China is denying that the $1.2 billion in aid that Vice President Xi Jinping pledged during a visit to Cambodia yesterday had anything to do with the fact that just hours earlier, the country deported 20 Uighur asylum speakers -- a move that Xi praised during the very same visit:

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman defended the deportations Tuesday, called the handling of the Uighurs an "internal affair" and said there were "no strings attached" to the aid package.

"According to my knowledge, some are suspected of criminal cases," Jiang Yu told a regularly scheduled news briefing. "Public security forces will handle the relevant outlaws. Their whereabouts, I have no information to offer you."

Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao has suffered four losses in his career. Three were to rival boxers and the fourth was to Philippine congresswoman Darlene Antonino-Custodio for the congressional seat in the First District of South Cotabato, home to General Santos City, the Tuna Capital of the Philippines.

The pound for pound boxing champion of the world will return to politics, this time running in the neighboring district of Sarangani.  The seat will be left vacant for the 2010 elections due to term limits. Pacquiao will be supported by his own party, the People's Champ Movement (Here's hoping Freddie Roach will stay on as campaign manager).

As far as a platform goes, Pac Man told the AP in March, "I want to help [the poor] because I know what they feel right now. It is not easy to help other people. That is a big responsibility. I will focus on that for the meantime."

He told reporters yesterday, "I want only good things for Sarangani... I will work for children, for the health of our countrymen and for their livelihood."

Pacquiao does indeed know what poverty feels like, growing up poor in a country where 30 million people live on less than a dollar a day. He worked as both a baker and a construction worker before he became known as the Mexicutioner.

If he wins the seat, it is not clear if he will fight Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. as was expected. This would surely be a disappointment to millions of fans who would like nothing more than to see "Money" knocked out. This will also play a vital role in his bid for a congressional seat; his 2007 loss is often credited to many of his fans who voted against him to make sure he would stay in the ring.

Covering this campaign (the new greatest job in journalism) will also be a Christmas-come-early for hundreds of political writers who will undoubtedly use the politics as boxing analogy ad nauseam. (E.g. Gets back in the ring, ready for a fight, trades jabs, throws in the towel)

NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images 

A new Islamic law in Indonesia's devoutly Muslim Aceh province takes a strict interpretation of Sharia law including a provision to stone adulters to death. The "Islamic Crime Bill," passed by the regional parliament on September 15, 2009, authorized the following punishments for adultery and homosexuality:

“Any person who deliberately commits adultery is threatened with 100 cane lashes for the unmarried and stoning to death for those who are married.”

“Any person deliberately performing homosexuality or lesbianism is threatened with up to 100 cane lashes and a maximum fine of 1,000 grams of fine gold, or imprisonment of up to 100 months.”

Additionally, the law outlines the punishment for rape is a minimum of 100 cane lashes and a maximum of 300 cane lashes or imprisonment of at least 100 months and up to 200 cane lashes or a maximum imprisonment of 200 months for pedophiles.

The regional parliament passed this law in order to target "behavior considered morally unacceptable."

Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

This Google Earth image of a mysterious building in Northern Burma posted by the New America Foundation's Jeffrey Lewis on the Arms Control Wonk blog has been making the Internet rounds.

It may look like an Olympic-sized swimming pool, but the thing is huge -- 80 meters long on each side and seems to roughly match up with the Sydney Morning Herald's report of a Burmese nuclear reaction construction project. The Institute for Science and International Security has more.

No one seems to have a conclusive idea about what the thing is yet, but it does seem worth keeping an eye on. Via James Fallows, the Lowy Interpreter has a useful roundup of the latest Burma nuke speculation.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will today become the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House since Barack Obama was elected last year. On the agenda for the two presidents is the global financial crisis, climate change and terrorism -- a high priority for the Philippines that has consistently sought U.S. help in combating Muslim separatists on the southern island of Mindanao.

But back in Manila, the Philippine Daily Inquirer says Obama plans to "lecture Arroyo on democracy" during her visit. Since coming to power in 2001, the Philippine president has fielded numerous allegations of -- among others -- corruption, extrajudicial killings, torture, bribery and fraud. Arroyo's attempts to push through a charter change, instituting a unicameral parliamentary form of government and effectively allowing her to extend her term in office past June 2010, has sparked a great deal of opposition.

A recent Social Weather Stations survey revealed that 70 percent of Filipinos are opposed to amending the Constitution. Her current approval rating stands at -31 percent, making even former U.S. President George W. Bush look good.

An estimated 10,000 protestors took to the streets on Monday in yet another anti-Arroyo demonstration. The Philipines has a history of "people power" movements and has twice ousted sitting presidents using popular mobilization. Arroyo (and Obama) would be wise to take heed.

Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty images

NYU economist, FP contributor and aid critic extraordinaire William Easterly says no:

The only useful definition of human rights is one where a human rights crusader could identify WHOSE rights are being violated and WHO is the violator. That is what historically has led to progress on human rights...Poverty does not fit this definition of rights. Who is depriving the poor of their right to an adequate income? There are many theories of poverty, but few of them lead to a clear identification of the Violator of this right.

It's true that lack of income, in and of itself, isn't a human rights violation. But poverty is about a lot more than just income. As Easterly knows, those who live on less than a dollar a day are poor not just because they lack income; the lack of income implies lack of access to services, clean drinking water, adequate education, housing, employment and so on. All of these are violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights. To give just one of many possible examples, estimates indicate that as many as 8,000 children die daily in Africa alone from preventable diseases such as cholera and dysentery. It's certainly true to say that these are diseases of poverty - the rich can ensure that their water is not contaminated and can seek treatment at private hospitals as opposed to understaffed government clinics - but they are more than that. They are violations of the right to health and the right to clean water.

Is this more than a semantic debate? Both agree poverty ought to be alleviated and that poverty is connected to actual human rights violations. Easterly calls it "disappointing" that Amnesty is "blurring its previous clear focus on human rights." Is it? 

SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra isn't exactly wanted in twelve star systems, but he has been doing a lot of traveling in order to avoid capture by the authorities. He's generally been successful so far, having outwitted the fuzz on multiple occasions. But, according to German reports, the man convicted on corruption charges (and sentenced to two years) in absentia may have been sighted in Bonn last week:

Thaksin's whereabouts had been a mystery since he ended a sojourn in London late last year. Friedel Frechen, a municipal spokesman in Bonn, said Thaksin showed up at the city immigration office last December 29 and applied for a residency permit."

The permit was granted, and Thaksin stayed in Germany for the better part of a year before government officials discovered his true identity. Their method? One of Thaksin's escorts at the immigration office claimed to be a member of the BND, Germany's foreign intelligence unit.

Seeing as how the BND would probably, you know, recognize a former head of state, he might have picked a better cover.

DAILY MAIL

Choe Sang-hun, reporting for the New York Times, speculates that North Korea's nuclear test surprised the United States and South Korea:

The test appeared to have caught South Korea and the United States off guard, and the news hit just as South Korea’s government and people were mourning the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun.

If officials were caught off guard, it wasn't because they weren't expecting a nuclear test. News organizations had been reporting on preparations for a possible test for weeks, citing South Korean officials. Then, of course, there is the fact that North Korea had also been warning it would do exactly this since April.

North Korea may, however, have pulled off its test earlier than expected. Experts mistakenly thought it would take weeks to make all the necessary preparations, as was the case when North Korea conducted a less-successful test in 2006.

"North Korea seems to want a speedy game," one senior South Korean official told Yonghap. "It seems to be seeking to create a condition favorable to itself as early as possible, rather than dragging its feet."

“The suddenness of the nuclear test shows North Korea following military, not diplomatic logic,” Hideshi Takesada, a Korea expert at Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies, told Bloomberg.

Kenneth Quinones, a former North Korea director at the U.S. State Department, thinks the launch means that the generals are running this show.

"They’ve convinced Kim to bulk up their military capabilities in advance of any diplomacy,” Quinones told Bloomberg. “But they’re painting themselves into a corner."

I'm not sure what Quinones means by that, but from past experience, the North Koreans have to be thinking that their position going into any talks is going to be stronger now. Their first nuclear test in 2006 was most likely a dud, but it brought the Bush administration to the table. Imagine the goodies they'll get now that, as it appears, their device actually works?

Interestingly, South Korean presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said that North Korea may have even notified the United States ahead of time, and a "diplomatic source in Beijing" told reporters that China was given a head's up as well.

Also noteworthy: North Korea fired off three surface-to-air missiles after its test, two of which were reportedly a warning to U.S. spy planes to back off, according to Yonhap.

UPDATE: One administration official tells Fox News, "They didn't give us any warning whatsoever" about the test. But Reuters reports that U.S. officials say they were given an hour's notice.

Anyone else notice a difference in body type between pirates, and those tasked with combatting them?

Four of the seven Somali pirates arrested await their trial March 5 in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. U.S. naval vessel USS Leyte Gulf intercepted the seven pirates off the Somali coast last month as they attempted to board a merchant vessel.

Members of the elite Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Philippine Coast Guard exercise in Manila on Feb. 16. The SOG participated in an annual three-day exercise with its Japanese counterparts from Feb. 17 to 19 to enhance its capabilities to combat pirates and armed robbers at sea.

Photos, top to bottom: STR/AFP/Getty Images, JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images

Malaysian Christians have long referred to Jesus as the "son of Allah." Their government, it seems, has a problem with that:

Malaysian Muslim activists and officials and they see using the word Allah in Christian publications including bibles as attempts to proselytize.

Those concerns led to the ban on the Catholic Herald newspaper's use of "Allah" to denote God. The Herald is now suing the government to overturn the ruling, made after it appeared the paper would be allowed to use "Allah" provided it stamped "For Christians" on the front page of the paper.

"Allowing Christians to use the word is dangerous because it's attacking the sole religion of the Malays," said Yusri Mohamad, president of the influential Muslim Youth Movement.

"We have to question Christians' motive for wanting to use this obviously Muslim word. It appears to be for conversions. All Muslim Malays in Malaysia are against this."

Seth Mydans profiles Abhisit Vejjajiva, the dapper new prime minister of Thailand. Apparently, he is a Barry Manilow fan:

Critics say Mr. Abhisit is handsome, articulate and well mannered but lacks the hearty touch of successful Thai politicians. They joke that he would need a visa to travel to the rural heartland of the north and the northeast. [...]

But his cultural divide from the heartland may be difficult to breach. Asked last year about his likes and dislikes, he said that his favorite book was "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Camus and that he was a devotee of the singer Barry Manilow, whose voice is rarely heard in rural Thailand.

Photo: PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images

This is beyond disturbing:

Lawmakers in Indonesia's remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips -- part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.

Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan Monday.

But legislator John Manangsang said by implanting small computer chips beneath the skin of ''sexually aggressive'' patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine.

The idea of implanting anyone with a microchip against their will is bad enough, but I can only imagine the possibilities for abuse on a government panel tasked with deciding which patients are "sexually aggressive" enough to qualify.

U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has performed abysmally in some TV appearances (yesterday's debate aside), but at least she hasn't gone as far as Thai political candidate Chuwit Kamolvisit, who is running for governor of Bangkok. Yesterday, he laid the smack down -- quite literally -- on a popular news anchor when he got asked some questions he didn't want to answer.

At the end of the Updated News at Noon program, Kamolvisit pounced on the interviewer, hit him in the face, and stomped on him before the TV crew dragged the candidate away. Kamolvisit, a former bodybuilder who has been involved in Bangkok's sex industry, said, "I couldn't stand it when he humiliated me on air."

Kamolvisit has done outrageous things before. In 2005, after being elected to Parliament, he smashed a bathtub with a sledgehammer as a way of symbolically smashing his ties to the sex industry:

PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images

Import Food

Every politician is haunted by his or her past at one time or another, but perhaps none so strangely as the embattled prime minister of Thailand. After facing several weeks of sit-in protests in Bangkok over allegations of corruption, Samak Sundaravej is being brought closer than ever to the ring of fire.

Quite literally, it turns out. Samak is a nationally famous chef, renowned among his culinary colleagues the world over. In Thailand, he is best known for his cooking show, Tasting and Complaining, and his nine-editions-printed cookbook, not for politics.

As the show's name implies, Samak roasted more than just spicy fish on the air. He also used the opportunity to vent steam on political issues of his choice. Picture Bobby Flay ripping the Bush administration on Iron Chef between platings, and you get the idea.

The trouble is, Thailand's constitution prohibits members of the cabinet from working for private companies while in office. Samak cut back on the show after assuming power just over half a year ago, but he has made several appearances since then. Now, Samak is in court defending himself against the gravest allegation of all: cooking while in office. One thing they won't be able to convict him for? Bad taste: his salmon recipes look delicious.