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By Jeffrey D. Sachs

Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also a Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals.
NEW YORK – Many conflicts are caused or inflamed by water scarcity. The conflicts from Chad to Darfur, Sudan, to the Ogaden Desert in Ethiopia, to [...]

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By Jose Antonio Ocampo

José Antonio Ocampo, a former UN Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs and Colombia’s former finance minister, is currently Professor and co-chairman of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University.
NEW YORK – Both China and the United Nations Commission on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial [...]

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By Vartan Oskanian
Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 until April 2008, is the founder of the Yerevan-based Civilitas Foundation.
YEREVAN – Turkey, sadly, seems to be falling into the bad habit of never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity in its relations with Armenia. But this failure of will and vision is [...]

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By Michael Bröning

Michael Bröning is director of the East Jerusalem office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a political foundation affiliated with Germany’s Social Democratic Party.
GAZA/JERUSALEM – As representatives of Hamas and Fatah meet for the fourth round of national unity talks in Cairo, not only Palestinians but also Americans and Europeans will [...]

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“The Shan Conundrum in Burma,” presumably an unusual book about the Shans, as it is written by a Shan whose father had served under the Revolutionary Council that took power in 1962, was published on 14 April 2009, according to the Shan Herald Agency for News.
Henry-Andre Aye, the author of Shan Conundrum, a 252 page [...]

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Zoya Phan was born in the remote jungles of Burma, to the Karen ethnic group. For decades the Karen have been under attack from Burma’s military junta; Zoya’s mother was a guerrilla soldier, her father a freedom activist. She lived in a bamboo hut on stilts by the Moei River; she hunted [...]

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AP
GENEVA -A U.N. official says Germany has decided to boycott this week’s U.N. racism conference, joining the United States and five other countries who will not attend it.
U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told The Associated Press that Germany informed the U.N. about its decision Sunday.
However, Germany’s Foreign Ministry spokesman denied his nation has decided [...]

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Compendium of Burma Political Jokes, compiled by Dr Kyaw Nyunt
Introduction by Dr. Law
It has been an honor to be asked by Dr. Kyaw Nyunt to write the Introduction to his Compendium of Burma Jokes on this Thingyan Akha Thamaya (Auspicious day of the Thingyan Water Festival).
Foreign observers have marveled over how people in Burma have [...]

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Download PDF – Click here.

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Please click here, or on the picture above, to read the whole book.

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According to AFP news:
A group of women US Senators urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon in a letter released Tuesday to step up pressure on Myanmar’s ruling junta to scrap elections plans and free democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
The lawmakers, 10 of the chamber’s 17 women, urged the secretary general to publicly urge the military [...]

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Please click the following URL to read the Burmese translation of Lessons in Democracy in pdf file.
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Tropical Cyclone Bijli (01B) is gathering strength as it churns through the northern Bay of Bengal.
Located approximately 350-400 mph south-southwest of Kolkata, India, Bijli will continue to move in a northeasterly motion and eventually a more easterly track Friday and Saturday. On this track, Bijli will encounter a favorable environment for further strengthening prior to [...]

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By Jonathan Holslag

 Jonathan Holslag is Head of Research of the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies.
BRUSSELS – President Barack Obama’s first appearances outside North America – in London, Strasbourg, Prague, and Istanbul – galvanized world attention. But what that trip singularly failed to do was paper over a startling fact: the “Washington Consensus” [...]

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By Fidel V. Ramos

Fidel V. Ramos was President of the Philippines from 1992 until 1998.
MANILA – China’s government has just announced that Premier Wen Jiabao will be the main speaker at the 2009 Boao Forum for Asia, where the roster of leaders expected to participate is a virtual Who’s Who of the continent: President Asif [...]

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By Václav Havel et al
(Václav Havel; Prince Hassan Bin Talal; Desmond Tutu; Vartan Gregorian; Yohei Sasakawa) 

Václav Havel is Former President of the Czech Republic.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace.Wei Jingsheng is an activist in the Chinese democracy movement, most prominent for authoring the document Fifth Modernization [...]

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By Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor, an acclaimed novelist and commentator, is a former Under-Secretary- General of the United Nations. He is now the Congress Party candidate for Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram in India’s southwestern state of Kerala.
KERALA, INDIA – Beginning this month, the largest exercise of the democratic franchise in history will take place, as India [...]

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