Good news - albeit qualified good news - is what I expect many readers will be turning to first this week. On page 3 we cover the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from her latest stretch - seven years - of house arrest, and the photo, showing her broad smile, and almost delirious excitement among the crowd surrounding her, does show how the Burmese people broadly feel about it.
But as "Jack Davies", a Guardian reporter in Rangoon says, the euphoria is not evidence of a "Mandela moment" - there are no other signals from Naypyidaw of political reform.
But also in the Asia/Pacific region, we do find signs of significant change in Melanesia, where Melanesian islands, rich in natural resources, are reshaping regional relationships. The Pacific Islands Forum is fast losing ground to the Melanesian Spearhead Group, suffering from an image of being dominated by the governments of Australia and New Zealand, long the leading donors in the region.
But leading the paper is the story of Haiti's latest tragedy - a cholera epidemic which is being blamed, by Haitians at least, on Nepalese peacekeepers, with sadly violent effects. We go with the Guardian's Rory Carroll into the main hospital in Port-au-Prince, and witness the struggle of doctors to keep up with the spread of the deadly disease.
Away from the news agenda, the review section is particularly musical this week. We look back over the life of Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer and political firebrand Fela Kuti, review the collected lyrics of Stephen Sondheim, and the autobiography of Keith Richards.
On a gentler note, for Naturewatch we go to Strathnairn with Ray Collier, who's celebrating the hardiness of blackthorn bushes, which were battered but unbowed by last year's harsh British winter, but have nevertheless delivered a huge crop of sloes. Ray says he realised winter has truly arrived in the Northern Hemisphere.
Quote of the week: "My daughter spends all her time watching TV, or on the internet during the holidays. She does not have any social experience." Parent Zhou Yujun, from Chongquing in southwestern China, which is sending urban-born students to work in the countryside for a month as part of a community service plan.
Fact of the week: Ninety per cent of the residents of the Mentawais islands in Indonesia are Christian. The province of which the islands are a part, West Sumatra, is 90% Muslim.
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