Zipporah Sein,general-secretary of the Karen National Union, fears the attacks are part of a new campaign of intimidation by the military ahead of national elections scheduled for later this year.

VOA: standard.2010.07.27

Russia spread its influence in its near-abroad and flexed its muscle, both through energy intimidation (Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan) and military intimidation (Georgia).

ECONOMIST: Russia does not exactly soar in its Asian backyard

Yet some in the region have started to fret that China and America, bent on rubbing along better after a tricky few years when they almost came to blows over China's military intimidation of Taiwan (which China claims as its own), might use East Asia's time of troubles to rearrange the regional balance between them.

ECONOMIST: East Asia��s delicate balance