Asia 2007

Asia Links

Benazir Bhutto had been addressing rallies in many parts of Pakistan. Photo: AFP

Benazir Bhutto killed in attack BBC News  December 27, 2007 (You will leave this site.)  Mourners gather for Bhutto funeral BBC News  December 28, 2007 Obituary: Benazir Bhutto BBC News  December 27, 2007

A satellite photographs a cluster of homes in the Burmese jungle. Seven months later, as shown here, the village and people are gone, removed by the Burmese military. Photo: AAAS

Satellites track 'removed' Burmese villages Lauren Howey BBC News  November 17, 2007 (You will leave this site.) See other Burma stories

Photo: BBC

Detained opposition leader Bhutto calls on Musharraf to quit  BBC News  November 14, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Top judge attacks Musharraf rule  BBC News  November 6, 2007 (You will leave this site.)  Musharraf declares martial law. Pakistan government moves against media, judiciary, opposition. BBC News  November 5, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Attack on Bhutto convoy kills 130 BBC News  October 19, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Musharraf wins presidential vote. Opposition boycott election. Supreme Court will decide if election was constitutional. BBC News  October 6, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Pakistan power deal between Musharraf and Bhutto 'stalled'  BBC News  October 3, 2007

Burma to expel UN's top diplomat BBC News  November 3, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Burmese wait, worry in junta's climate of fear Jill Drew Washington Post October 24, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.) 

Monks have mounted daily protests  to object to government attempts to silence critics  Photo: AP

Global rallies against Burma crackdown BBC News  October 2, 2007 (You will leave this site.) UN envoy holds key Burmese talks BBC News  October 2, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Burmese play tense waiting game BBC News  October 2, 2007 Soldiers break up Burma protests BBC News  September 26, 2007 (You will leave this site.) Burmese military imposes curfew BBC News  September 25, 2007 Burmese military threatens monks BBC News  September 24, 2007 Burma monks issue defiant message--intend to continue protests until government collapses BBC News  September 17, 2007 See also Burma--growing darker daily  Kyi May Kaung

Troops have sealed off  monasteries and key religious sites that were focal points of previous demonstrations.  Monks have mounted daily protests  to object to government attempts to silence critics  Photo: AFP

The National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was launched in February last year to provide employment to millions of people in India's poorest villages to work on building local infrastructure like village roads, small dams, ponds and buildings. Photo: AFP

India's most ambitious scheme ever to lift people out of poverty has met with largely disappointing results in its first year, studies suggest Soutik Biswas BBC News  September 26, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

India's long-established ties with Iran straining relations with US Rama Lakshmi Washington Post September 20, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.) 

Provinces undermine Beijing's Goals on AIDS  Maureen Fan Washington Post September 18, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.) 

Shimu, 13,  is the star of a very low budget "edutainment' series sponsored by UNICEF which reaches 10 million people in Bangladesh. She lives with her grandparents in Dhaka in a one-room house. Her grandfather, Mohamed Siddiq, 61, said he wants Shimu to stay in school but is worried that she may end up marrying or working, since their family is being evicted in a month and has no savings.  Photo: Emily Wax/Twp)

Bangaldeshi child star hopes life will mirror art.  Lead of show about girls' education fights to stay in school  Emily Wax  Washington Post September 14, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.)  Such shows are referred to as "edutainment,"  communicating messages about health, human rights and education to a wide audience.  For more information see for example The Communications Initiative

Most of Allai's 150,000 inhabitants are tenants who till plots of land along steep mountainsides in exchange for permission from landlords to build a shelter on the land and to get a share of the food, often a small percentage of the produce grown on the land. Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

Pakistan: tenants clamor for rights in quake-affected zone of Allai IRIN August 15, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

Another shot in US-China currency fight: Chinese threaten to sell US securities, which China owns in large quantities due to its favorable balance of trade with the United States  Krissah Williams Washington Post August 9, 2007 No breakthrough on key issue of value of yuan in U.S.-China talks.  China evidently will allow small daily revaluations, while the United States wants major revaluation BBC News  May 23, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

A father along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan waits to have his son vaccinated against polio. The virus remains endemic in both countries. Photo: Nima Abid/WHO

Afghanistan-Pakistan: cross border polio campaign targets 40 million children IRIN August 7, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

The Asian Development Bank finds that the gap between rich and poor has widened sharply in China and many other Asian countries BBC News  August 8, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

A scene of flooding in the Terai region of southeastern Nepal. Flood victims frequently lack access to humanitarian aid due to the destruction of roads and bridges. Photo: Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Fresh rain worsens S Asia floods BBC News  August 17, 2007 (You will leave this site.) South Asia flood death toll rises BBC News  August 7, 2007 (You will leave this site.) South Asia floods displace millions, spark fears of widespread disease  Emily Wax Washington Post August 4, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.)

In China, farming advances lie fallow--no clear path for new science or policy changes such as proper pesticide use to reach rural fields Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post August 6, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.)

The one-child policy is to be explained in "more amiable" terms. Photo: AFP

China will tone down some of the slogans used to promote its one-child policy, in a bid to make them sound less threatening BBC News  August 5, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

China's massive new dam passes its first real test. In a season of deadly floods, the Yangtze appears tamed at last. Edward Cody Washington Post August 3, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.)

Pakistan's President Musharraf has said he will fully accept a court decision to reinstate the country's chief justice, who Musharraf had suspended BBC News  July 21, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

A 'broken people' in booming India: low-caste Dalits still face prejudice, grinding poverty  Emily Wax  Washington Post June 21, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.)

U.S.-South Korea trade pact signed BBC News June 30, 2007 See Hunger Notes special report Global Issues: trade, hunger and poverty

Mr. Chen campaigned against official abuses. Photo: AP

Blind Chinese human rights activist beaten in jail where he is imprisoned BBC News  June 21, 2007 (You will leave this site.)  Birth control crackdown sparks riots in rural China. Officials enforce one-child policy with brutal drive to collect fines. Edward Cody Washington Post May 23, 2007 (You will leave this site and be required to register [once] with the Post.) Government net censorship growing worldwide BBC News  May 18, 2007  Access to Hunger Notes  by Chinese citizens is blocked by the government of China, evidently because of our publication of articles concerning rural people, like the one above.  To test if a website is blocked, see the Great Firewall of China's test site http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/test/

China unveils climate change plan but says economic development must come first BBC News  June 4, 2007 (You will leave this site.)
 

The Indian government's scheme will benefit the poorest of the poor. Photo: BBC

Indian government unveils plan to give poor life and disability insurance BBC News  May 22, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

China slams U.S. piracy complaint BBC News  April 10, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

United States and South Korea agree to trade deal BBC News  April 2, 2007 (You will leave this site.) See Hunger Notes special report Global issues: trade, hunger and poverty

Deep-sea trawlers from the far-east sit at anchor in a customs port in Karachi, Pakistan.  Such trawlers, which can catch many more fish than the much smaller boats of local Pakistani fisherman, are stripping Pakistani waters of fish.  Photo : ©Warrick Page/ActionAid

Overfishing by international trawlers pushes Pakistani fishing communities into poverty ActionAid March 22, 2007

Bangladesh phone row escalates between Grameen Bank and private sector partner BBC News  April 3, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

Bangladesh's army chief says the country should not go back to being run by an "elective democracy"  BBC News  April 2, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

China economy records huge growth BBC News  January 28, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

A malnourished child at a health center in India.  Photo: BBC

Prime Minister Singh calls large  Indian nutrition program a failure--says program has been poorly implemented  BBC News  January 16, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

Is Bangladesh heading towards disaster?  Waliur Rahman  BBC News  January 8, 2007 (You will leave this site.)

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