• Column

    Bangladesh people hit hard with commodity price hike in Ramadan

    Dhaka–With the advent of Ramadan, the religious month of fasting for the Muslim community, the common people of Bangladesh, a Muslim majority country have been hit hard by the price spiral of the essential commodities. Apart from daily essentials, demand of certain commodities like, edible oil, onion, meat, fish, pulses,…

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  • [London Olympics] ③ In the love of Shakespeare

    *Editor’s note: This is the third of six-part stories on the London Olympics When we were studying English literature at university there were two different editions of each Shakespearean work: a deluxe, medium-format British one printed on glossy paper, with additional explanations, on the first pages of which appeared the…

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  • Myanmar Media Law Reform A Key Test of Non-Partisan Press-1

    *Editor’s note: This is the first of two part stories on Myanmar Media Law. Calling your bluff seems to mark the dealings between the  censor and journalists as Myanmar set about to reform its Press system as part of efforts to burnish its democratic credentials. The quasi-democratic government plans to…

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  • [London Olympics] ② The world revives London’s architecture

    *Editor’s note: This is the second of six-part stories on the London Olympics That’s how Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, wished the new tower to be a success as he unveiled it in the Olympic Village garden. Zaha’s icon and this tower have something in common: The engineer who built…

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  • A (Multi) Polar Bear? Russia’s Bid for Influence in Asia

    *Author, Stephen Blank is a professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own. Russia’s call for a multipolar world, where power doesn’t reside with a single hegemon such as the US, is a veiled bid to exert Russian influence in Asia…

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  • Is Pyongyang changing?

    South should help North shift to reform, openness Peeking inside a reclusive, authoritarian state is never easy. If the regime is an Orwellian communist dynasty, the job is harder still. Such is the analysis of what’s going on in Pyongyang now. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took the title of…

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  • Column

    Under ‘guidance’ in N. Korea

    PYONGYANG – You don’t come here looking for news about North Korea. On the day after “Respected Leader” (that’s what we’re supposed to call him) Kim Jong-un and his mystery lady attended a show featuring Walt Disney characters on stage, our minders were fonts of ignorance. They professed to know…

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  • [London Olympics] ① Revival of art

    *Editor’s note: This is the first of six-part stories on the London Olympics Sport lovers probably expect me to tell them about the records that will be broken during the Olympic month in the British capital that starts on Friday (July 27), predicting, e.g., the winning of Ethiopian runner Kenenisa…

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  • Withdraw renomination

    Rights panel head is big disgrace to nation President Lee Myung-bak appears set not to retract his renomination of Hyun Byung-chul, the controversial head of the National Human Rights Commission. Lee’s decision will disappoint most if not all Koreans but astonish few. Had the President any intention to listen to…

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  • Vatican’s conflict with China

    Once again, the Roman Catholic Church is in conflict with the Communist Party of China, with the newly ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai having publicly repudiated the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which was established by the Chinese government to exercise supervision over the nation’s Catholics. Ironically, the consecration of the…

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