ISLAMABAD, 13 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is preparing to launch a drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention programme in Pakistani prisons by early 2006. Full report

BISHKEK, 8 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - In a new report published this week, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has called for the creation of the post of Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Central Asia in an effort to boost regional cooperation and reduce poverty in the region.Full report

TASHKENT, 1 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - When Dilnara tested HIV positive she was told by the doctor not to mix with “normal people?. With little access to information or counselling, she believed the doctor and stayed at home for a year, frightened and alone. “I was ignorant about HIV. But now I know I am normal and I’m helping others to overcome the despair and rejection that I first felt,? Dilnara said in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.Full report

BISHKEK, 1 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - There was tumultuous applause from the audience of more than a thousand following the appearance of popular singers during a charity concert devoted to World AIDS Day on Thursday, in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. The concert was a platform for pop stars to inform and mobilise people, especially the young, in the fight against AIDS.Full report

DUSHANBE, 23 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan rose by 20.5 percent over the nine months to September 2005 compared to the same period last year, the head of the Republican AIDS Centre, Azamjon Mirzoev, said in the capital, Dushanbe, this week. Full report

ISLAMABAD, 22 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - Pakistan could see the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS among the general population due to a combination of high-risk behaviour and limited knowledge, warns the latest report from the UN joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).Full report

KABUL, 11 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan could cripple the desperately poor country unless urgent prevention and treatment measures are taken, the Afghan health ministry warned this week.Full report

ANKARA, 8 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - A decision to join the Bill Clinton Foundation's initiative in fighting HIV/AIDS may give people in Kazakhstan living with the virus access to affordable anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). Full report

ANKARA, 5 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Poverty remains the driving-force behind rising levels of prostitution in the energy-rich state of Turkmenistan, where upwards of 44 percent of the country's population reportedly lives on less than US $2 per day.Full report

ANKARA, 23 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Efforts to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kazakhstan are proceeding well, despite an increase in rates of sexual transmission. Central Asia's largest state enjoys a relatively low prevalence of the disease. Full report

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on rehabilitation of child soldiers

NEPAL: Focus on the plight of rural people living with HIV/AIDS

KAZAKHSTAN: Interview with UN Resident Coordinator, Yuriko Shoji

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Mr Mirwais Yasini, head of the Counter Narcotics Directorate (CND)

PAKISTAN: Focus on runaway children