Asia

Syria's civil war has caused a big increase in ‘honour killings' and child marriages and the breakdown of the healthcare system, a British-Syrian doctor said on Wednesday.

Healthcare has also become a ‘weapon of war' for the government, which has targeted doctors and withheld vaccinations from children in opposition-held areas, said Rola Hallam, a volunteer with the medical charity Hand in Hand in Syria.

Savoen still wakes up screaming, reliving the evening she and about 30 other women were dragged to a forest by Khmer Rouge cadres.

The women had been resting after a day of digging a pit in the sweltering heat. The soldiers tied their hands and raped them. When they were done, they began slitting the women's throats. Savoen was the last to be taken.

Women in Syria have been raped in detention, used as human shields during military operations and kidnapped to pressure and humiliate family members, a new report said on Monday.

Britain will give £18.5 million to Afghanistan to help more Afghan women take part in the presidential election next April, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

Women in Syria are increasingly the targets of violent abuse and torture by government forces and armed groups.

Some 6,000 women have been raped since the start of the conflict in March 2011, the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) says.

A spokeswoman for the group said these women were then socially stigmatised, and often forced to flee their homes.

Women's activists in Bali are calling for female representation at the upcoming legislative election to push more women-friendly agendas and policies, such as reproductive health and household economy
empowerment.

Indian police Sunday questioned witnesses in a sexual assault inquiry involving one of the country's most prominent journalists, marking a significant shift under way here in long-held attitudes about women's rights.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has teamed up once again with the Monyati Initiative, an Abu Dhabi based non-profit social development organisation, to empower underprivileged women in Kashmir, Pakistan.

Women in Syria have been raped in detention, used as human shields during military operations and kidnapped to pressure and humiliate family members, a new report said on Monday.

All UK partners delivering humanitarian aid to the Philippines are now required to assess the risk of violence against women and girls and address their needs in their operations as part of a £21.6m government package to tackle sexual violence in emergency situations.