Full Coverage: South West Asia

28.06.2007 Afghanistan’s fight against poverty could suffer if it rushes to join the World Trade Organization, an international aid agency warned today.
+ OneWorld Guide to Afghanistan

26.06.2007 Afghanistan recorded a large increase in opium poppy production in 2006 and major new drug trafficking routes, such as those through Africa, may face increasing levels of consumption, warns the latest World Drug Report.

25.06.2007 Describing the deteriorating security in their country as "a step backwards for women," Afghanistan's largest women's rights network is demanding the government and international community do more to protect women in their war-torn nation.

22.06.2007 Numerous U.S. presidential candidates have said they would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran. Join the thousands of others who have co-signed a letter telling the candidates to commit to diplomacy -- not nuclear war -- with Iran, urges the Council for a Livable World.

21.06.2007 Iran - which executes more children than any country in the world - should immediately suspend the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by under-18s, an international rights group said.
+ Stop imminent public execution by stoning

13.06.2007 One thousand prominent Afghani mothers will celebrate Mother’s Day in Kabul Thursday.

13.06.2007 The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is worse now than a year ago, according to the director of operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

12.06.2007 In the aftermath of the Taliban rule, Afghanistan began reviving its education system. UNICEF is now supporting the government to develop a teacher-training system to enlarge the pool of female teachers who were barred previously.

12.06.2007 Demonstrating what the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation calls "a reckless attitude," four of the five Republican presidential candidates in the United States said they would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran's nuclear facility.

07.06.2007 Zakia Zaki, the owner and manager of Peace Radio in Afghanistan, was shot Wednesday morning by three gunmen seen fleeing her home. "[Zaki] believed in freedom of expression, that’s why she was killed," said fellow journalist.

06.06.2007 Martin Fluch teaches German at Kyrgyzstan’s secondary school #18. Short on books but long on energy, he has embarked on a 680-kilometer run to raise money and awareness for his country's under-supplied and under-staffed educational system.

04.06.2007 Though 73 percent of Georgians are optimistic about their country and corruption levels are way down, unemployment, salaries, and pensions remain major concerns for the working class in the rapidly westernizing country.