Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

30.06.2005 At a Beijing meeting last week, UN special advisor Jeffrey Sachs asked China to take the lead in the fight against malaria. By cultivating a shrub that produces an anti–malarial medicine, China could make major contributions to reduce global poverty and meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.

30.06.2005 Friends of the Earth applauds the US House of Representatives for voting to prohibit the US Export-Import Bank from financing nuclear power projects in China.

30.06.2005 With wrangling over its membership resolved, Iraq’s constitutional committee is forging ahead with drafting a new basic law.

29.06.2005 The recent interception of a young Palestinian women on her way to attack an Israeli hospital where she was being treated for burns makes Ami Isseroff wonder if the violence is now driven by a group of "rent-a-terrorists" who are afraid that peace would render them unemployed. And what does this new level of depravity portend for the future of the Middle East?

29.06.2005 Sonia Gandhi has launched the latest stage of the Indian government's large-scale open source initiative.

29.06.2005 One of the world’s largest economies, India has made enormous strides in its economic and social development in the past two decades.

29.06.2005 Internet censorship in Iran is amongst the most restrictive and sophisticated in the world, a technical study has revealed. And much of the filtering technology in use was developed by western companies.

29.06.2005 The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has developed DEV INFO INDIA, a database for the collection, compilation and transmission of data on selected social indicators.

29.06.2005 The World Bank has approved of a US $3 million grant to Nepal for its Economic Reform Technical Assistance Project which intends to strengthen home-grown reforms in the areas of public sector capacity, service delivery, social inclusion, governance, and reducing unproductive public sector intervention in the economy.

29.06.2005 With a vision to provide management and integration of global information on genetic resources and crop improvement for any crop, the International Crop Information system (ICIS) initiative was started.

29.06.2005 Journalists in Pakistan have reportedly filed dozens of access to information requests in the past six months as a result of workshops on press freedom organised by the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF). Since December 2004, PPF has held workshops in seven communities throughout the country to train journalists on press freedom monitoring and free expression advocacy.

29.06.2005 Broadcasting is crucial to development said the participants of the Asia Media Summit (AMS) that the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) in collaboration with partners and with support from UNESCO organized in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

29.06.2005 Uzbekistan’s Andijan massacre has yet to be independently investigated, largely because of Washington infighting; Rumsfeld's Defense Department is blocking an inquiry called for by Rice's State Department, explains veteran jounalist Ahmed Rashid. By doing so, the U.S. is giving Uzbek president Islam Karimov exactly what he wants: dwindling media coverage and a chance to slip off the international agenda.

29.06.2005 In 2002, Pakistani woman Mukhtaran Bibi--also known as Mukhtaran Mai--was gang raped on her village elders' orders. The men convicted in her case have since been released. As the country's Supreme Court finally takes up her case, Amnesty asks you to take action and encourage Pakistan to protect women's rights.

28.06.2005 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the sagging farm sector growth, which has deprived the rural poor of substantial benefits, has to be doubled. He also stressed that the country will have to improve its performance in the water and the power sectors.

28.06.2005 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended 100 per cent foreign ownership in satellite radio services without any entry and licence fee.

28.06.2005 Doctors have discovered a new disease, called the 'tsunami lung', in patients who got caught in the salty, mud-laden waves during the December 26 tsunami last year.

28.06.2005 The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has launched the INSTEP fund(Integrating New and Sustainable Technologies for Elimination of Poverty) which will try to meet all the needs of the poor and the marginalised and will focus on improving the life of the individual.

28.06.2005 E-governance centres in all subdivisions of the Kangra district will soon be made functional

28.06.2005 The Vidharbha region of the west Indian state of Maharashtra, which is a water-starved area, has a growing number of water parks and amusement centres. Compare this with the life of villagers who get water once is 15 days.