Full Coverage: South West Asia

28.08.2006 "We want to be the voices of all children in all districts of Tehran. We want to let all people and officials know about their happiness and success as well as their sadness and problems," say the 14 young journalists who produced Iran's first newspaper by kids for kids.

28.08.2006 Local authorities on Thursday appealed for emergency relief for thousands of families displaced by recent fighting and drought in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Fierce fighting between government forces and the ousted Taliban militia, coupled with this year’s particularly hash drought, have forced nearly 4,000 families to leave their homes.

24.08.2006 The United States' Millennium Challenge Corporation--much anticipated for its business-like approach to providing aid to developing countries--is barely off the ground in the Republic of Georgia but already faces allegations about accountability and transparency.

24.08.2006 Domestic violence against Afghan women appears endemic, and attacks against them usually take place with impunity, according to a disturbing new report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

23.08.2006 ACCION International is backing lending organizations in new markets, as it announced Tuesday it will extend loan guarantees to help spur small business opportunities in Poland and the Republic of Georgia.

22.08.2006 There is increasing evidence that Israel instigated a disastrous war on Lebanon largely at the behest of the United States. Analyst Stephen Zunes says one of the most unsettling aspects of the plan is how closely it corresponds to historic anti-semitism: setting up a Jewish proxy to take the fall for unpopular policies.

18.08.2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 17 (OneWorld) - Twenty-one former generals and high ranking national security officials have called on United States President George W. Bush to reverse course and embrace a new area of negotiation with Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. In a letter released Thursday, the group told reporters Bush's 'hard line' policies have undermined national security and made America less safe.

17.08.2006 NEW YORK, Aug 16 (OneWorld) - Rights advocacy groups here are calling for the United Nations to support human rights defenders in Iran.

11.08.2006 Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet has approved a proposal to resurrect a notorious ministry set up under the Taliban that ruthlessly implemented a string of arbitrary laws in the name of regulating "virtue and vice."

09.08.2006 Iran has threatened to prosecute the country's most prominent human rights group as an illegal organization in what observers say is just the latest attempt to shut down civil activists.

07.08.2006 Afraid that attacks on schools--up six-fold since last year--could reverse the country's progress, UNICEF and Afghanistan's Ministry of Education have launched a task force to monitor and respond to incidents.

04.08.2006 "Afghan women and girls face increasing insecurity, and it’s more important for the government to address how to improve their access to public life rather than limit it further. Reinstatement of this controversial department risks moving the discussion away from the vital security and human rights problems now engulfing the country" - Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.

01.08.2006 NATO, which had already assumed responsibility for security in the west and north of Afghanistan, took control of military operations for the volatile south of the country as well Monday, with a force of 8,000 comprised largely of Canadian, British, and Dutch soldiers.

01.08.2006 The NATO International Security Assistance Force has taken over operations in the south of Afghanistan from the US-led coalition. The NATO force consists of 8,000 troops mostly from Canada, Great Britain and the Netherlands.