Full Coverage: Asia and the Pacific

09/29/2006 This year's Right Livelihood Awards demonstrate how individual courage, even in the face of powerful interests and repression, can bring about remarkable changes. Meet the winners.
From: Right Livelihood Awards

09/29/2006 Indonesian asunto- ja puolustusministerit ovat ensimmäisinä avanneet omat bloginsa, ja lisää uusia ministeritason blogiavauksia odotetaan. Ministerit haluavat käydä blogien avulla julkista keskustelua. Suomessa ministereiden ja kansanedustajien blogit ovat arkipäivää, niitä pitävät esimerkiksi pääministeri Matti Vanhanen ja ulkoasiainministeri Erkki Tuomioja.

09/29/2006

Youth Network

With support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Population Council researchers designed an operations research project to determine the feasibility of expanding male youths’ access to reproductive health information and condom services through their peers in Bangladesh.

09/29/2006 A new report by the UN says that India has enough food to feed its population of one billion though hunger and food insecurity have increased since the mid-1990s.

09/29/2006 Recent events in Lebanon and the stalemate in the Middle East peace process have demonstrated the growing failure of the Security Council to tackle issues under its mandate, the Defence Minister of India told the General Assembly, calling for reform of the 15-member body.

09/29/2006

09/29/2006 Stockholm: Ruth Manorama a Dalit herself, 'for her commitment over Dalit women's causes, has bagged the 2006 Right Livelihood Award, better known as Alternate Nobel Prize, it was announced by Akob von Uexkull, the founder of the awards, during a ceremony at the Swedish Foreign Ministry's press room on Thursday.

09/29/2006 from Unplugged Living:
'I’ve heard of rural areas before that have been granted solar facilities but nobody was properly trained to support and carry on the maintenance. The results is unused PV with dead batteries.' Not this time.

09/28/2006 While the fall in the total fertility rate for the five Indian
states for which NFHS-3 results have been released is to be
welcomed, one cannot draw any general conclusion until the data for the BIMARU states comes in. The data on anaemia prevalence among women and children, however, is disturbing says Ashish Bose.

09/28/2006

Telecentre in one building at Embalem, Pondicherry Feb-02 © Peter Armstrong

How much should setting up a telecentre cost? A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet and technologies to gather information and communicate with others while developing digital skills.

09/28/2006 Meena Day 2006 was celebrated in Dhaka and around the country on Saturday September 23rd. The theme of Meena Day this year was: Chhele Meye bibhed nai, jonmo nibondhon shobar chai meaning 'Birth registration for all, be it a boy or girl' - to draw attention to the priority the Government of Bangladesh has attached to Universal Birth Registration by 2008.

09/28/2006 Encouraging development of women entrepreneurship especially in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has been accorded a prominent role in both the Industrial Policy of Bangladesh, as well as the SME Policy Strategies 2005. The Women Entrepreneurship Development Conference proved to be a step in the right direction, with one outcome being the decision to form a Women Entrepreneurship (WE) Forum which will act as a facilitator to remove the barriers in the development of women entrepreneurship throughout the country.

09/28/2006 Intialainen aktivisti epäilee, etteivät intialaiset viranomaiset voi estää miljoonien lasten katoamisia ympäri maata. Hän pelkää, että kadonneet lapset ajetaan kerjuulle tai pakkotyöhön. Intialaiset keskustelivat lokakuussa voimaan tulevasta laista OneWorld South Asian järjestämässä paneelikeskustelussa.

09/28/2006 Nepalilaiset ovat menettämässä uskonsa rauhan tuloon, pelkää Suomessa vieraileva ihmisoikeusaktiivi K.B. Rokaya. Hän haastaa niin kehitysapua antavat hallitukset kuin kansalaisjärjestöt miettimään uudenlaisia tapoja auttaa nepalilaisia. Poliittiset puolueet ja maolaisliike sopivat kesäkuussa kahdeksan kohdan ohjelmasta, joka määrittelee tien konfliktin ratkaisuun ja demokratiaan, mutta sen toteuttaminen polkee paikoillaan.

09/28/2006 "Safety measures must be enhanced to protect the women who are building a better Afghanistan for all," said the director of the women's research institute at the UN, condemning Monday's murder of a top Afghan women's rights official.
From: United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women

09/28/2006 In a ground-breaking decision being called a cultural and legal victory for indigenous people, the Noongar people have won their claim over an area of 2,300 square miles, including offshore islands and the city of Perth.

09/28/2006 Abductions, torture, brutal beatings, killings, extortions and other serious human rights abuses by Maoist rebels have not stopped despite their engagement in the ongoing peace process, according to a new UN report.

09/27/2006 TORONTO, Sep 27 (IPS) - Boreal forests provide 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services like reducing atmospheric carbon and water filtration, but which have gone unacknowledged by governments and industry, experts say.

09/27/2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 27 (OneWorld) - The fate of a U.S. Army medic who went AWOL rather than return for a second tour in Iraq is unclear today after he turned himself in to military authorities.

09/27/2006 An Indian activist has alleged that Indian enforcement agencies are not being able to stem the disappearances of millions of children all over the country. He fears that missing children are being pushed into begging or forced work.