Asia Pacific

Matsuura

Journalists are working in growing insecurity – UNESCO

14 February 2005
After a flurry of denunciations of individual murders, attacks and kidnappings of journalists, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has voiced increasing concern at the growing insecurity in which journalists in general exercise their profession.

Observance of Afghan women's rights improves, but backlash always threatens – UN

14 February 2005
Since Afghanistan's Taliban Government fell in 2001, Afghan women have "made historic gains, with the support of the international community," but their participation in public life has been circumscribed by the continuing lack of security and reformers had to be careful not to stir up the traditional hostility to women's advancement, a new United Nations report says.

UN rushing relief aid to Pakistan as flooding and avalanches hit

14 February 2005
With heavy snow causing avalanches, torrential rains bursting a dam and both killing at least 300 people in Pakistan, United Nations relief agencies were rushing aid supplies to the region.

Second region in Afghanistan now disarmed, UN announces

13 February 2005
The Jalalabad region of Afghanistan has become the country's second to be disarmed, a United Nations spokesperson announced today.

Heavy snows prompt Tajikistan government to ask for UN assistance

11 February 2005
More than two metres of snow have fallen in the eastern and southern parts of Tajikistan and at least 16 people have died in the heavy storms, prompting the Government to ask for United Nations assistance.
Maurice Strong

UN intensifies efforts to bring DPR of Korea back to nuclear talks, envoy says

11 February 2005
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) withdrawal from six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme is "a very real bump in the road" and the United Nations is intensifying efforts to secure a resumption of negotiations since the alternative to a peaceful solution is "so horrendous," the top UN envoy on the issue said today.

UN health agency steps up surveillance against bird flu in Cambodia

10 February 2005
The United Nations health agency has stepped up surveillance for deadly bird flu in Cambodia after one confirmed case and a second suspect one surfaced there in the latest outbreak of the disease, which has already infected 13 people in neighbouring Viet Nam, 12 of them fatally, since mid-December.
Annan (R) and Jack Straw brief reporters in London

Annan calls on DPR of Korea's partners to bring it back to nuclear talks

10 February 2005
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the countries engaged in the talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to bring the country back to the negotiating table as quickly as possible following its announcement that it had pulled out indefinitely from discussions on its nuclear weapons programme.

‘Adopt an island’ – new UN initiative to help Maldives recover from tsunami

9 February 2005
Big businesses can now adopt small islands in the tsunami-ravaged Maldives under a new United Nations programme to provide funds for people to rebuild their homes in the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, with the top price tag at over $4 million.

Wave of arrests in Nepal deeply concern UN human rights experts

8 February 2005
A group of nine United Nations human rights experts today voiced deep concern over a wave of arrests and detentions in Nepal following King Gyanendra’s suspension of constitutional guarantees and they called for the full restoration of democracy and the rule of law.