Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

30.10.2006 On an average, more than 400 infants below the age of one die in Bihar on any given day. According to Unicef, nearly two-thirds of infant deaths occur during the first month of the child’s life. Timely intervention could help save these lives, thus reducing the state’s abysmal infant mortality rate, reveals a survey conducted by the UN children’s aid body.

30.10.2006 The Sachar Committee report, which explored the socio-economic and educational condition of Indian Muslims, had chilling figures to display multiple disadvantages they face, particularly in higher education.

27.10.2006 RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Oct 27 (IPS) - Sitting on a red plastic stool behind the iron bars that form a caged courtyard outside Cell 74, Mirza Tahir Hussain, though only 36, looks like an old man. His white untrimmed beard, the long salt-and-pepper hair and a slight shuffle in his gait expose a life of constant worry.

27.10.2006 While Britain belatedly introduces a watered-down Climate Bill and other countries tinker and talk about Climate Change, Kiribati is sinking beneath the waves.
From: Oil Change

27.10.2006 WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (OneWorld) - NATO military operations in Afghanistan have come under renewed humanitarian scrutiny following new revelations that civilians have been killed.

27.10.2006 The National Knowledge Commission will recommend setting up web portals on 10 topics and GIS mapping of the country for E-governance

27.10.2006 Dr.Anjana Maitra explores ways in which Information Communication Technology tools can be used to facilitate behavioural change communication for safe motherhood. This paper was presented at a Consultation and Experience Sharing on Safe Motherhood at BITS, Pilani on September 8-9 2006.

27.10.2006 Even as Imrana receives justice from the court after being raped by her father-in-law in an Uttar Pradesh village, another woman in Bihar awaits the court's verdict.

27.10.2006 More than a year after Imrana, a Muslim woman from a western UP village, defied clerics and village elders and complained that she had been raped by her father-in-law, a Muzaffarnagar district court today sentenced the accused, Ali Mohammed, to ten years in prison, holding him guilty of rape and criminal intimidation.

27.10.2006 LIFE for the Sahariya tribal people in Madhya Pradesh (India) is an unending struggle against hunger, malnutrition, disease and, above all, neglect. In tribal villages, children continue to slide into the dark folds of hunger, and disappear, reflects Annie Zaidi.

27.10.2006 India moved up one place and neighbouring Pakistan went down seven places among 168 nations in the Press Freedom Index complied by global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

27.10.2006 Canadian Maher Arar was recently given a human rights award for his struggle against U.S. authorities who sent him to Syria to face nearly a year of torture. Arar, who has since been completely vindicated of any links to terrorism, vividly recounts the ordeal in his video acceptance.

27.10.2006 from Oil Change:
Whilst Britain belatedly introduces a watered-down Climate Bill and other countries tinker and talk about Climate Change, Kiribati is sinking beneath the waves.

26.10.2006 While fighting the Taliban to build a safe Afghanistan for its people, NATO must be more careful to ensure civilians are not caught up in its operations and compensate those who are killed, said an organization defending non-combatants in conflict zones.
From: The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)

26.10.2006 The much-awaited law against domestic violence comes into force on October 26, 2006. Touted as a “landmark” pro-women legislation, the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act, 2005 seeks to address issues linked to status of women within their homes that often gets pushed under the carpet.

26.10.2006 India ranks low once again on the Global Hunger Index, confirming what development experts have been saying all along -- that the country’s economic boom is not being matched by corresponding levels of progress in the human development indices

26.10.2006 UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 25 (OneWorld) - Nobel peace prizewinners have joined hands with major human rights groups in urging nations to back U.N. moves to ink a treaty that would curb the illicit trade in small weapons.

25.10.2006 "Somehow the most reasonable, trusted, and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted," says ex-soldier Kevin Tillman in an essay encouraging U.S. voters to demand change November 7.
From: truthdig

25.10.2006 Turkey has received a strong message from the European Union: trade union rights are on the same list regarding Turkey’s commitments as freedom of expression, human rights, women’s rights, minorities’ rights, and the right to practice one’s own religion.

25.10.2006 Concerning trade union rights, on the 3rd October, Turkey received a strong message delivered by Olli Rehn, the Finnish European Commissioner, who is responsible for enlargement. According to him Turkey needs to ensure that full Trade Union rights are respected in line with EU standards and ILO Conventions.