CHINA: HIV Patients Find Treatment but Face Discrimination

Despite notable successes in the battle against HIV and AIDS in China, discrimination against infected people remains rife here and critics continue to question the Chinese government over allocation of treatment funds.

PHILIPPINES: Biodiversity Threatened Before It’s Discovered

"Every time we go in the water, someone discovers something that's never been seen before," says Dr. Terrence Gosliner, leader of the ongoing 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition.

INDIA: Violations May Hit Vaccination Plans

After a government report confirmed major ethical violations in trials of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines on Indian schoolgirls, senior doctors are calling for transparency in clinical trials conducted under private-public partnerships.

Taiwanese Ponder Democracy Deficit

A coalition of Taiwan social activists has warned that the island country's democracy is now in a state of ''stagnation'' after three years of government under the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) administration of President Ma Ying-jeou.

INDIA: Kashmir in Search of Lost Culture

While the conflict in Indian Kashmir and the destruction it has caused often makes the news, its impact on culture has hardly gotten any attention.

PAKISTAN: Women Lose Livelihood Centres to Militants

Housewife Shahida Jabeen was devastated when she heard the news that she could no longer take sewing and embroidery classes at the local training centre in her hometown in South Waziristan in north-west Pakistan.

SRI LANKA: Peace Dividend Skips Remote Villages

The road to Unnichchai in eastern Sri Lanka makes for a nerve-wracking journey trying to avoid large crater-like potholes, squeezing across narrow bridges, and passing by a patchwork landscape of paddy fields - both abandoned and cultivated - with not a building in sight.

Queer Film Fest Breaks India’s Social Glass Ceiling

More than a decade ago, when India’s first lesbian-themed film - ‘Fire’ by Deepa Mehta - was released, it was booed and met with protest and vandalism, forcing many fear-stricken theatre owners to take the film off their screens.

INDIA: Supreme Court Verdict Revives Euthanasia Debate

In a secluded hospital bed in this bustling Indian metropolis, a woman who has lain brain dead for 37 years after a brutal sexual assault is at the centre of a national debate on mercy killing.

SINGAPORE: Social Media Challenges Govt Grip

Weeks after a watershed general election in Singapore, the influential role played by social media to dramatically transform political debate in this affluent city- state continues to reverberate through cyberspace.

NEPAL: Women Battle for New Constitution

With the May 28 target for a new constitution approaching and Nepal’s coalition government admitting it would not make the deadline, women are pushing for rights they want enshrined in the document.

JAPAN: Woodpecker Finds Allies Against U.S. Helicopters

At the foot of the pristine Yanbaru forest at the northern tip of Okinawa, Japan, a small cluster of tents gives shelter to a group of protestors guarding the area against the planned construction of six new military helipads for the U.S. forces on the island.

AUSTRALIA: Indigenous Say It on Film

From the Australian bush to Alaska’s Arctic wilderness, indigenous peoples’ stories and perspectives take centre stage at the Message Sticks Film Festival, the only annual event of its kind in Australia.

Pakistan Fighting Off U.S. Aid

The killing of Osama Bin Laden on May 2 in a covert operation by the United States has prompted strident calls by many in Pakistan to see it as a lesson for the country to stand on its feet, say no to foreign aid and shrug off the title "hired gun of the U.S."

PAKISTAN: Nearly Osama’s Neighbour

It was far from home for an eight-year old, about 400 km from the eastern city of Lahore, to be exact. But Abbottabad was home. My father lived there; he was born there, in that house which my grandfather built. Now that the dust and uncertainty about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden there seem to be settling, I think back on what was, and what might have been.

PAKISTAN: Bomb Survivors Vow to Pursue Taliban Attackers

Survivors of the twin suicide attacks on Shabqadar Fort in Charsadda town in north-west Pakistan said they were eager to take on their assignments as new members of the Frontier Constabulary (FC), even as some are still recuperating from wounds inflicted by the attacks.

THAILAND: Red Shirts Reappear Ahead of Poll

Thailand faces a new phenomenon on the road leading to the Jul. 3 polls: an informal union between a strong opposition political party and a formidable street protest movement that may reshape this year’s political campaign.

PAKISTAN: Militancy Keeps Refugees Far From Home

Back home, Abdur Rehman’s family had a spacious house that could easily fit the 10 members of his family. Now they all have to squeeze into a small tent in a refugee camp near Peshawar in north-west Pakistan.

JAPAN: Respect for Authority Gives Way to Anger

More than a hundred young nursing mothers living in Fukushima and nearby areas have signed up to get themselves checked for radiation contamination, but they would rather do it on their own, with no help from the Japanese government.

China Ponders This Royal Business

The glamour of the UK royal wedding is slowly disappearing from China's photo spreads, but it seems to have opened the door to a debate on the allure of old Britain's soft power and what makes an aspiring China lacking of it.

Military Looms over July Polls

Thailand’s powerful army chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, appears determined to carve out a dominant role for the military in the coming weeks, as political parties seek to woo an estimated 45 million voters ahead of the general election on Jul. 3.