IRIN - Asia
Updated everyday



AFGHANISTAN: Nine new polio cases in south KABUL Thursday, July 24, 2008 (IRIN) - Despite high hopes for the eradication of polio in Afghanistan, nine new cases have been reported in three southern provinces over the past month.


THAILAND: Food and fuel price surge hits the lower and middle class BANGKOK Thursday, July 24, 2008 (IRIN) - "Everything is more expensive," Somkeirt Boonna, a 35-year-old security guard who works in Thailand's capital, told IRIN.


MYANMAR: Malaria risk high in cyclone-hit delta YANGON Thursday, July 24, 2008 (IRIN) - The risk of malaria remains high in Myanmar's cyclone-affected Ayeyarwady Delta, health officials warn, almost three months after Cyclone Nargis struck.


INDONESIA: Poverty at root of commercial sex work JAKARTA Thursday, July 24, 2008 (IRIN) - In a district of the northeastern part of West Java, commercial sex workers are touting for business right outside the mosque. Bandungwangi, a local NGO working against trafficking, says half the women and children it rescues from prostitution in Jakarta come from this district.


AFGHANISTAN: New campaign to tackle stigma and misconceptions KABUL Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (IRIN) - The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, and Constella Futures, a US-based research organisation, have been awarded contracts to implement Afghanistan's first major HIV/AIDS projects in four cities, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) told IRIN/PlusNews.


SRI LANKA: "Holistic" approach to waste management COLOMBO Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (IRIN) - Staff at the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) who manage a waste-management project in the southeastern Sri Lankan District of Ampara consider it a sign of success when town residents complain that their rubbish needs collecting.


PAKISTAN: Humanitarian situation in northwest deteriorating - rights group LAHORE Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (IRIN) - About half a million people in the Kurram Agency along the border with Afghanistan, which has seen fierce fighting between rival groups of militants in the past few months, are suffering “horrific violence”, according to a leading human rights activist.


THAILAND: Buffaloes play greater role as fuel and fertiliser prices soar BANGKOK Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (IRIN) - "Buffaloes are like having capital," Kongsin Wilaikham, from Norgpue in Khun Kaen Province in northeast Thailand, told IRIN. "I rely on my buffaloes because the tractor is now so much more costly, given fuel prices. I use them for ploughing, for their manure and for cash when needed."


AFGHANISTAN: Insurgency, insecurity threaten health progress KABUL Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 100,000 people have been deprived of access to basic health services in different parts of Afghanistan over the past four months, due largely to worsening insecurity, with attacks on health workers and health centres, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said.


BANGLADESH: 70,000 people vulnerable to landslides KHAGRACHARI Wednesday, July 23, 2008 (IRIN) - Illegal hill-cutting due to rampant building has left some 70,000 people at risk of landslides in 18 sub-districts of Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandarban hill districts, as well as the city of Chittagong, warned specialists.