News stories by Marwaan Macan-Markar, page 12

In the shadowy global network of arms traffickers, Victor Bout enjoyed a special place, according to Western intelligence sources. He was the poster boy, the kingpin, the lord of this deadly illegal trade.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging countries in Asia to remain vigilant about the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus, which the international body declared was no longer a pandemic a month ago.

With its thick forest cover and abundant wildlife, the Dawna mountain range in south-eastern Burma is coming in the way of a flagship highway project being pushed by one of Asia’s premier financiers of roads.

As the November general election in Burma approaches, the country’s junta is revealing the political designs underway in order to place the powerful military under civilian authority after a lapse of 22 years.

After all the turbines in the Xiaowan hydropower station sputtered to life this week in China’s south-west Yunnan province, the Asian giant was able to lay claim to having the world’s largest hydropower capacity.

Wearing a floppy cotton cap for shade, an exhausted Sarawut Kunrapang enters the compound of a mosque in the blistering afternoon sunshine. It is the latest stop for this 27-year-old Thai Buddhist in his walk for peace since mid-July from Bangkok.

The jails in Thailand are filling up with political prisoners, critics say, but how many political dissidents have been incarcerated since a military crackdown on an anti-government protest movement ended on May 19 remains shrouded in mystery.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is threatening an international showdown with neighbouring Thailand over the vexed question of managing a 10th- century Hindu temple, an architectural jewel of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer civilisation.

An international campaign seeking a war crimes inquiry into the alleged systematic abuses by Burma’s military regime finally has a strong ally in U.S. President Barack Obama.

By finally announcing the date of the country’s first general election in 20 years, Burma’s military regime has lived up to a promise it made in its seven-step 'roadmap', a blueprint in its desperate quest for political legitimacy.