Asia

On May 19, 2009, the Government of Sri Lanka proclaimed an end to the fighting against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan. 

Over the last two years, the Obama administration has executed what the president has termed the “Pivot to Asia” strategy, whereby the United States’ global military force posture is being reconfigured to focus on the Asia-Pacific region as Washington’s central front.

Swedish company H&M, the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, is under pressure to cut ties with supplier South Korea-based Daewoo International and others that purchase cotton from Uzbekistan, where the government allegedly forces children and adults to harvest the white fiber for little or no pay.

Cases being heard in Indian courts could ‘open the floodgates’ for pharmaceutical companies to challenge generic drug production and keep prices ridiculously high.

“Adivasis believe in the values of nature -- the wind blows for all equally.  Our lives should be based on equality and love, and protecting and caring for this life.  Living life is not just eating, drinking and sleeping.  Revolution is not something you make one day and it is finished.  How we take this change towards humanity is our fight!” - Waharu Sonavane

Aung San Suu Kyi and the democratic forces will need all the support they can get from the outside world as they negotiate the swirling political currents over the next few years in their terribly challenging task of steering Burma toward genuine electoral democracy.