ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver
By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India - A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India’s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.
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PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates’ Political Guts
By Kara Santos
MANILA - Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at each aspirant’s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the candidate’s leadership mettle and political guts.
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CHINA: Binge-drinking Culture Turning from Fun to Lethal
By Mitch Moxley
BEIJING - After Chen Lusheng, a police sergeant from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, died in December after an off-duty night of heavy drinking with local officials, his superiors tried to have him designated a "martyr" who "died in the line of duty," so that his family would receive greater compensation.
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POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Sri Lanka, which won a grueling decades-long battle against one of the world's most ferocious terrorist organisations last May, has scored a diplomatic victory in its ongoing war of words with the United Nations.
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Q&A: Equality Is Feminism
By Sabina Zaccaro interviews Nobel Peace Laureate SHIRIN EBADI*
UNITED NATIONS - "I think that Islam has been misinterpreted. No Islamic law says violate women's rights and repress women," says Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. "Democracy, human rights and women leadership are absolutely not hostile to the Islamic doctrine." And women in Iran are well aware of that, she says.
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BURMA: Despite Loss at Oscars, Film A Testament to Courage
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ’ to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.
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THAILAND: Media Caught in Red-or-Yellow Divide Too
By Lynette Lee Corporal - Asia Media Forum
BANGKOK - Anyone who is still trying to look for neutrality or balance in the Thai media in these days of political ferment, ahead of large anti-government protests expected in the capital, has a pretty tough job.
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INDONESIA: Waste Composting Project Blazes Cleaner Path
By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA - Battling the pain from a boil on his left thigh, 45-year-old Inggit Tukino pulled his two-wheeled cart through the overcrowded alleys of a slum in Rawabebek, Penjaringan hamlet in here North Jakarta.
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VIETNAM: Reports of Child Abuse A Wake-up Call for Parents, Gov't
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - Vietnamese parents think of day care centres and kindergartens as safe, happy places to leave their children in, given the pressures of work and harder times. But they are no longer so sure now, after a series of incidents about mistreatment of young children that has shocked the public.
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ASIA: Religious Advocates Heed the Call of New Media
By Lynette Lee Corporal - Asia Media Forum
BANGKOK - Not even religious advocates and leaders and can say no to the power of online media, whose call they are heeding in order to spread various messages of spirituality.
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