Paper tigers
Myanmar may be opening to democracy, but just how free is the country’s notoriously closed media?
Inside a changing Burma
The following were taken during my ten-day visit last month to Burma, where I was reporting on the country’s remarkable political opening. The trip took me from the old colonial capital Rangoon, to Naypyidaw, its revolution-proof predecessor four hours’ drive to the north. The new capital, which welcomed thousands of reluctant civil servants in late...
Cambodia: prison labor concerns
A new law legalizes the use of prison labor by private companies, putting Cambodia’s “sweatshop-free” reputation on the line.
Beyond Bazaar
Protecting the buildings of bygone eras is no easy task in rapidly changing Old Dhaka.
Khmer Rouge No. 2 gives insight to his role in Cambodia’s ‘killing fields’
Nuon Chea, the deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia’s ‘killing fields’ told the tribunal today that he carried out its policies to protect the country.
Khmer Rouge trial opens in Cambodia amid claims of interference
Critics say political interference and judicial misconduct are tarnishing the UN-backed Khmer Rouge trial, seen as key to justice more than 30 years after the brutal regime was ousted.
From tragedy to sham in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – Cambodia’s United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal will finally begin hearings on Monday in its second case against senior surviving leaders of the former communist Khmer Rouge regime.
In Bangladesh, some kind of justice
After four decades, the country’s war-crimes tribunal is finally set to open.
Occupy World: Why Zuccotti Park has nothing on Dhaka
Bangladeshis have been protesting since the main stock market imploded late last year.
Occupy Wall Street Meets Dhaka
Occupy Wall Street protesters aren’t the only ones taking to the street over claims of corporate greed. In Bangladesh, angry investors say they’ve also been cheated by the banks.
REVIEW: ‘The Ideal Man’, by Joshua Kurlantzick
On Easter Sunday 1967, Jim Thompson, a prominent businessman and Bangkok expatriate, disappeared while on holiday in Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands. The 61-year-old American left his bungalow to take a solitary hike in the hills and never returned.
Bengal, east and west
Here are a few photos from my recent reporting trip to eastern India and Bangladesh. Over six weeks, I took in Calcutta , far too much of Dhaka and some of the more outlying parts of Bangladesh. Based on my trips up to Sylhet and Joypurhat, in the north and west of the country, I...
Southeast Asia’s failing drug war
PHNOM PENH – The communist government of Laos has traditionally taken a harsh stance towards drug use. Shortly after they seized power in late 1975, the communist authorities infamously rounded up hundreds of drug addicts, prostitutes, gamblers, “hippies”, and juvenile delinquents, and imprisoned them on two islands in the Nam Ngum Reservoir north of the...
