Cheap and deadly, motorised paragliders have claimed the lives of two dozen civilians in resistance-held territory across central Myanmar in recent weeks.

Bertil Lintner looks at the often devious ways in which China cemented the pauk-phaw or kinship relationship to become the dominant foreign power in Myanmar, sidelining all others.

Rwanda-backed rebels who captured eastern Congo’s major city of Goma have targeted relatives of fleeing Congolese soldiers.