Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

11/30/2006 Mercy Corps is assisting impoverished families caught in the latest crisis in Gaza by providing short-term jobs in the community to 2,600 residents.

11/30/2006 United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan has added his voice to the growing concern about a possible coup against the government of Fiji. Pacific states fear the ramifications of a coup both for Fiji and the region as a whole.

11/30/2006 Executive Director of the World AIDS Campaign, Marcel van Soest speaks to UNAIDS about the history of the World AIDS Campaign, how people can become involved in this year’s events and why ‘accountability’ is such a crucial theme for World AIDS Day 2006.

11/29/2006 Continua la repressione da parte delle autorità di Pechino nei confronti dei leader religiosi delle confessioni non omologate al regime. Nei giorni scorsi tre leader protestanti cinesi sono giustiziati di nascosto e senza prove - informa Asianews. I tre leader - Xu Shuangfu (60 anni), Li Maoxing (55) e Wang Jun (36) - sono stati uccisi in un carcere della provincia orientale dell’Heilongjiang: le autorità hanno chiamato i familiari solo dopo l’esecuzione per far ritirare le ceneri. E sempre l'agenzia Asianews riporta che il monaco tibetano Sonam Gyalpo è stato condannato a 12 anni di carcere per “procurato pericolo alla sicurezza statale”. E oggi due vescovi cattolici sono stati sequestrati per obbligarli a partecipare all’ordinazione episcopale che avverrà domani a Xuzhou (Jiangsu), senza il permesso della Santa Sede: i due vescovi sono della Chiesa ufficiale fedele al regime, ma le loro ordinazioni erano state approvate dal Vaticano.

11/29/2006 "Pashtunien perinteiset arvot ovat hukkumassa verimereen", varoittivat Pakistanissa viime viikolla rauhanneuvoston merkeissä kokoontuneet sadat poliittiset johtajat ja heimopäällikköt. He vaativat voimakkaasti talebaneja lopettamaan väkivaltaisuudet sekä Afganistanissa että Pakistanissa.

11/29/2006 Naton johtajat olivat yksimielisiä talebanien voittamisen tärkeydestä Afganistanissa. Lisäjoukkojen määrästä ja kansallisten rajoitusten vähentämisestä ei kuitenkaan päästy yksimielisyyteen. Naton pääsihteeri Jaap de Hoop Scheffer toivoi puheessaan tiistaina, että Nato voisi luovuttaa vastuun Afganistanin omille turvallisuusjoukoille vuoden 2008 aikana.

11/29/2006 Greenpeace has criticised the Indian government over its e-waste - waste from electronic and electrical equipment - policies for ignoring international laws and for putting the burden of handling e-waste on consumers and not producers. The organisation has said that the policy will "open the floodgates for dumping e-wastes in the country."

11/29/2006 Radio Sagarmatha, the pioneering Kathmandu-based community radio broadcaster, has been awarded the AMARC International Solidarity Prize 2006 in recognition of its outstanding work in defence of human rights and democracy in Nepal.

11/29/2006 Nirantar, a New Delhi-based NGO that works on gender and education, has announced its Annual Course on Participatory Material Production, to be held in two phases in November 2006, at Chitrakoot in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and March 2007 in Indian capital New Delhi.

11/29/2006 India-based Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) is organising the Asian Telecentre Forum 2007 conference from 6-8 February 2007 at the Palace of the Golden Horses, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The last date for submission of abstracts is 15th December 2006.

11/28/2006 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.

11/28/2006 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.

11/28/2006 Indymedia activists report from Tonga, where riots broke out this month calling for democratic reforms. The demonstrators argue that the monarchy and current economic system only benefit the country's top 1 percent.

11/28/2006 Peace in Sri Lanka depends on recognizing and taking pride in the country's diverse identities and cultural melange, writes Sri Lankan professor Nira Wickramasinghe.

11/28/2006 Espoo on vuoden 2006 UNICEF-kaupunki. Vuoden aikana Espoossa kerätään varoja erityisesti UNICEFin ohjelmiin Laosissa ja Karjalassa. Keräys sekä ohjelma jatkuvat vuoden viimeiseen päivään saakka, mutta ohjelmallinen huipennus kuullaan 29. marraskuuta Juhlakonsertissa "Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen".

11/28/2006 Aasian talousjätit Kiina ja Intia tiivistävät yhteistyötään, mutta sen hidasteina on sekä vanhoja että uusia ennakkoluuloja. Vieraillessaan Intiassa marraskuun lopulla Kiinan presidentti Hu Jintao allekirjoitti 13 yhteistyösopimusta Intian pääministerin Manmohan Singhin kanssa. Yksi niistä koskee ydinenergian käyttöä ja kehittämistä.

11/28/2006 Professori Hannu Pesolan valokuvanäyttely nepalilaisen ihmisen elinkaaresta on esillä Biomedicum Helsingin aulassa Meilahdessa, osoitteessa Haartmaninkatu 8, 00290 Helsinki. Kuvat on otettu hänen kahden Nepalin matkansa aikana vuosina 2001 ja 2004.

11/28/2006 Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist who was imprisoned after the American search engine company Yahoo provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to his arrest, has been awarded the 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers.

11/28/2006 The decision by the Indian government to allow civil society organisations and community groups to own and operate radio stations will give an additional tool to the civil society to empower people it works with.

11/28/2006 Papiya Sarkar from the Media and Communications group of the India Social Forum (ISF) writes about the seminars on globalisation and fair trade that she attended at the recently-concluded ISF. The discussions were on overcoming barriers to fair trade and making it work for the socio economic development of the marginalised sections of the population.