Full Coverage: South Asia

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 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 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 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 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 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.

11/28/2006 Sri Lanka's first outdoor wireless computer network is now up and running. Surprisingly, it is not in Colombo. It is not even in any of the other key places. It was installed in Mahavilachchiya, a little known village, 40 km from the nearest town Anuradhapura, and surrounded three sides by the Vilpattu jungle.

11/27/2006 The New Delhi based Center for Science and Environment (CSE) has laid out an agenda for the recently set up Tiger Task force that says that the government will have to involve local people and tribals in protecting the tiger and will have to tackle the menace of poaching at the international level.

11/27/2006 100 000 intialaista lasta vaatii maan hallitusta täyttämään lupauksensa osoittaa yhdeksän prosenttia bruttokansantulosta koulutukseen ja terveydenhuoltoon. "Nine is mine" -kampanja tähtää YK:n vuosituhattavoitteiden saavuttamiseen.

11/27/2006 Intian talouselämässä tapahtuu. Bruttokansantulo kasvaa ja ulkomaisia investointeja virtaa maahan. Helsingissä pidetyssä seminaarissa haettiin syitä Intian talousihmeeseen ja etsittiin ratkaisua maan köyhyysongelmaan. Selityksiä talouskasvulle haettiin niin maan historiasta, koulujärjestelmästä kuin protektionismistakin.

11/27/2006 Indian civil society organisations from one of India's most backward states Madhya Pradesh joined hands with people and the government to participate in the global event - Stand Up Against Poverty on 15-16 October, 2006. They joined some 23 million people across the world in the event.

11/27/2006 On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women, the Dalit Networks around the globe orgainsed International Conference to discuss the issues of discrimination and violence against more than 100 million Dalit women in South Asia. Dalit women from South Asia are determined to ‘’transform their pain into power’’ and the Hague Declaration on the Human Rights and Dignity of Dalit women’’ the participants urged the governments of Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well as the international community to support their struggle.

11/26/2006 Some 100,000 children in India have called on their government to fulfill its promise to commit 9% of GDP to education and health spending.

11/26/2006 A correspondent for the BBC and Daily Dawn, who has been reporting on the Pakistani army's fight with pro-Taliban militants, was kidnapped, beaten, and interrogated about his reporting last week.
From: International Freedom of Expression eXchange

11/26/2006 With peace finally taking root in Nepal, parents are searching for lost children and the United Nations is coming down firm against the use of child soldiers.