Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

29.04.2009 An international media group has asked Thailand's King for a royal pardon for a journalist jailed for 10 years under the country's lese majeste law, and 32 organisations are pressing for the legislation to be amended.

29.04.2009 Indian Dalits (formerly often known as Untouchables) have come under serious attack and intimidation, preventing many from voting in the country’s elections, and human rights organisations are warning of further violence and targeted attacks in the next phase of voting.

28.04.2009 As tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians continue to make their way out of the conflict zone, the UN refugee agency says it is responding to the deepening emergency in the north of the country.

26.04.2009 Exhibition of 100 ID portraits found at S-21, a Khmer Rouge torture and interrogation prison where fewer than 20 out of 14,200 prisoners are believed to have survived.

25.04.2009 Several hundred people today staged a protest against British company Vedanta, as it bids to expand its controversial aluminium refinery in India.

24.04.2009 Fresh displacement has topped 100,000 in Sri Lanka’s north as tens of thousands of civilians continue to flee heavy fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, says the UN refugee agency.
+ Secretary-General to dispatch UN relief team to Sri Lankan combat zone
+ Tourism industry provides food for internally displaced

22.04.2009 The UN Security Council should put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to suspend its military offensive in the north to enable tens of thousands of trapped civilians to leave the battle zone, said a leading international rights organisation.
+ Hundreds of wounded arriving from war zone
+ 40,000 more flee battle zone – UN
+ The Tamil diaspora: solidarities and realities
+ 'Final assault' is no answer
+ Thousands flee in Sri Lanka
+ ICRC calls for exceptional precautionary measures to minimize further bloodshed

22.04.2009 More than 400 war-wounded patients arrived in Vavuniya hospital in a government-controlled area of northern Sri Lanka in a 36-hour period, says an international medical charity.
+ 40,000 more flee battle zone – UN
+ The Tamil diaspora: solidarities and realities

21.04.2009 As tens of thousands of people fled Sri Lanka’s conflict zone, the UN Children's Fund said it held grave fears for children still trapped in escalating fighting. The Red Cross described the situation as 'catastrophic'.
+ Ban welcomes civilians’ escape from conflict zone
+ Stories and pictures from London demo

20.04.2009 As the Sri Lankan government gave secessionist Tamil Tigers 24 hours to surrender, the rebels warned that "the fight for our freedom will continue - the methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring."
+ Tamils escalate London protest
+ Victims of Sri Lankan conflict arriving with increasingly severe scars

19.04.2009 Although his case study of China is hardly typical, Timothy Garton Ash offers a painful reminder that cutbacks in media reporting have further diminished coverage of foreign news. Guardian

17.04.2009 An official two-day ceasefire in Sri Lanka which ended on Wednesday has not helped to end the suffering of around 100,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone, says a leading rights group.
+ UK calls for immediate ceasefire

17.04.2009 Allegations of corruption threaten the tribunal investigating atrocities in Cambodia and need to be thoroughly addressed and the findings made public, say rights groups.

16.04.2009 Lack of law enforcement against illegal trade in Indonesia threatens the survival of orang-utans and gibbons on Sumatra, according to a new study.

14.04.2009 Malaysia's Muslim preachers have been enlisted in the fight for wildlife conservation, using passages from the Koran to raise awareness and help protect some of the world's most endangered species.

13.04.2009 Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called a two-day halt to military attacks against Tamil secessionists in the north on 13 and 14 April, to mark the Sinhala and Tamil new years and to facilitate the safe passage of trapped civilians.
+ Ban welcomes military pause

10.04.2009 No significant effort has been made to capture the perpetrators of murder, sexual attacks and other assaults on women human rights activists in Nepal, says an international rights group.

09.04.2009 A Sri Lankan staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross was hit by a shell and killed instantly while fetching water for his family in the coastal belt of the territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
+ 'Clock ticking' for trapped civilians
+ ActionAid continues relief distribution
+ Growing concern over civilians

08.04.2009 Time is running out for the thousands of civilians trapped in northern Sri Lanka by the conflict between government forces and Tamil rebels, the United Nations humanitarian chief warned today as he appealed again for a temporary halt to fighting.
+ ActionAid continues relief distribution
+ Growing concern over civilians

07.04.2009 More than 60,000 civilians have fled the combat zone between government and rebel forces in Sri Lanka in the past two months and tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped, acoording to a UN official.