Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

30.03.2009 Two million Bangladeshi children are affected by acute malnutrition, says a UN survey, which warned that rising food prices are forcing many households into a spiral of debt.

30.03.2009 Disclosure that in the first nine months of last year Britain licensed the sale of military equipment to Israel worth £27 million today brought a call for the UK government to stop arming Israel.

28.03.2009 The Great Game: Afghanistan Film Festival is a programme of features, shorts and documentaries - including nine premieres and many Q&A sessions – that gives a celluloid glimpse into the joys, sorrows and adventures of everyday life in Afghanistan.

27.03.2009 Tens of thousands of people trapped in "safe zones" in the north-eastern Wanni region are at increased risk from the escalation in attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, said a leading international rights group.
+ Situation deteriorates as heavy rains fall
+ Tamilnet update
+ At end of Sri Lanka's long war, siege is best hope
+ No Let-Up in Army Shelling of Civilians
+ Civilians die in Sri Lanka shelling
+ Sri Lanka crisis

26.03.2009 A 17-year-old Iraqi pianist is putting on a recital at the Wigmore Hall in London to raise awareness about her campaign to set up the first National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.

26.03.2009 Heavy rains have caused more hardship for an estimated 150,000 civilians trapped in fighting between government and rebels in Sri Lanka’s northern Vanni region.
+ Tamilnet update
+ At end of Sri Lanka's long war, siege is best hope
+ No Let-Up in Army Shelling of Civilians
+ Civilians die in Sri Lanka shelling
+ Sri Lanka crisis

24.03.2009 Iraqis continued to be the largest nationality seeking asylum in the industrialised world last year, even though the number fell 10 per cent, says the UN refugee agency.

20.03.2009 Prison authorities in Iran are further punishing prisoners by denying them medical treatment, an international rights group said after the second death in custody in less than two weeks as a result of denial of treatment.

19.03.2009 A warning about the risks to children in the Sri Lankan civil war has been given by UNICEF chief Ann M. Veneman as an international medical charity says it is negotiating provision of mental health services in a region where thousands of people are believed to be trapped by the fighting.
+ State secrets, public denials in Sri Lanka

16.03.2009 Iraq’s Justice Minister is urged to stop the execution of 128 death row prisoners, amid reports that the authorities are planning to start executing them in batches of up to 20 starting this week.

11.03.2009 The Tibet Film Festival includes undercover documentaries, films that shed light on the little understood system of reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhist tradition and films exploring Tibet in relation to its neighbours.

11.03.2009 Human rights activists in the Middle East and North Africa still face persecution and repression, more than 10 years after the UN called on all states to support the work of people defending human rights.

10.03.2009 Chinese authorities in Tibet should open the region to foreign journalists and release imprisoned Tibetan journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today - the 50th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule.
+ Freedom of expression “systematically violated” in Tibet
+ Unrest in Tibet continues as human rights violations escalate

10.03.2009 The Afghan supreme court's confirmation of a 20-year prison sentence for blasphemy on a journalist - without hearing arguments from the defence - has been condemned by international media groups.

10.03.2009 Disabled women are becoming more visible in Southeast Asia's disability movement and getting their voices heard. Kuhu Das, a disabled woman activist and director of the Association of Women with Disabilities in India, tells of her struggle and how a unique project is training disabled women to be new leaders.

09.03.2009 “I don’t want to be a martyr and get it banned and boast about it,” says actress Nandita Das of her directorial debut, Firaaq. But she was aware when making her film about people caught up in the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 that it might prove controversial.

09.03.2009 Our sense of values continues to rotate in the spin-dryer. On the same day that Gandhi's spectacles sell for millions, the Bank of England decides that money is worthless.

08.03.2009 William Dalrymple's book review draws interesting parallels between post-independence land reform in India and Pakistan and the contrasting path of modern literature in the two countries. Financial Times

08.03.2009 Mothers, wives, widows and daughters of Iraq remain caught in the grip of a silent emergency, a new survey shows.

07.03.2009 “In Afghanistan”, says the ad for Afghan Star, “you risk your life to sing.”