News stories by Marwaan Macan-Markar, page 22

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is turning its attention to a western corner of military-ruled Burma to end the scourge of forced labour, which remains rampant in most parts of the South-east Asian nation.

Burma’s military regime is turning to a familiar strategy — sending in troops — to impose its will on the north-eastern corner of the country that shares a border with China’s Yunnan province in the east. The move shatters a 20-year peace deal with an armed ethnic rebel group that controls part of that mountainous terrain.

Thailand’s draconian lese majeste law is steadily emerging as a testing ground for the principles that renowned international human rights lobbies stand for.

The global financial crisis is threatening to shred the dreams of thousands of women from Burma, who have fled their military-ruled country over the past decade for better jobs in more prosperous Thailand, say activists.

Till last year, the rice fields near this village that sits in the midst of a rubber plantation had remained abandoned. It was neglect that is easily explained: a steady rise in the price of rubber had been more enticing to the villagers.

Thailand’s reputation as a South-east Asian country with strong anti-smoking laws is facing a direct challenge from the tobacco multinational companies, who are due to gather here in November for a major industry congress and exhibition.

They are not leaving anything to chance in this far-flung southern Thai town that has earned a reputation as an oasis of peace and harmony in a region gripped by a bloody insurgency, now in its sixth year.

A behind-the-scenes tussle between the pro-business, free trade wing of the Thai government and the country’s public health activists is raging over the fate of a national programme to supply cheaper generic drugs.

A rare visit by a United States senator to Burma – billed as 'successful' in some quarters – is winning little applause from sectors critical of the military regime that rules the country.

The Blackhawk helicopter flies fast and relatively high above an endless expanse of hills, some gentle and rolling, some with sharp peaks, in this southernmost tip of Thailand, where an insurgency has been raging for over five years.