Across Asia: Philippines

Magsaysay winners named

Ka Hsaw Wa, an activist from Myanmar who has documented human rights and environmental cases, and Krisana Kraisintu, a Thai scientist who devoted her life to finding a cheaper AIDS drug, were among the 2009 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards. The awards announced yesterday are considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. They are named after a popular Philippine president who died in a plane crash in 1957.