BISHKEK, 17 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - In economically deprived Kyrgyzstan, young people are increasingly migrating from rural areas to urban centres like the capital, Bishkek, in search of improved employment prospects and a better future. Full report

KATHMANDU, 1 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The World Bank on Monday signed two grants totaling US $35 million with the Nepalese government for the development of rural road infrastructure and economic reform.Full report

JALAL-ABAD, 22 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are supporting an initiative to help revive apple, pear and walnut orchards, as well as vineyards near Tashtak village, in Kyrgyzstan's southern Jalal-Abad province. Full report

KURGAN-TYUBE, 20 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Ten-year-old Parvina can neither read nor write, because she has never attended school. She lives in the southern Tajik city of Kurgan-Tyube, capital of Khatlon province, 100 km south of the national capital, Dushanbe. Sometimes other children play with her showing her how to write her name in the sand. But Parvina can count.Full report

DUSHANBE, 19 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan visited Tajikistan late last month in order to focus government and donor support on achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Queen has also assumed an advocacy role in the international fight to ban anti-personnel mines. In an exclusive interview with IRIN, she said the Central Asian nation had been blighted by poverty and labour migration and needed continued international donor support.Full report

ISLAMABAD, 18 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - More than 30 people have been killed, while over 460,000 people in low-lying areas of Pakistan have been affected by three weeks of flooding, according to the central Flood Relief Cell (FRC) in the capital, Islamabad.Full report

KATHMANDU, 12 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The new national budget of Nepal for 2005-2006 is in the process of being finalised and will be passed for royal assent by next week. However, senior economists are concerned that security costs will absorb revenues and there will be a corresponding slash in development expenditure. Full report

KATHMANDU, 6 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The nine year insurgency in Nepal has had a serious impact on the tourism industry which the government is doing little to tackle according to sources within the business. They blame falling tourist numbers on the conflict that has cost at least 11,000 lives.Full report

KABUL, 4 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Most of rural Afghanistan continues to suffer from food insecurity and a lack of government input. In an exclusive interview with IRIN, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghan Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, said that despite billions of dollars worth of reconstruction over three years, rural areas continue to face huge challenges.Full report

KATHMANDU, 4 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - Ten years ago, when Nepal signed an agreement with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to launch a national programme to eliminate child labour, there were real hopes that the scourge could be significantly reduced. But today activists say that the number of working children in the Himalayan kingdom has increased rather than gone down, in part because of the conditions created by the current insurgency.Full report

TAJIKISTAN: Interview with Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with rural development minister

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with governor of isolated Nuristan province

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on rehabilitation of child soldiers

PAKISTAN: Focus on rehabilitation of child camel jockeys