Region

Kabul– Afghan government should release the approximately 400 women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes,” Human Rights Watch said in a new report released on 28 March. The United States and other donor countries should press Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai to end the wrongful imprisonment of women and girls who are crime victims rather than criminals.

…”And while she will have little power, the mere fact that she is there means there will be a lot more international attention on parliament itself and the decisions that it makes,” reports Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay from Yangon on the election results portending success of the National League for Democracy after twenty years on the political backburner.

Yangon – As millions of Burmese go to the polls on 1 April, expectations are high for real change. Across this Southeast Asian nation and abroad there is an unprecedented sense of hope not seen in decades following a wave of political reforms now described by Myanmar’s own government as “irreversible”.

Twenty years ago, Rik Idema, a Dutch cyclist, first passed through Mongolia on a round-the-world biking trip, the country struck him as the most pristine place he’d ever seen, so later returned to explore it with a Mongolian friend. They started Tseren Tours together in 1994. Yet while business is thriving, the couple worries about Mongolia’s future as a tourist destination.

With 22,8 million inhabitants, at least one million people in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the findings of a government-led assessment mission jointly carried out with the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The violent political arguments that took place around the district of Kannur, in India’s Kerala State, often had their roots in silly disputes over pasting posters or wall graffiti by the various political parties, so writes Subin Mananthavady in the Deccan Chronicle. “People in Chalad have a different perspective about posers or writing slogans for scoring political points.”

The Global March to Jerusalem to take place on March 30 has been proposed as a peaceful demonstration in many countries around the world to support the Palestinians’ cause in Israel. It is time for all humanists, for all those who aspire to a world of diversity, human rights and equal opportunities to concentrate hearts and minds to achieve a truly nonviolent day of action.

“I have the feeling that justice has finally been done after the offensive launched against me,” provincial TV journalist Teobaldo Meléndez Fachín told RWB yesterday, referring to an appeal court ruling 10 days ago overturning his November conviction on a charge of [“aggravated defamation”](http://en.rsf.org/peru-decriminalization-of-press-05-01-2012,41631.html).

A bomb attack on the offices of the national TV network Televisa in Matamoros in Tamaulipas state on 25 March has raised fears of a resumption of the threats that were aimed against the organization in the same place [in 2010](http://en.rsf.org/mexico-after-four-releases-tragic-july-03-08-2010,38086.html).

“Racism and racial discrimination have been used as weapons to engender fear and hatred. In extreme cases, ruthless leaders instigate prejudice to incite genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”. With these words, UN secretary general marked this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which focuses on the theme of racism and conflict.