Asia

Given the rise of religious fundamentalism and blatant attacks on minorities especially minority women.  There is widespread practices of discrimination and social exclusion of women from Dalit (untouchable) communities, despite constitutional guarantees of equality and decades of targeted interventions by government. 

James Elder, an Australian national, was appointed spokesperson for the United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF) in July last year. He appeared regularly on television and radio news, as well as in print media, discussing the plight of children caught up in Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war. He has now been accused by the government of doing propaganda in support of the LTTE.

A spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission says votes from 447 polling stations have been annulled due to fraud. The cancelled ballot papers could amount to as many as 200,000 votes. Partial results released today give sitting President Hamid Karzai 48.6 percent of the vote while his closest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, 31.7 percent.

On Sunday, LDP party, in power since 1955, suffered a historic defeat in parliamentary elections. Japanese voters shifted to the left. According to the official results, the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan has won 308 out of a total of 480 seats in parliament. A record 54 women have won seats in the new Japanese parliament, where women generally are under-represented.

North and South Korea have reached an accord on restarting a reunion programme for families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War. The reunions, which begun in 2000, were shelved amid deteriorating relations since a conservative South Korean government took office in February 2008. The reunions will take place between 26 September and 1 October at a resort in North Korea.

High school students of St. Paul College of Pasig City form and document human peace and nonviolence signs as part of their preparation to the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. This is an anticipation of the “Million Human Signs for Peace” campaign which officially starts on September 21 (International Day of Peace) promoted by Genevieve Kupang.

US military commanders have said that they need more troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. Last week, President Obama defended the expansion of the war, calling it a “war of necessity.” We speak with Harvard professor Stephen Walt, who argues that the President’s “safe haven” argument for expanding the US military presence in Afghanistan should be viewed with skepticism.

Throngs of South Koreans bid farewell to former President Kim Dae-jung. The former president, who died last Tuesday, was 85 years of age. He was interred today, Sunday. Some 24,000 people were present at his burial. The North Korean delegation that attended his funeral visited South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, delivering a message from the President of North Korea.

A North Korean diplomatic delegation has told New Mexico’s state governor Bill Richardson that Pyongyang wants bilateral talks with the United States about its nuclear programme. Pyongyang seems to have adopted a more moderate course recently: Two US journalists were released and North Korea is sending a delegation to the funeral of former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.

In a late but important recognition, the government of North Korea announced its intention to participate in Kim Dae-Jung´s funerals. President Kim, was the first South Korean President to actively seek reconciliation with the North. He made enormous progress in the relations with North Korea, which he visited in 2000 and held an historic meeting with its leader Kim Jong-il.