Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

30.04.2004 Military affairs analyst Daniel Smith says the decision to send an all-Iraqi army unit into Fallujah is a giant leap in the right direction, one that would have saved U.S. and Iraqi lives if it been decided a year ago when President Bush declared major combat over.

30.04.2004 A senior member of the out-going Governing Council in Baghdad said the in-coming transitional government will fail because Iraqis do not want to replace “(U.S.) occupation with UN supervision”.

30.04.2004 Leopards caught in the crossfire between guerrillas and security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir have begun migrating to safer, more populated areas, endangering both humans and themselves.

30.04.2004 With the Pakistan film industry in the doldrums, proprietors of deserted theaters are pressing for the removal of a decades-old government ban on popular films from neighboring India.

30.04.2004 Vietnam’s abortion rate ranks in the top three highest in the world, it was revealed at a meeting about HIV prevention among juveniles and young people, in Hanoi.

30.04.2004 Does India need a $500 million loan to fund school infrastructure, training and payments for teachers for it universal education programme, or better implementation and stricter norms for running the programme?

30.04.2004 Panos is offering media fellowships to Sri Lankan journalists who wish to engage in producing quality feature articles/programmes on conflict issues in Sinhala, Tamil or English.

30.04.2004 Afghan minister of planning, Ramazan Bashardoost, created a storm in the Afghan reconstruction efforts when he said NGOs are ineffective and are squandering aid money.

30.04.2004 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's move to enhance the military's role in politics has raised questions as to whether the country can be relied upon to contain Islamic radicalism in central Asia.

30.04.2004 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's move to enhance the military's role in politics has raised questions whether the country can be relied upon to contain Islamic radicalism in central Asia.

29.04.2004 Charity workers in southern Afghanistan are on edge after losing more people to drive-by shooting incidents in the past four months than they did in the whole of last year.

29.04.2004 A series of attacks on Buddhist temples and the intimidation of monks in Parliament, allegedly by a ruling hardline leftist party in Sri Lanka, has sparked fears among the monks, who entered the political arena in this month's elections.

29.04.2004 Since last year, around 80 percent of Bangladesh's population has had access to negligible health services because the government suspended the salaries of 80,000 health and family planning workers and the supply of drugs to healthcare centers in villages.

29.04.2004 As violence rocked Iraq in Fallujah and Najaf, major international companies gathered in London this week to figure ways of doing business in Iraq without getting their hands burnt.

28.04.2004 Experts on Iraqi society believe that the coordinated attacks and devastating ambushes against coalition troops this month show evidences of cooperation and networking among various groups of Iraqi insurgents based on common nationalist and religious motives.

28.04.2004 Survivors of the North Korean train accident are re-gaining their health with the help of a U.S.-based group that mounted a quick and effective response to the tragedy. In addition to truckloads of medical supplies already delivered to the train wreck site, the group is working on sending Korean speaking trauma specialists and humanitarian aid to the victims who need them most.

28.04.2004 In a concerted attempt to tackle the AIDS epidemic, donor countries and developing nations signed a unique initiative at a meet in Washington, aimed at unifying the fight and streamlining resources.

28.04.2004 Thousands of mill owners and consumers in Pakistan are protesting a move by the government of the eastern province of Punjab to bar wheat trade in some districts, severely impacting supplies of the cereal in the country's three other provinces.

28.04.2004 Villagers in the landslide-prone south of Kyrgyzstan are still ignoring government pleas and financial incentives to move to a safer area, in spite of this week's tragedy which killed 33 people and injured 11 others.

28.04.2004 They choose not to keep quiet despite humiliation, but perform street plays to bring social good. They are 90 young women hailing from the Indian state of Haryana have already performed over 400 plays and are still going strong.