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South Asia
Pakistan produces more mullahs than doctors and engineers annually
Although all the religious parties except two (Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam who could clinch a few seats in 342-member parliament) were rejected by the people of Pakistan in the general elections held in May this year, they are penetrating deep and deeper in the society by establishing thousands of seminaries…
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South East Asia
Thai crisis deepens as protest leader urges PM to resign after violent clashes
The United Nations closed its main office in Bangkok, dozens of schools closed and many civil servants stayed away from work Monday as the Thai capital braced for more violence in a spiraling political crisis. After a weekend of chaos in pockets of Bangkok, protesters vowed to push ahead with…
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West Asia
UN inspectors to visit Arak heavy water plant in Iran, IAEA confirms
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will accept an offer from Iran to visit Iran’s Arak heavy-water production plant early next month, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told a press conference here on Thursday. Amano announced Iran’s invitation to visit the heavy-water plant in the central city of Arak on…
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Politics
UN, World Bank plan to mobilize financing for sustainable energy
The United Nations and the World Bank on Wednesday announced a concerted effort by governments, international agencies, civil society and the private sector to scale up financing to provide sustainable energy for all, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling for massive new investments in the face of a rising “global…
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South East Asia
Thai anti-government protesters rally calling for nationwide uprising
Anti-government protesters in Thailand vowed Tuesday to take control of state offices nationwide in their bid to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, escalating the biggest challenge she has faced since taking office. Opposition-led protesters camped out overnight at the Finance and Foreign Ministries after storming their gates during a chaotic…
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East Asia
Is North Korea a ‘communist state’ or a ‘market economy’?
North Korea is often described as a ‘communist country’ by outsiders, and also officially describes itself as a ‘socialist country.’ But, what exactly is a ‘communist state,’ or (to use a less ideologically charged term) a ‘country of state socialism’? It is usually a country where all or most of…
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Maoists suffer humiliating defeat in assembly election of Nepal
Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist (UCPN-M) that waged an armed insurgency from 1996 to 2006 in Nepal killing about 17,000 people had suffered a humiliating defeat in the second election to the Constituent Assembly (CA) held on 19 November. However, the communist party which had claimed to win the…
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West Asia
History-shaping Iran nuclear deal in Geneva breaks 3-decade gridlock
In this photo released by the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, Iranians hold posters of President Hassan Rouhani as they welcome Iranian nuclear negotiators upon their arrival from Geneva at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. Hundreds of cheering supporters greeted Iran’s nuclear negotiators as…
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South Asia
India’s superpower hopes take a beating
India’s hopes of becoming a superpower are up in flames, at least for the present. While policy-makers in New Delhi fiddled as the economy wobbled, it suffered a devastating setback when one of its Russian-built submarines was destroyed in a fire set off by a series of explosions last August,…
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Maoists’ shutdown increases uncertainty over Nepal’s political future
The Communist Party of Nepal Maoist (CPN-Maoist), the breakaway faction of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN-Maoist), has posed a risk to the November 19 Constituent Assembly polls by calling transportation strike for nine days beginning from November 12 to November 19. Although the ultra leftist party that decided…
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