Police clashed with more than a thousand striking workers Oct. 10 at a mine run by US-based Freeport McMoran in Indonesia's Papua region, leaving at least one worker dead. The All-Indonesian Workers Trade Union (SPSI) told the Jakarta Globe that three other miners were critically wounded as police fired on the crowd. Authorities said at least six police officers were injured in the violence at the sprawling Grasberg complex, one of the world's biggest gold and copper mines. The workers, who are mostly indigenous Melanesians, are demanding that their current minimum wage of $1.50 an hour be raised to $12.50. (Jakarta Globe, Oct. 10)

In an unprecedented move, Burma's President Thein Sein yielded to a protest campaign Sept. 30, announcing cancellation of the controversial Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River, already under construction by Chinese contractors. The Myistone Dam was to be the first of eight on the still-undammed Irrawaddy that were scheduled to be built in order to export power to China. The project has been opposed by a wide range of environmentalists, social activists, artists and others including Burma's most prominent dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi. Just days before the decision to halt the project, dissident writer U Ludu Sein Win warned in the Rangoon-based journal Weekly Eleven: "The people are demanding to stop the project. If the righteous demands of the people are ignored and they continue the dam project, the people will defend the Irrawaddy with whatever means possible."

Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was sentenced June 15 to 15 years in prison for his involvement with a terrorist training camp in the province of Aceh to prepare Islamic radicals to carry out attacks in Jakarta. Prosecutors said Bashir provided more than $62,000 to the group, which was allegedly planning attacks modeled after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and targeting high-profile members of the Indonesian government. Bashir was found guilty of inciting terrorism. He was not convicted, however, of funding terrorist activities because there was not enough evidence to prove Bashir's money contributed to purchasing guns for use at the training camp. The 72-year-old said he would appeal the sentence because it ignores Sharia law.

In the Thai village of Nong Kun Na along the disputed border with Cambodia, security forces are digging in, building bunkers and training volunteers to act as defense guards. The development comes as Red Cross officials report close to 60,000 now displaced. Fighting between the Thai and Cambodian armies over the past six days in the surrounding jungle has killed at least 13 soldiers on both sides and injured dozens more. "Before the fighting started, I was a security guard for an apartment building in Bangkok," said Wonbik Chai, 42, one of the village's newly recruited defense volunteers. "Now I've come to protect my village."

Hundreds of Islamist protesters stormed a courthouse and put two churches to the torch in central Java town of Temmangung on Feb. 8 to protest that a Christian convicted of blasphemy was not given the death penalty. The defendant, Antonius Richmond Bawengan, was found guilty of distributing books and leaflets that “spread hatred about Islam” and was sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum term. The the Bethel and Pantekosta churches were burned, while the Santo Petrus and Paulus churches were pelted with stones. Two days earlier, a lynch mob in the nearby town of Banten killed three members of the Ahmadiyya minority Islamic sect. The attacks prompted international calls for the overturn of Indonesia's blasphemy laws. (ENI News, Feb. 10; Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Catholic News Agency, Jakarta Post, Feb. 9; Bali Times, NYT, Feb. 8)

At least two people were killed in clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces on their disputed border Feb. 4. A Cambodian soldier and a Thai villager are reported killed, with several more wounded, in a two-hour artillery exchange. The fatalities are the first since a Thai soldier was killed a year ago in a similar clash over the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, a UN World Heritage site that is claimed by both countries.

Four people were killed and 14 wounded in an explosion aboard a bus outside the EDSA entertainment complex in Manila's financial district of Makati Jan. 25. In a nationally televised statement, President Benigno Aquino III said government agencies would not stop "until everyone involved in this heinous crime is accounted for." No group has claimed responsibility, but Aquino said authorities suspect Abu Sayyaf, most militant wing of the Moro separatist movement in southern Mindanao region. (Philippine Star, Jan. 26; AP, Jan. 25) On Jan. 9, two suspected Abu Sayyaf militants were killed in a gun battle with government troops on the Mindanao region's Basilan Island. (AP, Jan. 9)

In the wake of Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia, a video has emerged showing the torture of helpless detainees in the restive territory of West Papua. Rights groups are describing the footage as "Indonesia's Abu Ghraib," and say it raises serious questions about the Obama administration's decision to embrace cooperation with the Indonesian security forces. The video is the second in recent months to offer graphic footage of Indonesian security force torture of Papuans.