Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

31.05.2004 A decision by the government of Indian administered Kashmir to limit the number of guests and dishes at lavish marriage ceremonies to curb pollution and wasteful expenditure has triggered a controversy.

31.05.2004 The custodial death of a Christian accused of blasphemy in Pakistan last week has highlighted the harassment of religious minorities, who often face attacks from fanatics and apathy from authorities.

31.05.2004 Two Australian scientists will work with their British counterparts to work on the design of faster laser-driven computers. This collaboration is being facilitated by the British Council Eureka Prize for Inspiring Science.

28.05.2004 AIDS advocate Hu Jia said on Wednesday that he was placed under house arrest to prevent him from meeting a U.S. Embassy delegation visiting Henan, a Chinese province that has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates.

28.05.2004 The decade of independence since the end of the Soviet Empire has been one of the hardest in Georgia’s history, the country torn apart by civil war in breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Now at last hopes are high following the 2003 rose revolution of Mikhail Saakashvili.

28.05.2004 An 80-year-old tribal woman accused of practicing witchcraft was recently lynched by a village mob in the northeast Indian state of Tripura, spotlighting the barbaric tradition of hounding people in rural areas where superstition and black magic still hold sway.

28.05.2004 The murder of a university don in eastern Sri Lanka this week following a spate of killings in clashes between the two factions of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas has rekindled fears of ethnic warfare in the country.

28.05.2004 United Nations Development Programme has organised a two-day workshop on national e-strategies in Beirut, Lebanon. Delegates from the Arab region are attending this high-level meeting.

28.05.2004 Israel has drawn up a secret plan for a giant desalination plant to supply drinking water to the Palestinian territory on the West Bank, the New Scientist reports. Israel hopes the project will diminish pressure for it to grant any future Palestinian state greater access to the region's scarce supplies of fresh water.

28.05.2004 A UN official has said Afghanistan needs international security assistance to survive as it still faces factionalism and terrorism.

28.05.2004 Indian NGO, Narmada Bachao Andolan says jailed villagers, who have gone on a hunger strike, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh are not being allowed to meet lawyers and relatives.

28.05.2004 The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is organising a two-day workshop on the 5-6 May 2004, New Delhi,in collaboration with UNDP and UNESCO on designing an enabling framework for community radio in India. Participants from the government, private and civil society sectors will debate key issues at this event.

28.05.2004 A new report by a global research organisation - id21 - says that malnutrition levels in South Asia are high for children under five years of age.

27.05.2004 According to a UN report issued this week, virtually all 27 million Iraqis depend on food rations and 55 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

27.05.2004 JERUSALEM, May 27 (IPS) - The Israeli attack on Rafah in the Gaza Strip did not come in a political and military vacuum. The Israeli army's 'operation rainbow' is now only 'paused' and all indications point to the struggle that has continued between Israel and the Palestinians along the Egyptian border for more than three years now will resume shortly.

27.05.2004 The Health Information Systems Programme in Andhra Pradesh, India, makes innovative uses of ICT, especially of open source software to deliver health knowledge to medical professionals. A finalist of this year's Stockholm Challenge Award , this project is supported by students from different parts of the world.

27.05.2004 Amid an international uproar over prisoner abuse in Iraq, a lawyers' body in Indian administered Kashmir says relentless torture and malnourishment has caused insanity and organ failure among many inmates in this state's prisons, some of whom are from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

27.05.2004 Insurgency and political chaos in Nepal has severely impacted backpacker tourism during the peak summer season, causing acute economic hardship to small-scale entrepreneurs.

27.05.2004 Electricity generation from waste is not a clear-cut solution for waste management, due to possible release of dioxins. Quick fix technologies have emerged from foreign multinational companies which often perceive India as a convenient test-bed, as in this case study in Chennai.

27.05.2004 Activists in India have launched a countrywide protest against groundwater exploitation in Kerala by global cola companies - Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Young people are being encouraged to drink alternative indigenous products.