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East Asia
How long will N. Korea’s regime last?
Three problems of young leader How stable is the North Korean government? Is it going to continue indefinitely? And if it does not, what is its life expectancy? The present author encounters those questions nearly every day. The only honest answer to such questions is that we do not know.…
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Building future bridge of global peace
The great monk and poet Cho Oh-hyun’s poetry published in Egypt This week I got a message from Cairo, sent by the editor of “Shi’r” magazine, telling me that my translated volume of poetry; entitled Far-Off Saint written by the great monk and poet Mr. Cho Oh-hyun, has been published…
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East Asia
RCEP vs. TPP: Choice between China and America?
Editor’s note: A trade talk for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) is scheduled to open from May 9 to 13 in Brunei. The RCEP covers more than half of the world’s population involving 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It aims to become a platform for the integration of trade…
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South Asia
NGOs hide identity for fear of militants in restive Balochistan Province
Quetta, Balochistan – A grave situation prevails in restive Balochistan province of Pakistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where the civil society organizations have removed boards and name plates from their office buildings, their staff and officials do not carry identity cards or any other document while travelling, for the fear…
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North Korea is ruthless and desperate, but not crazy
Editor’s note: Following commentary is written by Denny Roy who is Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, specializing in Northeast Asia security issues. North Korea seems to be crazy, threatening to use recently acquired nuclear weapons against South Korea and the USA. But the Democratic People’s Republic…
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West Asia
The Iron Lady of Kuwait: Axe on expats
Last Thursday I called Kitty, the house maid whom I get her help in cleaning my residence in Kuwait, asking her to come on Friday. To my surprise, she told me that although she needs money to survive but she will not able to go out of her place, as…
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South Asia
Nepali women challenge traditional menstrual practice forced to them
Kathmandu – Women in Dailekh district, in western Nepal, are slowly giving up the Chhaupadi tradition, a system in which the women are forced to stay in the cow sheds or natural caves during their menstruation cycle. Sad yet true, many women in the remote parts of western Nepal are…
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South Asia
Can India’s government empower its people?
Commercial forestry: A legacy of British rule The Indian politician and the bureaucrat have struggled for the past 65 years to shed the legacy and the mechanisms of British rule and empower the people but have failed…why? As is well known across the world, the regimes of the newly born…
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West Asia
IPAF Surprise: Younger and less popular novelists stand out
The shortlist for the International Prize for Arabic fiction (IPAF) has been announced in Tunisia. It came as a surprise as many famous novelists who were included in the long list didn’t make it to the shortlist. The unexpected shortlist included these six novels: “Ave Maria” by the Iraqi novelist…
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South Asia
Nepal’s former minister is now rearing pigs
Kathmandu – Former Minister Shiva Raj Joshi who spent almost 15 years at the Singh Durbar, the central secretariat of the Nepal government, as a parliamentarian and a minister, is now spending his day at a piggery in a village of south-west Nepal. Accustomed to putting signatures on the piles of…
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