News stories by Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau, page 2

BANGKOK, May 03 (IPS) - Rendered the nowhere people in their own homeland, thousands of Rohingya Muslims are fleeing inhuman living conditions, lack of humanitarian aid and rising sectarian tensions in their country. And the very state that is supposed to protect them now stands accused of ‘ethnic cleansing'.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, May 02 (IPS) - At the age of 23, Gao travelled to Thailand to escape intense fighting in his native Shan State in the east of Myanmar (Burma) and possible recruitment into the Shah army.

As pressure mounts on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to keep up an uncertain truce, human rights advocates are demanding reforms to a sponsorship system that has left many migrant domestic workers in Syria with no place to run.

Recent shifts in the Middle East and North Africa have presented several economic challenges such as high unemployment, an exodus of migrants from Libya and a reduction of tourism revenues. Given that economic discontent played a vital role in the Arab uprisings, economic growth has become vital to sustain the fruit of revolution.

Attempts by regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to suppress the flow of information during the region's pro-democracy uprisings has led a higher number of journalists killed, attacked or arrested.

With a yearning for human rights playing a vital role in the Arab revolts; putting an end to discriminatory LGBT laws may determine how the future democratic process unfolds.