Asia

The Arab revolutions are beginning to destroy the cliché of an Arab world incapable of democratic transformation.

Two years on from the end of the devastating 26-year civil war that ripped Sri Lanka apart, Channel 4 News has obtained rare footage from inside the country's northern corner, formerly the Tamil stronghold.

Gradually, but certainly Nepali Congress (NC) is intensifying internal discussions on how to get the peace process moving. The NC has always been for the rehabilitation and integration of the former Maoist combatants before the promulgation of the new constitution. As of today, both the peace process and the statute-drafting task have almost come to a standstill.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a film documenting how the hopes and dreams of women, indigenous and disadvantaged groups in Nepal were fused into the country's new constitution.

As many as 4,000 cases of violence against women have been registered by Jammu and Kashmir State Commission for Women (JKSCW), a senior official today said.

"After inception of the Commission in the state, around 4,000 cases of violence against women were registered by it in Jammu and Kashmir", Secretary JKSCW Hafeeza Muzaffar said, adding, out of those 1,500 cases were settled amicably.

A drastic rise in reported "honor" killings and fatal domestic violence in Turkey has sparked a vigorous debate about the government's recent attempts to address the problem. It also highlights the clash of conservative values with the country's rapid modernization.

When Bangladeshi film Meherjaan was released in January this year, it was a great moment for the director Rubaiyat Hossain.

It was her debut and in making it she had joined a handful of female film directors in Bangladesh.

The feature film is about a Bangladeshi woman's love affair with a Pakistani Baloch soldier during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence.

With the exception of the three nations of Nepal, Bhutan and Iran, Cornell University's Kathryn March, Feminist and Professor of Anthropology, Gender, Sexuality Studies and Public Affairs says, "Every single country there has had its highest political position occupied by a woman, at least once."

Something is seriously out of tune here. Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) is calling for the repatriation of refugees along the Thai-Burma border, but the Shan community, in its latest report, denounced the ongoing Burmese offensive against civilians, including the shelling of Buddhist temples, gang-rape and using women as cannon fodder.

A senior commissioner has urged President Benigno Aquino III to appoint a woman to the remaining vacancy in the Commision on Elections (Comelec).