Marwaan Macan-Markar

The Unit­ed States and the Philip­pines will hold com­bat drills to­geth­er to counter Chi­na’s ris­ing in­flu­ence in the area.

Rice farms and fish­er­men will be dis­turbed, Viet­nam says of am­bi­tious plans by its ally, Laos.

As labour costs in­crease, Chi­na turns to its neigh­bours to sup­ply what it once pro­duced lo­cal­ly.

Myan­mar’s pro-democ­ra­cy leader re­leased from house ar­rest by the mil­i­tary, but some wor­ry her free­dom won’t last.

If re­leased from house ar­rest, the icon of Myan­mar’s democ­ra­cy move­ment will be en­ter­ing a new po­lit­i­cal land­scape.

As ‘elec­tions’ ap­proach, Bur­ma’s elite seems split be­tween sup­port­ers of past and present mil­i­tary rulers.

As “elec­tion” ap­proach­es in mil­i­tary-rule Bur­ma, hu­man rights groups dis­trib­ute ra­dios to rur­al vot­ers.

An­a­lysts agree that Thai­land is wit­ness­ing growth of a po­lit­i­cal voice from rur­al ar­eas.