500,000 Pregnant Women at Risk in Pakistan Floods
    on 02/09/2010 15.27.48 GMT
Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS, Sep 1 (IPS) - Aid groups and U.N. agencies are raising the alarm over the vulnerability of pregnant women and babies in flood ravaged Pakistan.... (continue)

AFGHANISTAN:Not Much Good News for the Media
    on 02/09/2010 15.09.16 GMT
Ashfaq Yusufzai PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sep 1 (IPS) - Good news has become harder to come by these days in Afghanistan, especially as the war-ravaged country gears up for the parliamentary election scheduled on Sep. 18.... (continue)

INDIA:Kashmiri Youngsters Wage Online Struggle
    on 02/09/2010 15.06.18 GMT
Athar Parvaiz - Asia Media Forum*... (continue)

US-MIDEAST:Light At End of Tunnel Elusive Despite Obama's Efforts
   Analysis by Jim Lobe on 02/09/2010 15.01.44 GMT
WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (IPS) - President Barack Obama will try this week to underline his progress in extricating the United States from the morass his predecessor's "global war on terror" in the Greater Middle East.... (continue)

SOUTH AFRICA:"Tea Bag" Filter Provides Safe Drinking Water
    on 02/09/2010 14.58.36 GMT
Chris Stein JOHANNESBURG, Aug 30 (IPS) - Though it may look like a tea bag, straining water through this recently developed filter could provide a cheap, easily replenished source of water for those who need it most.... (continue)

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN:Mob Brutality Raises Painful Questions
    on 02/09/2010 14.55.20 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 30 (IPS) - A breakdown in Pakistans justice system, a sign of a society desensitised to violence, an example of mob brutality.... (continue)

HEALTH-INDIA:Infant Deaths Cast Doubt on Vaccination Policy
    on 02/09/2010 12.55.38 GMT
Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, Aug 27 (IPS) - The deaths of four infants during a recent vaccination drive in Lucknow, capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, has raised questions about the Indian government's plan to introduce five-in-one vaccines in a countrywide immunisation programme.... (continue)

Climate-related Security Predictions Coming True in Pakistan
    on 02/09/2010 12.47.56 GMT
Matthew O. Berger WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (IPS) - Analysts have been warning for several years that the impacts of climate change directly relate to the national security of the U.S. and other countries, but the link has never been so clear as it is today in northwest Pakistan.... (continue)

Pakistani Officials Seek Funds, Debt Relief in Washington
    on 24/08/2010 13.44.50 GMT
Matthew O. Berger WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (IPS) - Pakistani officials continued their quest for help in light of the floods that have affected 20 million people in their country by meeting with officials at the International Monetary Fund here Monday.... (continue)

Death of Smallpox Holds Clues to Stop Viral Killers
    on 23/08/2010 18.03.16 GMT
Matthew O. Berger WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (IPS) - The stories of Dr. Ciro de Quadros' work in eradicating smallpox read like the stuff of global health legend.... (continue)

Brazil Aims for World's "Most Perfect" Population Census
    on 23/08/2010 16.39.32 GMT
Thalif Deen RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 23 (IPS) - Come Dec. 31, about 68 countries are expected to complete the arduous task of taking an accurate head count of the number of people living within their geographical borders.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Schools Cross Extremism Out Of Textbooks
    on 23/08/2010 11.51.00 GMT
Ashfaq Yusufzai PESHAWAR, Aug 23 (IPS) - Turn schools into hate-free zones, and achieving peace in violence-wracked Pakistan may not be far behind.... (continue)

AFGHANISTAN:Task Force 42 and Task Force 121, the Other Secret Killers û Part 3
    on 23/08/2010 11.48.56 GMT
Pratap Chatterjee*... (continue)

AFGHANISTAN:Task Force 373, the Secret Killers û Part 2
    on 23/08/2010 11.48.38 GMT
Pratap Chatterjee*... (continue)

DEVELOPMENT-PAKISTAN:Flood Aid Exposes Distrust of Gov't
    on 23/08/2010 11.41.50 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 20 (IPS) - Inundated by appeals through text messages, email and Twitter, as well as in print and broadcast media, that call for donations of dried rations, hygiene kits, buckets, tubs and cooking pots, and straw mats, Ambreen Siddiqui feels lost in trying to help her fellow Pakistanis in the midst of the country's worst floods in decades.... (continue)

Q&A:"Women Are the First to Cook and the Last to Eat"
    on 20/08/2010 01.14.52 GMT
Kumari Karandawala interviews activists from the new INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S ALLIANCE... (continue)

U.N. Steps Up Pressure to Raise Funds for Pakistan
    on 20/08/2010 00.27.20 GMT
Megan Iacobini de Fazio and Matthew Berger*... (continue)

POLITICS-INDIA:In Kashmir, Tensions Put Life on Hold
    on 19/08/2010 04.19.24 GMT
Athar Parvaiz SRINAGAR, India, Aug 19 (IPS) - The doctors at the hospital that Khalida Begum's husband brought her to in the frontier district of Kupwara knew she was in a dangerous state. They thus recommended that she be transferred soonest to the maternity hospital here in Srinagar, where she was sure to receive far better care.... (continue)

Need and Risks Never Higher for Humanitarian Work
    on 18/08/2010 23.46.20 GMT
Megan Iacobini de Fazio... (continue)

RIGHTS-INDIA:Despite Laws and Campaigns, Child Marriages Persist
    on 17/08/2010 06.45.26 GMT
K S Harikrishnan TAMIL NADU, India, Aug 17 (IPS) - Soon after she had her second child, Rathna fell into a frenzied state and had to be brought to a hospital here in the southern Indian village of Dharmapuri. After a month-long series of tests, doctors issued their diagnosis: Rathna, they said, was suffering from a psychiatric aberration that seems to occur often among adolescent mothers.... (continue)

Funding Lags to Aid Pakistan's Millions of Displaced
    on 17/08/2010 00.16.50 GMT
Megan Iacobini de Fazio... (continue)

ENVIRONMENT:Climate Change Debate Rises with Pakistan Floods
    on 16/08/2010 14.24.08 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 16 (IPS) - "If this is not God's wrath, what is?" 40-year-old taxi driver Bakht Zada said of the massive floods in Pakistan that have swept away his life earnings.... (continue)

Cancer Surge Getting Short Shrift in Developing World
    on 15/08/2010 23.59.14 GMT
Megan Iacobini de Fazio... (continue)

TRADE-NEPAL:Carpet Industry Frayed at the Edges
    on 13/08/2010 08.30.38 GMT
Bhuwan Sharma KATHMANDU, Aug 13 (IPS) - It was an industry pioneer and had even proved itself successful in the export market. But these days Jawalakhel Handicraft Centre (JHC) is barely able to sustain itself on retail sales, and general manager Chimi Dorjee has been reduced to just recalling how things had been when the going was still good.... (continue)

CLIMATE CHANGE:Cancún Conference Holds Out Little Hope in Face of Extreme Weather
    on 12/08/2010 18.34.54 GMT
Julio Godoy* - Tierramérica... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Endangered Snow Leopard Clawing Its Way Back
    on 12/08/2010 10.01.56 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 12 (IPS) - For more than 10 years, Shafqat Hussain has been on the trail of the endangered snow leopard. He has heard the beast's growl, and has seen its pugmarks against a snowy track. But his dream, of coming eye-to-eye with the elusive nocturnal feline, remains unfulfilled. "If you've seen the cat, you've seen the Holy Grail," says Hussain.... (continue)

460 Million Dollars Sought for Pakistan Flood Relief
    on 12/08/2010 03.25.18 GMT
Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11 (IPS) - With an estimated 14 to 16 million people affected by what the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) calls "the worst monsoon-related floods in living memory", the U.N. launched a humanitarian flash appeal Wednesday seeking 459.7 million dollars for relief efforts in Pakistan.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Controversial Drug Welcomed by Some, Worries Others
    on 10/08/2010 07.17.50 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 10 (IPS) - With its latest hotline a surefire hit, the non-government group Aware Girls could not be any happier.... (continue)

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN:Film Gives Women Survivors A New Take on Life
    on 05/08/2010 08.15.02 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 5 (IPS) - "The first film I make when I go back to my village will be about unequal wages women peasants get compared to their male counterparts," says Haseena Mallah, an unlettered farmhand in her 40s.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Flood Disaster Means Starting from Zero
    on 04/08/2010 12.29.36 GMT
Ashfaq Yusufzai PESHAWAR, Aug 4 (IPS) - "We swam the whole day to get hold of the elderly and women swept away by floodwaters," recalled 27-year-old Shahid Ali of Charsadda district, one of the areas in north-western Pakistan badly hit by devastating monsoon rains.... (continue)

Despite Iraq Withdrawal, Greater Mideast Not Looking Good
   Analysis by Jim Lobe* on 03/08/2010 08.15.16 GMT
WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (IPS) - While President Barack Obama Monday touted the continuing U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq as a key marker in the success of his regional policies, the latest news from the Greater Middle East, as well as a new public opinion survey, is far less encouraging.... (continue)

POLITICS-INDIA:Kashmir Cauldron Boils Again
   Analysis by Sujoy Dhar on 02/08/2010 07.27.54 GMT
NEW DELHI, Aug 2 (IPS) - The sight of armoured vehicles and soldiers in battle gear out in Kashmir's streets in July is a grim warning of a storm gathering yet again over the restive valley.... (continue)

COLOMBIA:Report Suggests "Correlation" between U.S. Aid and Army Killings
    on 30/07/2010 19.06.04 GMT
Helda Martínez BOGOTÁ, Jul 30 (IPS) - "There are alarming links between increased reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian army and units that receive U.S. military financing," John Lindsay-Poland, lead author of a two-year study on the question, told IPS.... (continue)

Pakistan Poll Finds Widespread Disillusionment
    on 30/07/2010 07.28.18 GMT
Eli Clifton* WASHINGTON, Jul 29 (IPS) - The recent Wikileaks dump of war-related documents has brought little new to the debate over Washington's ongoing military involvement in Afghanistan, but allegations that Pakistan's intelligence services are aiding the Taliban has brought renewed attention to U.S. concerns over its reliance on Islamabad in battling Taliban and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Life At A Time Of Suicide Bombings
    on 28/07/2010 06.26.36 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim LAHORE, Pakistan, Jul 28 (IPS) - Like any other Friday morning, hordes of people flocked at the shrine of 11th-century Sufi saint, Hazrat Ali Hajveri, that is near Bhaati Gate inside Lahore's walled city on Jul. 2. By that afternoon, a much larger crowd had gathered at the site, this time for the usual Friday prayers.... (continue)

Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Increasingly Under Siege
   Analysis by Jim Lobe* on 27/07/2010 03.57.22 GMT
WASHINGTON, Jul 26 (IPS) - Monday's release by WikiLeaks of tens of thousands of classified documents detailing the travails of the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Pakistan's secret support for the Taliban from 2004 through 2009 comes amid a growing crisis of confidence here in the nearly nine-year-old war.... (continue)

Leaked Reports Make Afghan War Policy More Vulnerable
   Analysis by Gareth Porter* on 27/07/2010 02.48.46 GMT
WASHINGTON, Jul 26 (IPS) - The 92,000 reports on the war in Afghanistan made public by the whistleblower organisation WikiLeaks, and reported Monday by the Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel, offer no major revelations that are entirely new, as did the Pentagon Papers to which they are inevitably being compared.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Depression, Poverty Make A Deadly Mix
    on 21/07/2010 05.24.48 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim LAHORE, Pakistan, Jul 21 (IPS) - She survived the nightmare, but three of her six children, as well as her husband, did not. In fact, Muzammil Akbar says, it was her husband Akbar Ali who had fed poison to their three eldest children before handing her a "handful of white tablets".... (continue)

UN's Big Five Facilitate Arms Transfers to Rights Violators
    on 19/07/2010 18.34.08 GMT
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jul 19 (IPS) - The five permanent members of the Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - are accused of facilitating the transport of conventional weapons and cluster munitions to countries where they could be used to commit human rights violations and war crimes.... (continue)

INDIA:Amid Renewed Violence, Kashmir Journalists Become the News
    on 19/07/2010 10.55.06 GMT
Athar Parvaiz û Asia Media Forum*... (continue)

US-IRAN:Mosque Blasts Denounced by Obama, Clinton
    on 17/07/2010 01.31.20 GMT
Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Jul 16 (IPS) - Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday denounced Thursday's suicide bomb attacks on a Shi'ite mosque in Sistan-va Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran by a Sunni extremist group that Tehran charges is being supported by Washington.... (continue)

PAKISTAN:Swat Valley's Festival Speaks Up for Peace
    on 16/07/2010 10.35.28 GMT
Ashfaq Yusufzai PESHAWAR, Jul 16 (IPS) - The threats against officials and ordinary people alike have not stopped, with yet another suicide bomber sowing terror in the district's main town just on Jul. 15.... (continue)

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN:Slowly, Women Gain Ground through Land Ownership
    on 13/07/2010 12.55.22 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim BADIN, Pakistan, Jul 13 (IPS) - "I told my husband if he ever hits me (again), I'll pack up and go to my parents who live just round the corner, and he will lose the land I got," says Jannat Gul of Tando Bagho village here in this southern Pakistani district. Her husband has not hit her for the past six months û since Gul became the owner of some 1.6 hectares of land.... (continue)

THAILAND:For Transgenders, Identity Papers Are No Simple Matter
    on 13/07/2010 07.30.40 GMT
Sutthida Malikaew BANGKOK, Jul 13 (IPS) - In New Zealand, where Sujinrat Prachathai enjoys resident status, she is a woman able to append 'Mrs' to her name to signify that she is married. Here in Thailand, however, she has to be addressed as 'Mr' since she is still considered male even though she underwent a sex-change operation years ago.... (continue)

Talks Continue on Arms Treaty, an Instrument for "Extreme Cases"
    on 10/07/2010 13.43.50 GMT
Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS, Jul 10 (IPS) - Experts from over 100 U.N. member states will convene Monday for two weeks to discuss the elements to be included in a long-awaited Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) - what will be a multilateral, legally-binding document regulating the transfer of conventional weapons and small and light arms.... (continue)

Midwives vs. Doctors in U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis
    on 09/07/2010 13.27.18 GMT
Hannah Rubenstein NEW YORK, Jul 9 (IPS) - "I was baking a cake when my contractions were two minutes apart," Kristine says, her voice warm with memory, "not in a hospital, holding onto a bedside somewhere screaming."... (continue)

HEALTH-PAKISTAN:Children's Cancer A Hidden Crisis
    on 09/07/2010 07.38.54 GMT
Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Jul 9 (IPS) - Her husband works as a nurse in one of Pakistan's most prestigious private hospitals, but when their two-year-old daughter Mary was diagnosed with leukaemia, Sadaf John could only be thankful that the Children's Cancer Hospital (CCH) existed in this country.... (continue)

INDIA:Kashmir Youth Fight û to Save the Environment
    on 08/07/2010 15.16.30 GMT
Athar Parvaiz SRINAGAR, India, Jul 8 (IPS) - Now that the armed conflict between Indian security forces and Kashmiri militants has eased considerably, youngsters are coming out to fight a new threat û environmental degradation û that looms over this beautiful valley often termed 'paradise on earth'.... (continue)

THAILAND:Sexuality 101 Exhibit Says It Straight
    on 08/07/2010 05.10.30 GMT
Lynette Lee Corporal... (continue)