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Renewed border tensions between India and China, which New Delhi had previously gone out of its way to deny, have been confirmed by the People's Daily newspaper in Beijing with its recent criticism of what it called India's obsession with superpower status before observing, 'The dream of superpower is mingled with the thought of hegemony, which places the South Asian giant in an awkward position and results in its repeated failure.'
Despite the border tensions, some aspects of the bilateral relationship have never been better or seemed more positive. Trade between the two countries, for example, reached record levels when it surpassed U.S. $ 50 billion and in other non-contentious areas Chinese officials have gone out of their way to praise India and their Indian counterparts.
One example is India and China's recent agreement at the end of October to jointly combat climate change. After the agreement was signed in New Delhi, visiting minister of China's National Development and Reforms Commission commented, 'We regard India as a sincere friend and the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on climate change will take our cooperation on the issue to a new high.'
Such warm words, inconsistent with differences on border issues, have been seized upon by China apologists, including some Indians, who insist that Beijing is more maligned against than malignant. They argue that Indian decision makers, enamoured of new and improved ties with Washington, have convinced themselves that in months and years to come the U.S. will increasingly use India as a counter weight to China.
They further argue that the lucrative Indian arms market is so important for the U.S. that in any future clashes between Beijing and New Delhi, India will always be able to count on U.S. support. Apologists for the Chinese say it is this perception, buttressed by the belief that New Delhi is now joined by the hip to the U.S. military-industrial complex, that accounts for India's otherwise inexplicably arrogant attitude towards China.
Notwithstanding the 'positive' recent meeting in Bangkok between the Indian and Chinese prime ministers, and the even more recent contact in Bangalore between Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, uncertainty continues to cloud the ties between Beijing and New Delhi.
Myanmar's preventable famine deaths
 Western Myanmar is in the grip of a famine that could have been prevented if the central government had taken appropriate preventive measures.
The famine has been caused by an infestation of millions of rats that have eaten the crops in Myanmar's Chin state, prompting families to flee across the border to neighbouring India as well as to other countries like Thailand and Malaysia.
Problems of food availability have been highlighted by the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) which estimates more than 50 people have died from severe malnutrition with another 100,000 in need of 'immediate food aid'.
The rats have flourished because of an ecological phenomenon — known locally as 'bamboo death' — that takes place every 48-50 years with the flowering of a local bamboo species. The subsequently produced fruit increases rat fertility leading to a huge population of vermin scavenging for food among the locally produced rice, maize and sesame crops.
Bamboo death 'is spreading to new areas of Chin state, exposing more of the population to potential food shortage,' says CHRO. 'Rats and new menaces continue to multiply and spread throughout Chin state, leaving in their wake loss and devastation.'
The bamboo flowering process had been anticipated by crop scientists, but its implications were ignored by the psychotic military junta that has ruled the country for the last 47 years. Famous for their human rights abuses, Myanmar's generals have instead preferred to focus their energies on blocking the rise to power of the elected civilian leader and Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Obsessed with Suu Kyi and whether she will lobby the West to lift sanctions against her country, the military junta has paid scant attention to the pressing problem of obtaining food, clean water and access to medical help for the benefit of the Chin people.
Locally based army units, according to CHRO, are used to demanding staple food and livestock from struggling Chin families and the practice of extortion, plus confiscation of money, property and land has added to existing problems.
Across the border in India the states of Manipur and Mizoram are also covered in bamboo forests and are accordingly vulnerable to rat infestation. But five years ago the Indian authorities implemented a 'Bamboo Flowering and Famine Combat Scheme' that included pest control and the growing of alternative cash crops like ginger and turmeric that the rats ignore. Rat culling was encouraged with an incentive scheme that yielded a payment of two rupees for every rat tail submitted to local government offices.
U.S. and Iran still at each other's throats
Dealing with U.S. political pressure to curb its nuclear programme is for Iran the least of its problems where relations with the U.S. are concerned. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the downfall of the Shah regime some 30 years ago and each government routinely accuses the other of trying to undermine its vital interests.
Although U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran have long since been released, and much water has flowed under the bridge since U.S. marines in Lebanon were killed in their scores allegedly at Iran's behest, hardly a day goes by without the U.S. and Iran accusing each other of provocative and even murderous acts calculated to undermine international peace and stability.
Iran's nuclear programme is a case in point. The Iranians insist their nuclear activities are only for peaceful purposes. But the recent discovery of secret uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and elsewhere has strengthened the suspicions of the U.S. and its allies, notably Israel, that Tehran is pursuing a clandestine programme to develop nuclear weapons.
Under a compromise deal under discussion at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has been encouraged to export most of its uranium to Russia where it will be duly processed for strictly civilian use before being sent back to Tehran.
But regardless of whether the compromise deal is confirmed, Iranian officials believe the U.S. has a long term plan to undermine their country's stability, arming and funding dissident groups and encouraging a steady flow of defections by key officials.
What has most worried the Iranian authorities is a recent terrorist, suicide attack in Pishin, near the Pakistan border, that was carried out by Balochi insurgents calling themselves Jundullah (soldiers of Allah). The Baloch belong to the minority Sunni community, so Jundullah see themselves as representatives of an oppressed minority community that seeks equal rights with Iran's Shia majority.
The timing of the latest Jundullah attack, which followed an earlier attack last May in Zahidan that killed 25 and wounded more than 100, has fuelled speculation in Iran that Pakistan-based Jundullah are proxy warriors for the U.S. and unleashing them now is meant to remind nuclear ambitious Tehran how easy it is to pressure the country's vulnerable parts.
If Tehran is to be believed, unleashing Jundullah is just one part of a longer term and more sinister U.S. plan to destabilise Iran from within without going to the cost and trouble of a face-to-face war.
As evidence for this conspiracy theory, the Iranians point to the recent disappearance of a nuclear physicist, Shahram Amiri, who disappeared during a pilgrimage to Mecca last May. He has not been heard of since, but Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, subsequently told the media, 'We have found documents that prove U.S. interference with the Iranian pilgrim Shahram Amiri in Saudi Arabia. We hold Saudi Arabia responsible and consider the U.S. to be involved in his arrest.' Iranian sources say another scientist, identified only as Ardebili, disappeared during a trip to Georgia last month and is also believed to have ended up in the U.S.
Most revealing of all was the disappearance two years ago of a former deputy defence minister, Ali Reza Asgari, who had privileged access to Iran's nuclear secrets. For two years Asgari was held in a safe house somewhere in the UK. Earlier this year it was revealed he had been granted political asylum in the U.S.
To avoid further embarrassment, Iran has beefed up its internal surveillance of all nuclear and military personnel. Whether this will be enough to prevent further defections in the future remains to be seen.
Black magic garlic
 A rose by any other name is just as sweet and the same applies to a new variety of garlic that is being distributed by an enterprising British company.
Black Garlic Ltd, which takes its name from the product it markets, is poised to exploit the potential of the humble garlic clove following the discovery and marketing of a non-smelling variety that is just as nutritious.
Garlic has always been a much loved and essential part of Asian cuisines, but less so in the West where eyebrows tend to be raised because of the smell retained by human mouths after consuming garlic flavoured foods.
The Italians and French are seemingly indifferent to the after-effects of garlic but the Anglo Saxon cultures of the U.S. and UK are far less tolerant. In fact in these countries a garlic smelling human mouth is a sure way of ending what might otherwise develop into a promising friendship.
Yet change is on the way following South Korea's patenting of black garlic, described as soft and sweet with a flavour reminiscent of fig, raisin and liquorice. It is also described as nature's antibiotic because it boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure and is good for the heart.
Backers of black garlic say their product is nothing more than traditional white garlic that is aged for a month in a special patented fermentation process where it develops its darker colour, softer texture and sweeter taste.
Some of London's leading chefs and restaurant chains have been invited to sample the black garlic for themselves to see if it can be adapted for their needs. Whether they decide to adopt black garlic for their menus remains to be seen.
If this is a taste of what lies ahead, black garlic promoters are assured of a profitable future. Success with selling their product could change their hopes and expectations for a long time to come.
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