-
South Asia
Pakistan’s massive quake creates new island as death toll rises to 348
Hungry survivors dug through rubble to find food and thousands slept under the open sky or in makeshift shelters for a second night as the death toll from Pakistan’s massive earthquake rose to 348 on Thursday. Rescuers battled to reach remote areas of the impoverished region in the wake of…
Read More » -
Population crisis in Afghan slums
Urban slums describe parts of cities where living conditions are very poor. The number of slum dwellers in the developing world has risen from 767 million in the year 2000 to an estimated 828 million in 2010 according to UN HABITAT in 2011. This has resulted in a lack of…
Read More » -
South Asia
Pakistan, a nation hostage to criminals
The entire Pakistani nation is virtually hostage to terrorists, kidnappers, killers and other criminals, as the number of crimes including heinous crimes like murders, kidnapping for ransom, highway robberies, bank robberies, rape, gang-rape, extortion, car and bike theft and snatching, shooting dead for a mobile phone and other street crimes…
Read More » -
South Asia
India sucessfully retests missile that can reach Chinese cities like Shanghai
India successfully test-fired for the second time a nuclear-capable missile that can strike the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, officials said. Ravi Gupta, a spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Organisation, said the latest test of the Agni-V brought the missile a step closer to being inducted…
Read More » -
South Asia
The missing links of Asian history
Emeritus Professor Kim Byung-Mo of the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Hanyang University in South Korea has been looking for his roots. After a laborious forty years of research, he was perhaps not surprised to find that he shared a “genetic connection” with the royal family of Ayodhya, a non-descript…
Read More » -
South Asia
Pakistani women take part in a rally for the World Hijab Day
Pakistani women take part in a rally to mark the World Hijab Day in southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sept, 4, 2013. Nationwide rallies were organized to highlight the importance and value of hijab for Muslim women in Pakistan. <Xinhua/NEWSis>
Read More » -
South Asia
India passes $20 bln law to expand food welfare
India plans to subsidize wheat, rice and cereals for some 800 million people under a $20 billion scheme to cut malnutrition and ease poverty. The Food Security Bill, sent this week by India’s parliament to the president for approval, guarantees citizens a legal right to food. India has some of…
Read More » -
Chicken goes missing from Kathmandu’s kitchens
Chicken that used to be one of the compulsory items in almost all kitchens in Kathmandu until a month ago has now disappeared from Kathmandu valley, thanks to the outbreak of bird flu. One cannot find chicken in the butchers’ shops, neither do the retail shops dare to sell the…
Read More » -
South Asia
India’s gov’t struggles to halt rupee slide as financial crisis deepens
Indians returning from abroad bring nearly 3,000 flat screen televisions into the country a day, turning airport luggage belts into revolving electronics displays. A stiff new customs duty aims to sink that popular trade as officials scramble to halt a dizzying plunge in the rupee. The 36-percent TV tax is…
Read More » -
South Asia
Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif calls for peace talks with anti-gov’t militants
Pakistan’s prime minister reiterated Monday an offer of peace talks with militants in the country’s northwest who have waged a bloody campaign against the government and so far rejected any talk of negotiations. But Nawaz Sharif also held out the option of new military operations to root out the militants…
Read More »