Asia

By Ronan Lee | (The Conversation) | – – If there’s anything positive about the sprawling Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, it’s that the residents – despite their appalling recent experiences and obvious deprivation – are at least safe here from Myanmar’s military. I’ve been visiting Rohingya refugee camps close to the Bangladesh/Myanmar […]

China

Will China’s New Silk Road jump-start the World Economy?

contributors

Shang-Jin Wei | (Project Syndicate) | – – In recent years, many of the world’s most influential countries have turned inward, with politicians promising protectionism, immigration restrictions, and even border walls. But, to achieve stronger economic growth and development, the world needs initiatives focused on building bridges – initiatives like China’s Belt and Road. NEW […]

Afghanistan

Extremists, So-Called Muslims, bomb Mosques in Afghanistan, Killing Dozens

Juan Cole

TeleSur | – – Over the past week, the Taliban has led a number of attacks in the country. Suicide bombers have attacked two mosques in Afghanistan, killing at least 72 people, including several children. In Kabul, a bomber detonated an explosive in a Shia mosque during Friday prayers. The interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said […]

China

Are China and N. Korea biggest Winners from Trump dissing Iran Deal?

Neil Thompson

Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | – – The recent move by President Trump to unilaterally decertify Iran under the 2015 nuclear agreement has predictably caused tensions between Iran and the West to rise. Trump’s unilateral jettisoning of the Obama-era deal (which has been sent back for 60-day congressional review in a bid to renegotiate […]

Buddhism

Burma: New Satellite Images Confirm Mass Destruction of Rohingya

Juan Cole

Human Rights Watch | – – 288 Villages, Tens of Thousands of Structures Torched (New York) – Newly released satellite images reveal that at least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine State in Burma since August 25, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. The destruction encompassed tens of thousands […]

Afghanistan

“Tell me how this Ends”- Gen. Petraeus has decided Forever War Doesn’t

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – It took 14 years, but now we have an answer. It was March 2003, the invasion of Iraq was underway, and Major General David Petraeus was in command of the 101st Airborne Division heading for the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Rick Atkinson, Washington Post journalist and military […]

Buddhism

Eyewitness: the Rohingya horrors and Aung San Suu Kyi’s whitewash

contributors

By Ellen Wiles< | (The Conversation) | - - It was a bright autumn morning, and I had just dropped off my two children at nursery and was scrolling through Twitter, when I spotted a video of another mother’s two children. The youngest was a one-year-old boy, the same age as my own youngest; the […]

Buddhism

Rohingya Refugee Women Bring Stories of Unspeakable Violence

contributors

By Naimul Haq | (Inter Press Service) | – – COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (IPS) – Yasmin, 26, holds her 10-day-old baby, who she gave birth to in a crowded refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district bordering Myanmar. Three weeks ago, when she was still in her home in Hpaung Taw Pyin village in […]

Afghanistan

How “ghost soldiers” could frustrate Trump’s plans for Afghanistan

contributors

By Jessica Purkiss | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) | – – Frank “Gus” Biggio arrived in Nawa, a district in Afghanistan’s embattled Helmand province, in the summer of 2009. Then, he recalled, it was “a violent, lawless, ungoverned place”, like an “apocalyptic scene out of a movie”. The battle to secure the district […]