Full Coverage: South West Asia

28.11.2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 28 (OneWorld) - Rural communities are experiencing a disproportionate amount of U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new study by the Carsey Institute, a think tank at the University of New Hampshire.

28.11.2006 Pashtun traditional values are "being drowned out in a sea of blood," warned hundreds of political leaders and tribal chiefs at a peace jirga last week, calling forcefully for an end to Taliban violence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

20.11.2006 Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia has been battling with Georgia for self-determination. Two different presidential elections and referenda were recently held in the breakaway region, further complicating relations with the Georgian government.

15.11.2006 DUSHANBE, Nov 15 (IPS) - Women have played important roles in rebuilding Tajikistan after the country's civil war of the 1990s. But women in this central Asian country still have many obstacles to overcome to reach equality with men, according to some local activists and international observers.

14.11.2006 Iran is working quietly but feverishly to prevent the total collapse of order in Baghdad and the hasty departure of U.S. forces--both to avoid spillover effects and to minimize the chance of a U.S. attack on its country, says journalist Kamal Nazer Yasin.

13.11.2006 Hamed Mottaghi and "Kosoof" have won an international prize for fighting for free expression in a country that flagrantly censors the Internet and imprisons Internet-users who criticise the government too openly. Nominees were from Russia, Tunisia, China, the United States, and four other countries.
From: Reporters Without Borders

09.11.2006 The abrupt replacement of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld with former CIA director Robert Gates, combined with the Democratic sweep in Tuesday's mid-term elections, appears to signal major changes in U.S. foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. Jim Lobe reports.

03.11.2006 Nearly a month after Russia began deporting Georgian citizens, the Georgian government is scrambling to offer assistance to the reported 1,000 deportees who have returned home.