Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

31.01.2007 A call has been made for the immediate release of Karim Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticising Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam.

31.01.2007 from Unplugged Living:
“These heaters are capable of heating water up to 80 degree Centigrade. It takes 30 minutes to boil rice using these heaters,” explains hospital Dean.

31.01.2007 The Sri Lankan government should allow newsprint and ink to be transported into Jaffna to enable the city’s publications to function, two freedom of expression groups have urged.

31.01.2007 Dr. Rashad Zidan and the women of Iraq have been voted People of 2006 by OneWorlders across the planet.

31.01.2007

31.01.2007 from Green Wombat blog:
Under development in Australia: a solar-powered home hydrogen fueling station that can be installed in a corner of your garage.

30.01.2007 WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (OneWorld) - Hundreds of citizens from across the United States descended on Capitol Hill Monday to follow up on the weekend's mass demonstration calling for the reduction and ultimate end of U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

30.01.2007 Dr. Rashad Zidan, and the women of Iraq, have been working tirelessly to hold families together through the terrors of war. Nominated by the U.S.-based women's activist group CodePink, OneWorlders across the planet have voted them the People of 2006.

28.01.2007 The political will exists to combat China’s pollution, but collusion between business and local governments remains a major obstacle. Jianqiang Liu asks: who is really harming the country’s interests?

27.01.2007 Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis must drop its controversial court case against India which begins in Chennai on 29 January, Oxfam urged. The case challenges India's patent law designed to promote cheaper generic medicines for poor patients.
+ MSF urges Novartis to drop its case

26.01.2007 A U.S. court martial has refused to hear an officer's argument that the war in Iraq is illegal. Last weekend, more than 600 U.S. citizens joined a distinguished tribunal panel to hear the testimony the military court wouldn't.

26.01.2007 Government members of the world’s five tuna regional management organisations have failed to agree an action plan to help reverse the decline in tuna stocks and stop the plundering of these valuable species, says a global conservation group.

25.01.2007 Five people have died and a curfew has been imposed in a district in Nepal's plains region after a clash between Maoists and activists for regional autonomy left a student dead.

25.01.2007 Now that George W. Bush has told the American people what he thinks of the state of the union, Council for a Livable World wants to hear what you think--about the speech, the decision to escalate the war in Iraq, and what the United States should be doing there.

25.01.2007 Hundreds of national and local groups are mobilizing for a powerful march on Washington Saturday that will call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq now.

24.01.2007 "Massive environmental damage" and "serious human rights abuses" by the mining industry in The Philippines are condemned today in a new report that warns expansion plans are set to make the problems worse.

24.01.2007 The number of people unemployed worldwide remained at an historic high in 2006 despite strong global economic growth, the International Labour Office (ILO) said in its annual Global Employment Trends released on Thursday. The report also said that south Asia faces growing gender employment gap and challenge of creating jobs.

24.01.2007 Despite initial fears that instability would follow December's death of President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov, the situation in Tukmenistan has remained calm. But the presidential election is approaching under growing signs of public discontent.

24.01.2007 The Sri Lankan government has been accused of complicity or willful blindness in the abduction and forcible recruitment of children for combat in the fight against secessionist guerrillas.

24.01.2007 The deployment of large numbers of Indonesian soldiers to the Punkak Jaya region of West Papua in response to the killing of two soldiers has caused an estimated 5,000 tribespeople to flee into the jungle.