of communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong, and his book is a runway bestseller in this country’s big cities. But as China prepares to welcome him as the first black president of the United States, keen anticipation is mixed with unease.
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U.S.: Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
By Dahr Jamail
VENTURA, California - U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.
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SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Much at Stake for Thai Premier over Cambodia Row
Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva faces his toughest foreign policy challenge as his first year in office draws to a close. At stake is this South-east Asian kingdom’s standing in a regional bloc.
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RIGHTS: State of India’s Children: An Unsettling Reality
Analysis by Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI - Here is a sobering thought on the eve of Children’s Day celebrated across India on Nov. 14. Despite the country’s impressive economic growth trajectory and growing geopolitical heft, the benefits of that prosperity are not percolating down to its children who constitute a sizeable 30 percent of the country’s 1.2 billion population.
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AUSTRALIA/SRI LANKA: Untangling the Knotty Issue of Human Smuggling
By Amantha Perera
COLOMBO - It is a story that spans three islands, across the breadth of the Indian Ocean. That is, of hundreds of boat people sailing the rough seas in unseaworthy vessels, risking life and limb in their desperate attempt at a new lease of life.
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POLITICS: Cambodia Raises Stakes, Ties with Thailand Plummet
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is known for his brash and earthy vocabulary even when, as he did in early April, he talks about himself. "I am neither a gangster nor a gentleman, but a real man," the politician who has led his country for 25 years said in a fit of rage.
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PAKISTAN: Military Vs Militancy Does Not Equal Peace
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - As militant attacks in Pakistan continue unabated, there are increasing calls for the government to rethink its strategy—and look deep within.
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