It's one of the world's forgotten wars, yet one of the most violent currently underway. Just a couple of hundred kilometres away from a tourist's tropical paradise, fighting between Buddhists and Muslims in the south of Thailand has been raging. The area was annexed by Bangkok over a hundred years ago, but violence has increased since the turn of this century.
In just five years Burma seems to have gone from brutal repression to apparently free and fair elections. In 2007, a revolt led by the country's revered monks was stamped out by the army - hundreds died and many disappeared and were jailed without trial. Pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi will take her seat in parliament later this month but despite a wave of amnesties, many monks remain sceptical about whether the country is indeed at a crossroads.
In recent months, 33 Tibetans have set themselves alight in protest against Beijing's rule. A series of demonstrations in Tibetan monasteries have followed the self-immolations. Many of China's provinces populated by Tibetans remain out of bounds for foreign journalists. Our reporters Baptiste Fallevoz, Delphine Sureau and Duncan Hewitt discovered the level of the constraints as they tried to report on the story.
A series of bomb blasts killed 14 people and wounded hundreds on Saturday in the town of Yala and at a hotel in Hat Yai in southern Thailand, which has been plagued by an insurgency pitting ethnic Malay Muslims against the Buddhist majority.
Burmese authorities threatened action against activist monk Shin Gambira for having “repeatedly broken Buddhist monks’ code of conduct and the law”. Gambira was formerly released in a state amnesty in January for his role in Burma’s 2007 protests.
In today's pick of the international press we look at army defections in Syria, ongoing repression in Bahrain, Libya and kung fu fighting Buddhist nuns in Nepal.
In Monday's international papers we take a good look at the issues facing Israel as Tukish prime minister Erdogan visits Egypt to try and build a common cause - alongside gay rights campaigns in Iran, and the commercialisation of one of the world's most famous Buddhist temples.
A Chinese court has sentenced a Tibetan monk to 11 years in jail for hiding a fellow monk who died hours after setting himself on fire, Xinhua news agency reported Monday. The monk's death had triggered protests and prompted a security clampdown.
Indonesia has come under attack for not doing enough to protect religious minorities, particularly members of an islamic sect called the Ahmadiyah.
A human rights group says Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was beaten after the release of a video showing him under house arrest.
And, while Thailand is locked in a border battle with Cambodia in the north, in the south Buddhist monks are coming under attack by Muslim militants seeking greater autonomy.
Japan's government has appointed Kazuo Inamori, a Buddhist monk and revered management guru, to oversee an overhaul of the country's bankrupt national carrier, Japan Airlines (JAL).
