Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

29.07.2005 A study on the usage of Bangalore One centres reveals that the state government�s ambitious e-governance initiative is still suffering from birth pangs.

29.07.2005 UGANDA has been chosen to host the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA).

29.07.2005 A new international climate change programme adopted by nations that rejected the Kyoto Protocol has been attacked as "business as usual for the United States" by environmental campaigners.

29.07.2005 Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mumbai will be the Indian participant in the mammoth and first-of-its-kind 35 million rupees multi-country project called FLOSSWORLD supported by the European Union (EU) in the area of Open Source Software.

29.07.2005 Evenothough the Union territiory of Punjab is making tremendous progress in the field of information and technolgy, the disparity between the urban and rural areas still continues to be starking.

29.07.2005 People in Ludhiana will now be able to pay their central excise returns or service tax through the system of e-payment,said the Chief Commissioner Central Excise Commissionerate V.K. Garg, at a press conference.

29.07.2005 India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, has been chosen as the India headquarters for the United Nations “Global e-school and Communities Initiative” (Gesci), a special campaign to promote the use of technology in education.

29.07.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., Jul 28 (OneWorld) - At least 24,865 Iraqi civilians have died since the U.S.-led coalition began its war in their country but the real figure is unknown because coalition forces, flouting the Geneva Conventions, refuse to aid an accurate count, said a leading medical journal.

29.07.2005 Over 400 Uzbek refugees who fled to Kyrgyzstan after May’s Andijan massacre are to be given new homes abroad, despite Uzbek pressure that Kyrgyzstan return the refugees. The U.N.'s refugee chief in Kyrgyzstan refused to say where the refugees will go, though speculation points to the Czech Republic, Ukraine, or Canada.

29.07.2005 JERUSALEM, Jul 28 (IPS) - A growing number of Palestinians are beginning to believe that Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip will not mean the end of occupation.

28.07.2005 The son of a prominent Pakistani human rights activist, himself a committed peace activist, was tortured and killed in November. The investigation into his death is stalled, and human rights advocates have launched a letter-writing campaign to ensure justice is done and the impunity and intimidation is brought to an end.

28.07.2005 President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh has urged the people put in more efforts to create IT-knowledge based human resources and promote the prospective IT sector.

28.07.2005 The Rainbow Warrior slipped into the harbour of the world's biggest coal port this morning and dropped anchor to shut down coal exports for five hours in Newcastle, Australia.

28.07.2005 As part of its initiative to ensure that benefits of Information Technology and computer education percolate down to the grassroots, the Delhi Government is all set to launch a Computer Aided Learning (CAL) project in association with Ernst and Young (E&Y), in 200 government-run schools.

28.07.2005 After Bangalore and Hyderabad in South and Gurgaon in North, Union Territory of Chandigarh is heading towards becoming a major Information Technology hub.

28.07.2005 The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq has appealed for help in fighting a proposed constitutional provision it says would give religious clerics the authority to sanction violations of their rights, including denial of freedom of movement and travel, inheritance, and child custody.

28.07.2005 A US-led Asia-Pacific deal on greenhouse gas emissions offers no alternative to binding caps on pollution levels, says a leading environmental group.

28.07.2005 The International Criminal Court should prosecute the perpetrators and collaborators of the current war against Iraq and the related international crimes arising from occupation, the unofficial World Tribunal on Iraq has demanded.

28.07.2005 Kyoto holdouts Australia and the U.S. are expected to announce a plan to address climate change on Thursday, but campaigners and politicians around the world are wary that the deal is an attempt to undermine the otherwise widely accepted Kyoto protocol and promote U.S. technologies. The pact is not thought to include any targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

28.07.2005 Following several days of deadly riots sparked by a decision to cut government subsidies on petrol and diesel, the Yemeni government announced Tuesday it would lower fuel prices. An American living in Yemen shares her observations of the country, the recent riots, and the dangers of a discontented majority.