Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

31.07.2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Jul 31 (OneWorld) - Lebanon marked a national day of mourning Monday, a day after Israeli warplanes bombed the village of Qana killing at least 57 people, most of them children.

31.07.2006 PESHAWAR, Jul 31 (IPS) - Two Afghan journalists, who spent three years in the infamous United States military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have released a new chronicle on life in the now famous iron cages.

31.07.2006 Nën moton "STOP Luftës së Re në Liban”, Shoqëria e Miqësisë Maqedono-Arabe dhe miqtë e tyre organizuan një protestë paqesore para Ambasadës së Shteteve të Bashkuara të Amerikës në Shkup të shtunën, 29 gusht, duke kërkuar që lufta e fundit në Liban të ndalet menjëherë.

31.07.2006 Intialaisen kastijaon takia syrjityt Uttar Pradeshin kyläläiset elävät nälkäkuoleman partaalla, raportoivat avustusjärjestöt. Kylässä on raportoitu jo kolmen lapsen kuolleen nälkään parin kuukauden aikana ja järjestöt uskovat luvun kasvavan. Alueen paikallishallinto ei ole osoittanut piittaavansa niin sanotujen "koskemattomien" tilanteesta.

31.07.2006 Greenpeace, a non-governmental organisation working for the conservation of the environment, on Tuesday alleged that the information technology (IT) company, Wipro, had failed to keep its promise to develop a policy to phase out toxins from its products.

31.07.2006 Radio is the most accessible medium to reach the greatest number of population in the rural areas. Supported by ENRAP, the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management (CHARM) Project implemented a school-on-air program to disseminate among farmers the best lessons learned during the project’s implementation in the provinces of Abra, Benguet and Mountain Province.

31.07.2006 China has the world's fourth largest economy but it now believes it needs a Harry Potter or "Da Vinci Code" to solidify its role as a world power. To do so, China is creating "cultural industries" in order to influence the world through language, art, music, film, and all other things cultural.

31.07.2006 At least 30 families in India's Belwa village are starving--with many cooking food only once every four or five days--even though local news agencies have reported on the problem and human rights groups have lodged complaints with authorities, activists warned Friday after the death of a nine-month-old girl.

28.07.2006 Western inattention after the Andijan massacre of May 2005 has granted Uzbekistan's president a green light to further repress freedoms, the country's opposition leaders told international human rights advocates this week.

28.07.2006 The objective of the Workshop is to address problems related to safe motherhood and to learn from national and international experiences in improving maternal health and safe motherhood. The focus would be on strategies to overcome specific issues & challenges in this area and to identify technological interventions that can provide remedial measures with special focus on Rajasthan.

28.07.2006 With the monsoon surging across Madhya Pradesh, a sharp increase in cases of water- borne diseases has been reported.

28.07.2006 Two fresh cases of polio have been detected in Ghaziabad district , Uttar Pradesh- according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

28.07.2006 About 300 persons living with HIV/AIDS led by the Tamilnad Network of Positive People (TNP+) staged a fast in front of the Government Guest House on Thursday to focus attention on several right to life issues.

28.07.2006 The government of Japan has agreed to provide a grant assistance of Rs.190 million (456 million yen) for the intensified pulse polio immunisation (IIPI) campaign in India this year.

28.07.2006 In a bid to establish a communication channel to support all its e-governance initiatives, the State Government of Haryana is planning to deploy a statewide area network that will connect the state head quarter office at Chandigarh to all the district head quarters at the Block/ Sub-Division/ Tehsil/ Sub- Tehsil levels.

28.07.2006 The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in collaboration with the Ramakrishna Mission (RKM), is empowering the women of the Sunderbans to promote the use of solar power. This pilot project has successfully created viable enterprises, targeting women entrepreneurs, who provide solar products as well as services in remote and interior villages.

28.07.2006 The UN has urged the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels to resume peace talks so that the nearly 300,000 internally displaced people can return to their homes. UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said after a trip to Sri Lanka that conditions should be created all over the country that allow people to return home.

27.07.2006 Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres: Nosotras integrantes del Comité Internacional de la Marcha Mundial de Mujeres, manifestamos nuestra indignación frente a la escalada de violencia en Medio Oriente. La masiva operación militar de Israel de ocupación de territorio libanés tiene como blanco su populación civil y destrucción de su infraestructura.

27.07.2006 WASHINGTON, Jul 26 (IPS) - One year after Democrats succeeded in blocking Senate confirmation of John Bolton as Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, the White House has once again thrown down the gauntlet, demanding that its least diplomatic diplomat be confirmed in the post for the balance of President George W. Bush's term.

27.07.2006 from interim thoughts blog:
Modern American farming uses the energy equivalent of three or four tons of TNT per acre each year. Can India leapfrog this oil-rich approach to farming?