Asia Pacific

Basketball star Yao Ming, UNEP's first-ever Environmental Champion

Basketball star Yao Ming becomes first UN Environmental Champion

9 August 2008
The Olympic athlete and Chinese basketball star Yao Ming has become the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) first-ever Environment Champion, the agency announced today in Beijing.
Displaced Sri Lankan families collect emergency shelter materials

Sri Lanka: UN agency concerned for over 10,000 families escaping violence

8 August 2008
The United Nations refugee agency expressed concern today over the safety of thousands of families fleeing escalating violence in northern Sri Lanka between Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Five-year development road map agreed by UN and Timor-Leste

8 August 2008
The United Nations and Timor-Leste’s Government have embarked on a five-year programme to reduce poverty, consolidate democracy and provide basic social services for the people of the nation which the UN helped shepherd to independence in 2002.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Ray Chambers, Special Envoy for Malaria

India: UN envoy lauds $520 million boost from World Bank to fight malaria

7 August 2008
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Malaria today welcomed the World Bank’s recent announcement that it would supply over $500 million to help India combat malaria and other diseases.

Timor-Leste: UN mission welcomes truth panel’s findings on rights abuses

7 August 2008
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Timor-Leste today welcomed a recent report on human rights abuses that took place during the country’s bloody struggle for independence in 1999.

UN fetes volunteers’ contributions to Beijing Olympics

7 August 2008
The United Nations and the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympics, which kick off tomorrow, have celebrated the work of volunteers to help prepare for the Games and their contributions to development in China.

UN rights expert wraps up visit to Myanmar

7 August 2008
The independent United Nations expert on the situation of human rights in Myanmar has wrapped up a four-day visit to the South-East Asian nation, his first since taking up the post in May.
UNODC Representative in Afghanistan Christina Oguz

Afghan lawyers group major stride for young democracy, says UN agency

6 August 2008
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has welcomed the newly-established Afghan Independent Bar Association, which it called an important step in promoting justice and due process in the fledgling democracy.
Richard Bennett of the human rights office (OHCHR) in Nepal (file Photo)

Nepal: UN agency says 2.5 million in need of immediate food aid

6 August 2008
Around 2.5 million people in rural Nepal are in immediate need of food assistance and an additional 3.9 million are at risk of becoming food insecure because of rising prices, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report released today.

Women’s empowerment key to achieving development targets, UN forum told

6 August 2008
Women’s empowerment is critical for countries in Asia and the Pacific to advance towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, all by 2015, according to participants at a United Nations forum held in the Thai capital.