News stories by Marwaan Macan-Markar, page 8

Burma’s transition from an overt military rule to a civilian administration of retired generals is getting a shot in the arm from a former critic of the junta — the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Outdated laws that treat same-sex relations as a crime in a third of Asia-Pacific countries fuel fresh HIV infections, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM), a most vulnerable community.

As Egypt takes tentative steps to replace ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade authoritarian rule with a democratic culture, its political planners may want to look halfway across the world to the most populous Muslim country for lessons on how to prevent a return to strongman rule.

China is throwing its weight behind Burma’s predicted political transformation from military rule to a supposed civilian government, deepening its strong economic ties with the resource-rich Southeast Asian nation some have described as Beijing’s 'client state'.

On a beach dotted with swanky, star-class hotels, a boatload of bedraggled men appeared out of the dark sea one midnight, exhausted from nearly two weeks at sea fleeing Burma’s repressive military.

A young Malaysian’s legal battle to escape the hangman’s noose in Singapore is finding new hope. 'He has a 50-50 chance of being spared,' Madasamy Ravi, the lawyer appearing for 23-year-old Yong Vui Kong, said in a telephone interview from the city-state.

A week after Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party ended its pivotal congress of the country’s political elite, there is little evidence in the state-controlled media of a possible return to the openness that once saw high-profile corruption scandals exposed in print here.

Tracking gun battles along the Thai-Burma border and preparing for another wave of refugees are not the only things that concern British humanitarian Sally Thompson.

While floods and droughts are often highlighted in the media for devastating the world’s rice production, a lesser-known culprit has been able to scurry away without being fingered for causing damage - rats.

By clamping down on the Facebook.com social networking service, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party is revealing its discomfort with the rapidly expanding avenue for free expression even as it pushes to transform the once poor agrarian nation into a modern industrial society by 2020.