Asia

Just five days before the submission date, the government has yet to begin work on its report on the Convention Against Torture (CAT). After ratifying the United Nations convention on June 23, 2010, the government was required to submit a report under the “UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” on July 23.

Tehran's prosecution service on Monday confirmed the arrest of Pagah Ahangarani, a reporter, actress and film-maker who had wanted to cover the women's football World Cup in Germany, ISNA news agency reported.

"Pagah Ahangarani was arrested a week ago and she is being investigated," ISNA quoted an informed judicial source in Tehran's prosecution office as saying, without elaborating.

Women Constituent Assembly (CA) members underlined the need to specify constitutional provision in the new constitution to grant citizenship certificate based on gender equality.

Tibetan Women's Association (TWA), the largest women's organisation in exile submitted a report on the treatment of Tibetan women in Nepal to a UN body that monitors women's right worldwide.

In a release Tuesday, TWA said that the report was presented at the ongoing 49th session of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in New York.

Four Afghan women are in Texas training to become among the first female pilots in the Afghan Air Force.

The four women, all in the early 20s, are breaking the mold in male-dominated Afghanistan as foreign troops continue to help build the nation's military. The only female pilot now in the Afghan Air Force is almost 40 and a holdover from the Soviet era.

When Hillary Clinton hugged Charimaya Tamang, the 34-year-old Nepali woman had reason to be proud. While all the other nine heroes feted by the US secretary of state were lawyers and officials, she was a former victim of Mumbai's notorious Kamathipura red light area who was being honoured for battling trafficking.

Trafficking in people for prostitution and forced labour is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity and the overwhelming majority of victims are women and children. More than 700,000 people are believed to be trafficked each year worldwide. Trafficking is now considered the third largest source of profit for organised crime, behind only drugs and weapons, generating billions of dollars annually.

At least seven anti-government protesters were arrested and beaten by Iraqi security forces as hundreds of angry demonstrators gathered Friday in al-Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, human rights activists told CNN.

Five of the activists were released, but two were still being held, activists said Friday evening.

The news about Afghanistan hasn't been good lately: a recent report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee baldly declared that the country could suffer a severe economic depression after the United States' scheduled departure in 2014. A new interview from UN Dispatch had a more hopeful perspective, however.

Human rights activists have raised serious concerns about a lawyer who fell foul of Iran's Islamic regime for highlighting the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.