MUZAFFARABAD, 16 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that it is increasing food rations to help those affected by the South Asian earthquake to survive the bitter winter months.Full report

MUZAFFARABAD, 28 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - With the onset of winter before him, Ishtique Abbasi knows all too well that food will be a problem. Having survived this months devastating quake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, he must now wrestle with how to feed his family. Full report

MULTAN, 20 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Last month, Saira, six, died in Jehanian, a village near Multan in the southern Pakistani province of Punjab. The area is best known for its high quality mangoes and for its cotton, the countrys most important cash crop. Full report

OSH, 19 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Children in Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz national dress performed a play recently at a UN-sponsored summer camp designed to confront border tension in the poverty-stricken Ferghana valley region of Central Asia. Full report

KATHMANDU, 13 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Latest figures from the 2005 Human Development Report (HDR) indicate Nepal continues to languish at the bottom of the global human poverty index. The Himalayan kingdoms infant mortality rate is the third highest in the world, with nearly 30,000 children dying each year during their first month of life.Full report

ISLAMABAD, 9 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Pakistan's leading independent rights body expressed grave concern this week over the poor humanitarian situation across remote parts of northern Pakistan. Full report

SANKHUWASABHA, 30 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Its a daunting task for development worker Narab Bhupal Rai. Not only does he have to walk for days to reach the remote villages where he works, he also has to run the gauntlet of Maoist rebel leaders who regularly interrogate him about his work and political affiliation. Despite the difficulties, Rai continues to carry out his duties.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

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

NEPAL: Focus on rural development in Maoist areas

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with rural development minister

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with governor of isolated Nuristan province

NEPAL: Focus on malnutrition

KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Focus on the impact of the Kyrgyz revolution in the Ferghana Valley