Word: burma
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...Burma may not be a charter member of the "axis of evil," but it surely deserves a dishonorable mention. Controlled by a clutch of generals since 1962, the country has devolved from Asia's breadbasket to an economic basket case, known for its brutal repression of ethnic minorities, imprisonment of human-rights activists and, most recently, rumored attempts to develop nuclear capabilities with the assistance of North Korea...
...head General Than Shwe, though not an official visit, may signal a shift in U.S. policy. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that U.S. sanctions have done nothing to moderate the junta's behavior, in part because nations like China and India have poured investment into Burma. After his mission, Webb told reporters, "Isolation is only preventing [Burma] from developing economically and politically...
Some exiled Burmese dissidents have criticized Webb for lending legitimacy to the generals. But Webb did, at least, extract one concession from the junta. When the Senator's plane left Burma on Aug. 16, it carried an extra occupant: John Yettaw, the American sentenced to seven years' imprisonment with hard labor for his midnight swim to Suu Kyi's home. His saga--that of a middle-aged Mormon from Missouri who used homemade flippers to visit the world's most famous political prisoner--is stranger than any fiction, even that of Senator Jim Webb...
...Experts also have doubts that Chinese regulators can get enough control over the Puer market to build a premier brand. Beijing's standards only apply to domestic producers; competitors in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Burma can continue to grow and sell their own "Puer" tea. Hoffman, the collector, predicts that fakes will persist and urges caution. "This has always been a buyer-beware market, and it will always be thus," he says.(Read "Will China's New Food-Safety Laws Work...
...Burma The Lady Remains a Captive It could have been worse. Burmese opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will spend 18 more months under house arrest as a prisoner of the country's military junta for violating the terms of an earlier sentence after an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside home in May. The good news: the latest sentence, by military decree, is shorter than the maximum of five years in prison. Suu Kyi will be confined long enough to ensure that she is not a player in Burma's 2010 elections, which are expected...