As Malaysia continues to make a habit of dubious deportations, will its decisions affect its international standing?

 
Like a scene from a best-selling novel, the lawyers rushed to serve their habeas corpus writ on the powers-that-be. Alas, they were too late – their client was already on the plane, heading back to his home country where persecution and the threat of the death penalty awaited.

But this race against time was not played out on the pages of a well-thumbed thriller.

Meet Van Chhuon, who worked covertly against the Khmer Rouge to save the lives of his community.


"The dogs always knew when people were being killed,” explains Van Chhuon. “They would howl to each other, from village to village, a very spooky howl, unlike anything I ever heard before. I believe the dogs saw people’s ghosts. In Khmer we say, chakai lou.”

Given Thailand's turbulent political history, how will Yingluck's government handle one of the world's most divided electorates?

If a baht note blows out of your hand and down the road, for God’s sake don’t step on it,” the resident director of a nonprofit organisation advised a foreign volunteer, who had just arrived in the Kingdom, during a ‘dos and don’ts’ brief. “The King’s face is on the note. You cannot disrespect the King. You can go to jail.”

Witch hunts are on the rise in Papua New Guinea.

After they had strung her up on a tree to die, her only hope was faith in God. “I prayed a lot,” said Lisbeth Bulheg, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.

The horror of that day, Easter Sunday 2011, remains etched in a face scarred by the deep notches carved out by her nephew. Lisbeth’s husband’s family had accused her of witchcraft and in Papua New Guinea (PNG) witches are routinely tortured and killed.

A new religion, founded in Pai and inspired by Jeff Bridges’ character in The Big Lebowski, is lazily rolling its way towards the mainstream.

People who embrace 2,500-year-old Chinese and Greek concepts, while also giving a nod to California’s detached hippie philosophy, are joining a revelatory religion that illuminated its American founder in northern Thailand.

“Everyone feels oppressed by society’s pressures. Everyone wishes they had more freedom. Everyone wishes they could be more carefree, to worry less about money and status,” said the founder of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude, Oliver Benjamin.

Koh Dach's weavers discuss the death of their cottage indutry.

The rust-caked ferry groans as it runs aground opposite a concrete pagoda. The gangway is dropped and, one at a time, motorbikes are eased onto a pothole-riddled track. A tourist couple takes up the rear on a pair of battered bicycles.

As soon as they hit land, a young woman materialises with an armload of cotton and silk. “Mister! Madame!” she shouts as the tourists ride away. “Please buy scarf!”

Rogue tyre repairmen have hijacked the rules of the road in Jakarta. Now commuters are fighting back.

During the early morning hours, and again before dusk, unscrupulous street-side tyre repair operators litter the streets of Indonesia’s capital with hundreds of sharp metal objects. These nail traps puncture tyres, bring traffic to a piercing halt and, crucially, drive business to their roadside workshops.