AZERBAIJAN: Baku Mulls “Green Tax” on Corporate Polluters

Azerbaijani officials appear to buy into the idea that taxation policy can be an effective way of managing the environment.

TAJIKISTAN: Journalists Push Back Against Mounting Media Restrictions

In a country with no daily newspapers and soft-hitting state media outlets, the Internet is where an increasing number of curious Tajikistanis go for news and information. That’s apparently got officials worried.

Internet Becomes Newest Victim of Repression in Kashmir

Fayaz Ahmad’s Faim Internet Café in the Sopore township of Indian Kashmir was booming until a year ago, when police entered his premises without warning and seized all his computers.

Three Years of Peace But No Sign of Prosperity

Mamaduwa, a remote village in Sri Lanka’s northern Vavuniya district where scorching winds blow across parched earth, is trying to forget the past.

India to Conserve Biodiversity at Grassroots

India’s National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is actively promoting decentralised grassroots livelihoods as the best way to  conserve biodiversity as mandated by the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing (ABS).

Violence Against Women Persists in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, often cited as a model of progress in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), appears to be sliding backwards when it comes to dealing with violence against women (VAW).

Obama Aides Launch Preemptive Attack on New Iran Plan

Although the place and time of the next round of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme have not yet been announced, the manoeuvring by Iran and the United States to influence the outcome has already begun.

U.S. Military Assistance to Central Asia Highly “Opaque”

U.S. military assistance to key Central Asian governments has increased dramatically in recent years, but remains highly “unexamined”, according to new research presented in Washington on Tuesday.

Fiji’s Leadership of G77 a ‘Rare Opportunity’ for the Pacific

For the first time in 48 years, a Pacific Small Island Developing State (PSIDS) is gearing up to assume chairmanship of the Group of 77 developing nations plus China.

Donors Urged to Tread Carefully in Myanmar

Foreign donors are rushing into Myanmar (formerly Burma), whose government has been pushing the right political buttons as part of its democratic reform process. But development planners and local activists caution that  the best approach should still be ‘easy does it’.

Women Hit Hard by Natural Disasters

In the aftermath of a natural disaster, women are often the most vulnerable. Particularly in rural areas, women suffer disproportionately from inadequate shelter and poor sanitation facilities and are often tasked with rebuilding shattered homes.

India Ignoring Coastal Biodiversity – NGOs

Indian civil society organisations see in the 11th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), underway in this south Indian city, a rare opportunity to highlight alleged neglect of biodiversity along the country’s extensive coastal and marine areas.

Girls Determined to Fight Guns With Books

Shazia Begum, one of three girls injured in the attack on the Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai says the Taliban had sought to silence a very influential schoolgirl.

Report Accuses China of Mass Forced Evictions

Wang Jiazheng's family was sleeping at home when the bulldozers, along with security officers, entered their village at dawn.

Child Marriage Defies Laws in Nepal

Social activists in Nepal agree that the one reason why this impoverished country will miss the gender-linked Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations is the persistence of child marriage.

Clock Running Out on Afghan Political Solution

After more than a decade of international military intervention in Afghanistan, U.S. policymakers have come to accept that a political solution is the way forward in Afghanistan, analysts here are suggesting.

Bounty Offered in Pakistan Activist Shooting

The Pakistani government has offered a Rs10 million (105,000-dollar) bounty for the capture of the Pakistani Taliban assailants who shot Malala Yousafzai, a teenage rights and education activist in the northwestern Swat Valley, officials say.

Sendai Shares Big Lessons from the Great Quake

The debris of the devastated Arahama elementary school yielded two enduring lessons for its principal, Takao Kawamura, in the months after the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan’s north-east coastland on Mar. 11, 2011.

After Riots, Buddhists Call for Peace

Anxiety has yet to die down over a week after crowds of Muslims torched more than a dozen temples and scores of houses in southeast Bangladesh, leaving thousands of Buddhists with the unshakeable premonition that more violence was forthcoming.

Pangolin Trade Betrays Apathy for Biodiversity

Conservationists see the decimation of pangolins (scaly anteaters) in Pakistan as a sign of the callousness with which this country’s rich biodiversity is being traded away for commercial gain.   

Health Alliance Brings Pricy Pneumococcal Vaccine to Pakistan

Pakistan, where some 126,000 children under five years old die from pneumonia every year, launched a new pneumococcal vaccine Tuesday, making it the first South Asian country to do so.