QUETTA, 16 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - For two years, Faqir Hussain, 26, has been searching for a job. He goes about the task methodically from his tiny flat in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta, cutting out notices that appear each week in the Sunday newspapers and maintaining a meticulous list of the organisations he has already written to. Full report

DUSHANBE, 16 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The United Nations launched its appeal for Tajikistan for 2006 in the capital, Dushanbe, on Thursday, requesting more than US $51 million from international donors. Full report

OSH, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Kyrgyz security forces on Tuesday removed dozens of young women from a plane in the southern city of Osh set to transport them to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), allegedly for sexual exploitation.Full report

MUZAFFARABAD, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Under a blue sky in the grounds of the Ajaz Gillani Relief Tent Village, in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, a group of women wearing heavy-duty workmen’s gloves are grappling with thick coils of metal wire.Full report

KANDAHAR, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Zakera, a 40-year-old widow and mother of three, sits in a long queue of mostly female patients awaiting medicine at a tuberculosis (TB) control centre located in the Shar-e-Now district of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Full report

ASHGABAT, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Richard Young is the United Nations' new Resident Representative in Turkmenistan. In an interview with IRIN in the capital, Ashgabat he spoke about the need to formulate an emergency preparedness plan for the earthquake-prone republic and about new programmes to promote human rights in the country. Full report

SARBDOR, 13 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Proudly showing off her cow and calf in the village of Sarbdor, around 80 km west of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Mavliuda Madrahimova says that her livestock, an important source of diary products for her family, has been purchased thanks to a micro-crediting project currently under way in the Central Asian state.Full report

KANDAHAR, 8 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Sitting in her windowless, smoke-blackened classroom, Zubaida, 15, a ninth grade student, is happy to attend school again after an arson attack destroyed her secondary school in southern Kandahar two weeks ago.Full report

KABUL, 8 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Civic groups in Afghanistan expressed varying reactions to a decision by the government on Tuesday to de-register some 1,600 NGOs in the post-conflict country. Full report

ISLAMABAD, 6 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - A growing militarisation of society, coupled with an increased lack of transparency in matters of governance, has contributed to a grim human rights situation in the country, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said in a new report on Saturday. Full report

TURKMENISTAN: Year in Brief 2005 - A Chronology of key events

IRAN: Year in Review 2005

TURKMENISTAN: Interview with United Nations Resident Representative

KYRGYZSTAN: Women face uphill battle for property rights

KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on gender inequality

NEPAL: Focus on rural development in Maoist areas

PAKISTAN: Interview with Mukhtar Bibi, gang-rape victim denied right to travel