Central Asia

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Nov. 11, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants ambushed and killed six U.S. troops walking in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan — the most lethal attack in a year that has been the deadliest for the U.S. military here since the 2001 invasion.  read more »

Islamabad, 8 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) - The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has announced that reporters throughout the country will observe a "black day" on Friday to protest against the imposition of emergency rule.

The journalists plan to boycott all official functions on Friday and Saturday, hoist black flags on press clubs. All affiliates of the PFUJ will organise meetings, set up protest camps and observe a hunger strike.

They have threatened to carry out this protest if the government fails to lift curbs on the media by Thursday.  read more »

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Nov. 5, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. Opposition groups put the number of arrests at 3,500, although the government reported half that.  read more »

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Nov. 4, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Police and soldiers emboldened by state of emergency powers swept up hundreds of activists and opposition members on Sunday, dragged away protesters shouting "Shame on you!", and turned government buildings into barbed-wire compounds.  read more »

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Nov. 3, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital.  read more »

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Mon Oct 29, 2007

NEW DELHI - Some 27,000 landless people gathered in New Delhi, hoping to march to Parliament with a single demand — give us land. But police locked them up Monday, chaining the gates to the vast Ramlila fairgrounds and barricading the demonstrators inside.  read more »

Outlook India.com ANIL NAIR

KEVADIA (GUJARAT), OCT 14 (PTI)

As welders piece together iron rods on topmost portion of Sardar Sarovar Dam, a group of farmers clang cymbals as part of a protest at the base of the reservoir built by displacing thousands of tribals, farmers and submerging hundreds of villages in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.  read more »

By BASHIRULLAH KHAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 9, 2007

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Pakistani aircraft bombed a village bazaar packed with shoppers near the Afghan border Tuesday, pushing the death toll to 250 in four days of fighting — the deadliest clashes since Pakistan threw its support behind the U.S.-led war on terror in 2001.  read more »

Late September Buddhist monks in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, led a protest march against the military-controlled government (the Junta). They marched past Nobel Prize winner, Suu Kyi, who was democratically elected as the leader of Myanmar in 1990, but never allowed to assume office. The Junta attacked the monks and other protestors. The Myanmar government claims only ten people were killed, but no one knows how many were really killed.  read more »

ISLAMABAD, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Pakistani journalists protested on Sunday against police violence against colleagues covering a protest against President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad a day earlier.

About 400 journalists and human right activists chanted anti-government slogans and condemned police "brutality" as they marched from a press club in Islamabad to the parliament building.  read more »

July 29, 2007 BBC

Eight left-wing protesters were shot dead by Indian police during a demonstration in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, officials have said.

Police had been pelted with stones as they approached a tent where communist supporters were gathered, and responded by opening fire, said a state minister.

Saturday's protest was called as part of a three-month campaign demanding land for the poor.  read more »

via boingboing, as usual

This link points to "WeepingSikkim," a blog that chronicles an ongoing hunger strike by the youth of Sikkim, India to demand goverment transparency and accountability regarding hydroelectric projects in Dzongu, the homeland of the Lepcha people.

The good news is that hunger strikes by the Buddhist community in Sikkim have sucessfully stopped hydroprojects in the past. However, the projects planned for Dzongu are much much larger. The government of Sikkim is not evil, and has made remarkably progressive environmental moves in the past (e.g Sikkim was one of the first states in India to ban plastic bags).

Sikkim works hard to position itself as an ecotourism/buddhist pilgrimage destination for western tourists, so getting the word out about this hunger strike may help tip the balance.  read more »

July 23, 2007 AP

BAKU, Azerbaijan - An Azerbaijani journalist has gone on a hunger strike to protest his prison sentence and stitched up his mouth to strengthen his demand, a media freedom activist said Monday.

Faramaz Allahverdiyev, a reporter from the opposition Nota Bene newspaper, sewed up his mouth when he went on a hunger strike last week, said Emin Huseynov, who heads the Institute for Freedom and Security of Reporters.

Huseynov told The Associated Press that he learned about Allahverdiyev’s move from other prisoners.  read more »

Fri Jul 13, 2007

WINNIPEG (CBC ) - Thousands of demonstrators rallied in the streets of Islamabad on Friday to protest against the Pakistani government's decision to order a bloody commando raid on militants holed up in a mosque in the capital.

Simultaneous protests were held outside mosques and government buildings across the country following morning prayers, with government forces and police remaining on high alert.  read more »

By ALISA TANG, Associated Press July 9, 2007

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Unable to scrounge together the $165 he needed to repay a loan to buy sheep, Nazir Ahmad made good on his debt by selling his 16-year-old daughter to marry the lender's son.

"He gave me nine sheep," Ahmad said, describing his family's woes since taking the loan. "Because of nine sheep, I gave away my daughter."

Seated beside him in the cramped compound, his daughter Malia's eyes filled with tears. She used a black scarf to wipe them away.  read more »

July 7, 2007

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - A civilian was killed and another wounded in Kashmir on Thursday when an Indian soldier fired at angry villagers who tried to seize him while he was reportedly cuddling with a Muslim girl, police said.

But some villagers said the 21-year-old girl was molested by the soldier, who was seriously wounded after firing at himself and later died of his injuries.

Hundreds of people shouting "We want freedom, down with security forces", took to the streets in Kangan village after the incident, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.  read more »

by Asif Hassan June 29, 2007

TURBAT, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani police fired tear gas to disperse a protest by some of the 1.1 million victims of a cyclone Friday, as fresh storms hit India and flooded villages awaiting help in Afghanistan.

About 500 people have now been killed by more than a week of severe weather that has swept across the coastlines, plains and mountains of South Asia with the approach of the annual summer monsoon.

In Pakistan, 1,000 protesters smashed up the mayor's office in the largely-submerged southwestern town of Turbat, saying they had received no relief goods since tropical Cyclone Yemyin struck on Tuesday.  read more »

By ANI