Asia

By Prerna Suri in Asia on December 23rd, 2011
Photo: AP
It's Anna Hazare versus the Indian government yet again. 

The 74-year-old Gandhian activist is going on his third fast this year, demanding the government pass his version of a strong anti-corruption law. This, by the current session of parliament, which officially ends today. 

But the government is under pressure and that session has now been extended for three days from December 27-29.

Still, many say that it is not enough time to deliberate a historic legislation that could change the contours of corruption in this country. 

File 56821
Photo: AFP

I've been covering Hazare's fast since April this year. And while I've seen scores of ordinary Indians coming out on the streets in his support, the numbers increasingly swelling in his favour and rattling the government - the debate has also shifted against him.
By Marga Ortigas in Asia on December 22nd, 2011


I wanted to write something for the blogs from the devastation in the southern Philippines this week ... But I can't seem to find the words... 
 
Looking through old journals though, I found an entry written in China while on assignment there right after the earthquake in 2008.  

I find it's exactly what I'd like to share now - something I first learned in Gaza ... and Baghdad ... and it was reiterated years later in China, and more recently in Japan.
 
It echoes again here in the flood-ravaged areas of northern Mindanao.
 
23, May 2008
Chengdu, China 
By Robin Forestier... in Asia on December 19th, 2011
Kazakh Interior Ministry troops patrol past partially burnt buildings damaged in Friday's riots [Reuters]

The violence that took the lives of at least 14 people in Kazakhstan these past few days is nothing short of disastrous - for the families of the victims and for those who run this country.

The rioting may not have been entirely predictable or preventable. But it was surely possible to have avoided so many deaths.

Friday's rioting in the isolated western oil town of Zhanaozen was an explosion after months and months of peaceful protest by men and women on the main square that had gotten them nowhere. 

They had lost their jobs with state oil company KazMunaiGas for a strike action found illegal by the courts, but they wanted to keep their dignity. Protest, as far as they were concerned, was the only means possible.

It seems neither the workers nor KazMunaiGas was able to hold meaningful talks. NGOs like Human Rights Watch expressed concern that there was no fair legal mechanism to resolve the dispute.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Asia on December 19th, 2011

Kim Jong-il, who ruled over North Korea for more than 15 years, passed away on December 17, 2011 from a heart attack onboard a train during a trip out of Pyongyang.

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By Andrew Thomas in Asia on December 18th, 2011
Protesters have gathered to vent their frustrations over the mounting political crisis Photo: AFP

Lifts are the worst.  The confined space means the smell can be intolerable: the body odour reeks.  A hot, humid climate is the chief culprit – but now Papua New Guineans have another reason to sweat. 

A country with a history of violence, crime and corruption is effectively leaderless: when two men claim the country’s top job, it means no one is really doing it. 

Their style is very different. Peter O’Neill is the more professional. His handshake is firmer; his suit sharper; his message more carefully honed.  Michael Somare would call all that gloss. He may be frailer, and somewhat more dishevelled – but right, he says, is on his side.

By Mujib Mashal in Asia on December 5th, 2011
Sultan Mohamed has sold books for over two decades

"How can you care for books when you lose friends?" explained Wasim, a bookseller in Kabul's largest book market as he spoke of the impact that four decades of violence and turmoil has left on readership in the Afghan capital.

He and his young son, who looked no older than eight, were surrounded by stacks of books covered in dust: textbooks, thick collections of poetry and volumes of English stories with translations in local languages, a commodity in high demand for the thousands of Afghans trying to learn English – a language that can take you far in the job market.

Wasim's family has been selling books for generations.

"During the Taliban, perhaps we sold more books than ever. But it was a particular kind of books," he said, explaining that Taliban fighters would stop by to buy a volume or two of religious books before heading to battle.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on November 30th, 2011
Pakistanis have staged anti-NATO protests across the country in recent days. [Photo: EPA]

The attack toook place in the dead of the night, and for more than two hours, American helicopters pounded a well-known and marked Pakistani post.

The Pakistani army frantically tried to convey to NATO, ISAF and the US high command in Afghanistan to stop the attack, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. By the time it was over, more than 24 soldiers lay dead, including officers, and over a dozen wounded.

The Pakistani post, known as Volcano, was where the two sides held their flag meetings.

By Marga Ortigas in Asia on November 20th, 2011
Former President Arroyo seen with a 3kg halo brace which was screwed to the base of her skull in this undated photo. [Reuters]

The roller-coaster ride began on Tuesday.  

Late in the afternoon, the Supreme Court spokesman was live across both television and radio announcing that a temporary restraining order had just been issued on a government travel ban against former president Gloria Arroyo.

The justices had voted eight to five to allow her to go abroad for medical treatment. Arroyo has a bone disease complicated by hyperparathyroidism, and has been in and out of hospital for months.  

Shortly after the Supreme Court announcement, Arroyo appointed a legal representative to handle any matters in her absence, and paid the nearly $40,000 bond that were two of three conditions for her departure.  

The third was that she check-in with the Philippine embassy at her destination. 

The travel ban was first put in place by the justice department pending investigations into allegations of corruption and electoral fraud during her presidency.

By Imran Khan in Asia on November 19th, 2011
The government feared a military coup by Pakistan's senior military and intelligence leadership [Getty]

He has been described as a "seasoned operator" and Pakistan's best captain for the treacherous political playing field that is diplomacy in Washington. But Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, used the social media site Twitter a few hours ago to say that he was "Heading back to the motherland".
 
At the time of writing, it's unclear whether he is in fact on his way to Pakistan. Some suggest his wife has fled the country for fear that he would be arrested on his return.
 
The country he flies into is baying for his blood. Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was quoted in local media saying: “This issue won't get resolved by somebody's resignation. It constitutes a treason charge."
 
Treason is a big word. Haqqani is under fire for allegedly helping a Pakistani-American businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, to secretly convey to the then top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, a plea.

By Marga Ortigas in Asia on November 13th, 2011
Photo by Reuters

The colourful and vociferous Philippine media called it everything from a “bloodbath” to an “ambush”.  Accusations were traded and fingers were pointed in all directions immediately after. But that was nearly a month ago. Now, the story has been relegated to the back pages of the broadsheets, if on the pages at all. 

Less passionately, it is now simply referred to as “the Al Barka incident”, after the locale in which it took place on the small southern island of Basilan in Mindanao. 

The “incident” nearly ruined an already tenuous truce between Philippine government troops and Muslim insurgents – who, by the way, no longer want to be called that. But they aren’t “rebels” either. Nor is it right, they say, to call them “separatists”. For the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), this is a battle to reclaim Muslim independence.  

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