• Excavation likely to locate Kapilavastu, the ancient Shakya kingdom in Nepal

    The ongoing excavation in Tilaurakot, the capital of ancient Shakya kingdom, is likely to prove with scientific evidences that the palace of king Suddhodhana was in Kapilvastu of Nepal. Lord Buddha was born to Shakya king Suddhodhana of Kapilvastu some 2600 years ago. At a time when a section of…

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  • South Asia

    Taekwondo gains popularity in Bangladesh

    Taekwondo, the Korean martial art, is now a very well known name in the sports arena of Bangladesh. Other martial arts such as Judo and Karate have existed in Bangladesh for more than 50 years. But, Taekwondo started its journey in this country little over 10 years ago and its…

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  • East Asia

    [Books] Israel, living on the edge

      [BOOKS] My Promised Land The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel By Ari Shavit | Spiegel & Grau | 2013 Winner of the Natan Book Award, My Promised Land, by esteemed Israeli journalist Ari Shavit presents an honest, balanced and comprehensive view of Israel. Shavit uses the past to shed…

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  • South Asia

    Makli: Withering necropolis of Sindh

    Maintenance of world heritage sites is an international issue. A great part of history is in danger if we do not make effort to preserve it, even if not in its original form. This is especially true for Pakistan, where there are more important issues economically as well as socio-politically.…

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  • South Asia

    Nelson Mandela dead at 95: World mourns loss of a ‘giant for justice’

    As the news of Nelson Mandela’s death spread across South Africa, residents of the black township of Soweto gathered in the streets near the house where he once lived, singing and dancing to mourn his death and celebrate his colossal life. The people of South Africa reacted Friday with deep…

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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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  • East Asia

    [Books] Meet Malala

    I Am Malala The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban By Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb | Little, Brown and Company | 2013 Malala Yousafzai, the brave Pakistani girl who stood up for education and was shot in the head by the Taliban, writes…

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  • South Asia

    Bangladesh’s forex reserves go up

    While the per capita income of people in Bangladesh has increased substantially, the country’s foreign exchange reserve crossed the US $17 billion mark on October 22 for the first time in the country’s history. The officials of the country’s central bank Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) consider…

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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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  • 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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