BANGKOK, Jan 25 (IPS Asia-Pacific) - The perilous flight of the nearly 1,000 Rohingya who made it to Thailand in December before they were sent back to sea is a sign of worsening humanitarian crisis in the region.

BEIJING - Does the Chinese approach to life set a good example for the whole world? Yes, argues a well-established German Iranian psychologist, Prof. Nossrat Peseschkian, who made this argument with his theory of Positive Psychotherapy. At the core of this is a framework to analyse personal conflicts in four fields. It can be simplified as follows:

COLOMBO - Looking back now, while I sip a cup of sweet milk tea in my kitchen, the rather long summer vacation I had in July in Japan has been an exhilarating 'break'. How so, you might wonder. Well, it's mostly due to the warm attention I got from friends waiting for me in Tokyo, where I had lived for 22 years with my husband and daughter before taking up a job here in my native Sri Lanka.

BANGKOK - As I hopped into a cab here one evening years ago to get to a friend’s wedding reception, the driver took one glance at me in the rear-view mirror and seeing me wearing an ‘ao dai’ (the flowing Vietnamese dress), said: “Oh, khon Vietnam, chai mai?” (Oh, you’re Vietnamese, right?)

BANGKOK -- Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. What images might these words conjure up in the minds of international consumers of news? Perhaps war, maybe the Khmer Rouge. Or they might say, ‘Oh, it’s that those countries that had that war some time ago. . . they’re near one another, and they’re all the same’. 

BANGKOK, Mar 4 (IPS) – An opportunity to review the balance sheet of the benefits and burdens of regional integration and opening borders lies ahead, at the Third Mekong Summit to be held in Laos at end-March. 

The leaders of the six Mekong countries are to gather in Vientiane for the Mar. 30-31 summit to “discuss the progress and chart future directions in GMS (Greater Mekong Subregion) cooperation”, according to an announcement by the Asian Development Bank, which is facilitating the summit. 

Back when I was using my trusty PC, dearly named Magnolia, I somehow managed to overlook all the flaws it possessed. Never mind how it took nearly three decades to start up, or perhaps how repulsively ugly it looked. For me, I loved my PC and there was nothing that would have made me change my mind (or so I thought). 

When the appointment letter for a new job in Sri Lanka arrived via email last September, I knew a decision I had toyed with for almost a year --- whether to leave Japan、my home for almost three decades to return to the country of my birth—had finally arrived at a conclusion. The long chewing process on the prospect of going Home, had till then been an experience that swayed between been troubling and pleasant—the latter mostly for who could not but dream of the sandy beaches of a tropical island while squashed in the rush-hour in Tokyo trains.

BANGKOK, Jan 25 - In envisioning an integrated Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), the governments of the six riparian countries and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) regard the "connecting of nations" as contributing to the "linking of people" and vice-versa.

When the appointment letter for a new job in Sri Lanka arrived via email last September, I knew a decision I had toyed with for almost a year --- whether to leave Japan、my home for almost three decades to return to the country of my birth—had finally arrived at a conclusion. The long chewing process on the prospect of going Home, had till then been an experience that swayed between been troubling and pleasant—the latter mostly for who could not but dream of the sandy beaches of a tropical island while squashed in the rush-hour in Tokyo trains.