It is Aung San Suu Kyi's mantra for embedding democratic reform, but for many who endured Myanmar's authoritarian and deeply corrupt former junta the "rule of law" remains a distant hope. Flashpoint issues such as land grabbing have intensified fears that the country's anaemic legal structures are failing to protect the poor and vulnerable despite sweeping reforms.

A protest by villagers evicted from land near a Chinese-backed mine was violently quelled by police Thursday, activists said, in an echo of a crackdown at the flashpoint site last year. Farmers attempting to plough land seized to make way for the mine clashed with police protecting the site, according to Ba Htoo, an environmental activist speaking to AFP from the scene in Monywa, central Myanmar. "About 200 police asked the villagers -- who went to farmland in the copper mine area -- to stop... police said the area was restricted.

Aung San Suu Kyi's refusal to condemn attacks on Muslims in Myanmar has dimmed the Nobel laureate's lustre among global rights campaigners, but observers say her reticence will do her no harm with voters. Nearly a month after religious riots killed 43 people in central Myanmar, the former political prisoner turned lawmaker finally voiced sympathy for Muslims targeted by violence that saw mosques and homes razed.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani school girl and advocate for girls' education who survived a would-be assassin's bullet, is among the 100 most influential people in the world, Time magazine said Thursday. Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, is one of seven honorees to also appear on one of the various covers that the magazine has devoted to the list.