John Sparks

She says she’s confident of victory. With elections due later this year, the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is poised to win – but only if the vote is free and fair, which is far from certain. In a rare interview – the Nobel Peace laureate has been speaking to our Asia correspondent…

For so long Burma’s chief dissident, now the leader of a political party, Aung San Suu Kyi strongly denies any complacency against persecution.

When travelling abroad it is a good idea not to make the locals mad. A lesson learned, perhaps, by four backpackers who pleaded guilty to committing an “obscene act in a public place” in Malaysia.

Migrant traffic is not all heading from north Africa towards Europe, there’s another route which is no less perilous. One used by Burmese Muslims and Bangladeshis who travel south in hope of a better life in Malaysia. But the traffickers who transport them often take them prisoner in camps on the Thai-Malaysian border, and it’s…

The ship sank within two minutes and no distress call was issued, although the captain and chief engineer are reported to have survived the incident. They are currently being questioned by police.

Speed boats ferry people to shore from a giant ship hovering off the coast after the ransom is paid – and those who die onboard are simply tipped over the side.

They escaped persecution – only to end up the prisoners of human trafficking gangs: held in bamboo cages in squalid camps – tortured, then killed. Malaysian forensic teams have been scouring mass graves found deep in the forest straddling Southern Thailand and Northern Malaysia. Police have been pulling out the remains of dozens of suspected…

Malaysian authorities say they have discovered 139 suspected graves near the country’s border with Thailand. Many of the victims are thought to be Rohingya Muslims fleeing from persecution in Burma. The graves are on the site of abandoned camps often used by traffickers to hold the refugees.

As odious as the business of smuggling people across the Andaman Sea is, the traffickers and the “boat people” fleeing Burma and Bangladesh share a common cause.

The mystery of the ‘green boat’ was solved this morning when 400-odd occupants of a rickety fishing trawler turned up on the Indonesian coast in the early hours of this morning.

Thousands run out on to the streets of Kathmandu as another deadly earthquake rocks Nepal.

Four days ago a camp was found on the Thai-Malaysia border containing the graves of dozens of would-be migrants – and some believe there may be at least 60 more such camps.

The discovery on the Thai border of around 50 bodies, thought to be members of the marginalised Rohingya community, underlines the brutal nature of the trade in humans.

The execution of eight convicted drug traffickers by Malaysia is a demonstration of the underlying weakness of the country’s President.

The pending executions of nine Indonesian and foreign nationals on drug offences have strained the country’s relations with the international community and, in particular, Australia.