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East Asia
[Books] An Afghan Odyssey from Within
A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story By Qais Akbar Omar | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2013 Unlike many books on Afghanistan written by foreigners and Afghan expatriates, A Fort of Nine Towers is a memoir of native Afghan Qais Akbar Omar. Omar presents a rare first…
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West Asia
A forgotten story of rebellion in British Raj
“Once upon a time” the British ruled in the Indian sub-continent. I find this phrase “once upon a time” rather interesting in our context. It creates a distance between the events of the story and the reader: distance in time, connection or direct relevancy. Today, the history of the sub-continent…
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South East Asia
[Asia Round-up] Keeping people and tigers safe
Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. Keeping people and tigers safe As conservation of wild species becomes more successful, higher levels of human-wildlife conflict are being reported. The “man-eating tiger” incident in the Nilgiris district, which ended in the gunning down of…
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East Asia
Iranian President Rouhani urges closer economic ties with South Korea
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for closer economic ties with South Korea here on Monday, semi-official Fars news agency reported. “The South Korean private sector and companies should come closer to Iran’s private sector and expand the scope of their cooperation,” Rouhani said in a meeting with the visiting South…
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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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West Asia
Egyptian workshop on Korean poems
The very first question addressed to me was: “Why did you choose to translate the book of the Korean monk and poet Cho Oh-hyun?” I was sitting surrounded by an elite audience of Egyptian writers, poets, novelists, critics and journalists. It seemed like a testing start, but I was keen…
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West Asia
How does friendship make our life sweet?
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him. -Ralph Waldo Emerson Friends are an important part…
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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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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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West Asia
Celebrations across UAE as Dubai wins right to host World Expo 2020
Fireworks erupted in Dubai after the tiny Gulf emirate won the right to host the 2020 World Expo, becoming the first Middle Eastern city to organize the event in its more than 150-year history. Dubai bested competing bids from Izmir, Turkey; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Yekaterinburg, Russia, after three…
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