Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

27.02.2007 ARBIL, Feb 26 (IPS) - The security situation in Iraq's northern oil rich-city Kirkuk has deteriorated over the past few weeks as a constitutional deadline approaches to determine the fate of the city.

27.02.2007 Poor communities displaced by a World Bank-funded US$123m dam remodelling project in Pakistan started an indefinite hunger strike yesterday in protest at the Bank’s refusal to set up an independent inquiry into the dam’s environmental and economic impact.

26.02.2007 Tongues on Fire Film Festival, London, 9-31 March, "celebrates the excellence, performance and achievements of Asian women in cinema". It showcases work by women or stories where women are the central protagonists "in order to encourage debate and hold up a mirror to life".

26.02.2007 Religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq are facing unprecedented levels of violence, and in some cases risk being eradicated completely from their ancient homeland, according to a new report.
From Minority Rights Group International.

23.02.2007 Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development (DFID) Suma Chakrabarti tells The Financial Express in an interview that a political consensus is building on in the UK over committing its Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment of 0.7% of its GNP. Read on for more.

23.02.2007 Each time Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Africa, he leaves a bigger Chinese footprint on the continent. This February, Hu made his most visible push yet for settlement of the Darfur crisis.

23.02.2007 Single-minded pursuit of exports has helped China reach record economic growth figures. But millions of Chinese have been left behind, and this growth has severe environmental costs. These are indicators that India must be wary of copying China's Special Economic Zones-approach.

22.02.2007 An "alarming upsurge" in executions in Saudi Arabia, with at least 17 people already executed in 2007, was condemned by Amnesty today.

22.02.2007 Conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are close to meltdown, an international charity said today as the U.S., EU, Russia and the UN met to discuss Middle East peace hopes.
+ OneWorld Guide to Palestine

22.02.2007 A leading Catholic aid organisation is to ask the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Manfred Nowak, to investigate alleged torture of detainees in West Papua by police and military officers when he visits Indonesia this year.

22.02.2007 Farhang Jahanpour examines the background to the U.S. House of Representatives "momentous decision" to formally repudiate President Bush's decision to send 21,500 new combat troops to Iraq.

22.02.2007 Australia has announced plans to ban traditional light bulbs in a move Prime Minister John Howard called a practical step toward slowing climate change. Incandescent filament lightbulbs will be phased out by 2010 in favour of the more fuel-efficent compact fluorescent bulbs.

21.02.2007 As a UN committee readies to discuss India's compliance with human rights standards this week, a new report charges that it has systematically failed to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables.

20.02.2007 The Jarawa tribe of Andaman Islands could be "wiped out" unless the Indian government acts to protect them, a report warns as the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination prepares to discuss India’s record.
+ Canadian tribe reaches out to Jarawa

20.02.2007 A delegation of 13 American religious leaders is visiting Iran this week to meet religious and political leaders in the hope of improving relations between the people of Iran and the United States.

17.02.2007 Australian "values" and national pride are political distractions in a nation witlessly at war in Iraq and Afghanistan - a nation with up to 43 per cent youth unemployment at home and, in some places, the majority of its black youths in custody, says John Pilger.
From New Statesman

16.02.2007 A Japanese whaling ship carrying tens of thousands of gallons of oil has been disabled by fire in Antarctic waters near the world's biggest penguin breeding ground. A Greenpeace ship, in the area to try to stop the hunt, has offered its assistance.

16.02.2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 16 (OneWorld) - Trade unionists on both sides of the Pacific expressed relief Thursday after a seventh round of free trade negotiations between South Korea and the United States ended without an agreement.

16.02.2007 Europe is failing to help the thousands of Iraqis suffering on its doorstep, according to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

15.02.2007 India’s Total Literacy Campaign used a new system by making local administrators and community organisations--not central bureaucrats--responsible for implementation. ID21 looks at the program's lasting impact on the women who administered the program, worked as volunteer teachers, and were taught literacy and numeracy skills.