Five people involved in land disputes with their local government were detained this week in separate cases many thousands of miles apart. But the relatively high-profile cases also highlight large numbers of similar disputes going on around China.

A war of words between China and Vietnam over a disputed chain of islands in the South China Sea has intensified, with Beijing's announcement that an anti-China protest in Hanoi had damaged bilateral ties.

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong are holding more than 70 people following a raid on a Bible study meeting of house church pastors involving more than 270 people.

In a tribute to the roughly 100 million people believed to have died under closed communist regimes, a U.S. foundation is building a "virtual museum" of their suffering on the World Wide Web—a monument in itself to openness and transparency.

When Chinese security forces opened fire on local protesters in the southern township of Dongzhou two years ago, the world suddenly took notice as never before of rural unrest in China. Two years on, reports of similar rural protests over

The Lao government has agreed a major land concession to Chinese investors to develop a Suzhou-style "model city" in the outskirts of the country's capital, Vientiane.

Chinese authorities have released a man placed under house arrest after he took out a classified ad in a local newspaper marking the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The relatives of four Tibetan nomads handed jail terms of up to 10 years after one of them called publicly for the return of the Dalai Lama, have lodged an appeal with a higher court in the southwestern Chinese province

Authorities in Shanghai have raided the home of a Chinese blogger after he posted a detailed account of the closure of his magazine earlier in the year. The move comes as part of what many see as a tightening of

Thousands of military academy students in central China's Anhui province are rioting after news spread that the government wouldn't recognize diplomas awarded to the fee-paying students.

Thousands of workers at a Hong Kong-invested factory in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong block the streets outside their workplace to protest wage deductions.

Timber traders in Laos are pursuing the logging trade through "unofficial" channels in spite of government restrictions on logging, a well-placed source has said.

Hundreds of Tibetan nomads have clashed with police in China's western Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) after a disagreement between three teenage monks and Chinese shopkeepers, according to sources in the region.

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have detained at least five people following a protest against a government land grab, residents say.

Tibetans working as supply teachers in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai have staged a two-week protest outside local government offices in protest at their meager pay, sources in the region told RFA's Tibetan service.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan sentence a Tibetan nomad to an eight-year prison term after he called publicly for the return of the Dalai Lama. Three other Tibetans are jailed on related charges.

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge court held its first public hearing on Tuesday November 20, in what many see as a landmark moment for a country trying to overcome its brutal past.>> Watch the video

A 29-year-old leading monk in the recent demonstrations against the Burmese military regime, U Gambira, has been charged with treason by the junta, according to his family. The punishment for high treason in Burma is a life sentence or death.

Three North Korean children found wandering in northeastern China with no one to look after them have been granted refugee status in the United States, and overseas rights groups say there could be thousands more.

CHINA, DUNHUANG : Nearly 30 percent of China's land mass is covered by desert, and the sands are continuously spreading. Losing farm land to desertification directly affects the livelihood of 400 million Chinese, and is having a severe impact on