<p>Last Friday, 10 civil society representatives learned the hard way what a new Asian regional human rights initiative is really all about.</p>

<p>We have just discovered free Thai language news site <a href="http://liberalthai.wordpress.com/">Liberal Thai</a> blocked by a transparent proxy redirecting users to Thailand&rsquo;s ICT ministry.</p>

<p>A failed execution in the US, and recent executions here should re-ignite the debate over the death penalty</p>

<p>MANILA, Oct 13 (IPS) - For Father Eduardo Vasquez, setting up 'Bahay Kalinga&rsquo; (House of Care) in the province of Maguindanao is one way of deepening his mission.</p> <p>The centre specifically caters to women and children who were displaced by the ongoing conflict between government troops and Muslim rebels in Mindanao, southern Philippines. He has described it as &quot;a shelter and safe place where pregnant women and children can get medical attention.&quot;</p>

<p>The Supreme Court of Thailand on Wednesday found that a former deputy minister and two ex-officials had failed to comply with a number of laws when they set up a scheme to legalize two- and three-digit lotteries.</p>

<p>As China prepares to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the&nbsp;founding of the People's Republic on October 1, many people the world&nbsp;over have already become accustomed to thinking of China as the new&nbsp;global superpower.</p>

<p>The issue of race has reared its ugly head in the US once more; Americans should not be afraid now to talk about it openly</p>

<p>BANGKOK, Aug 31 (IPS) - Thailand&rsquo;s draconian lese majeste law is steadily emerging as a testing ground for the principles that renowned international human rights lobbies stand for.</p>

<p>A television station in Thailand broadcast an interview early last month with Nuch Phosri, a mother who is raising two sons alone on a meager income. Nuch is having an especially hard time because one of her sons is paralyzed. But he wasn&rsquo;t born that way. He was shot.</p>

<p>THE RECENT suicide bombing at two American luxury hotels in Jakarta reminded the world how much Muslim extremists still hate America. The attacks at the JW Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton Hotel, leading to nine deaths, including two suspected suicide bombers, weren't the first targeting US hotels and most likely won't be the last.</p>

<p>Nakhonratchasima, Thailand &mdash; &ldquo;From abroad they surround Thailand, from the countryside they surround the cities.&rdquo;</p> <p>This was the remark of angry media baron Sondhi Limthongkul on ASTV recently, describing what he perceives as efforts by enemies of the monarchy to gang up against the royal family and destroy its image.</p>

<p><strong>Sticking to stereotypical profiling is easy, but looking beyond that is more challenging</strong></p> <p>The ongoing debate about the arrest, brief though it was, of Harvard University's African-American Studies' Professor Henry Louis Gates is a clear reminder of how race issues are still far from being resolved in the United States despite the election of the first African-American president last year. It's also a reminder of how Americans are still susceptible to quickly jumping onto the stereotypical idea of what it means to be black or white.</p>