High Asia Herald Report  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani banned the hunting of rare birds and animals two years ago, but hunting continues across the country and the hides of rare animals can be bought in markets in the capital, Kabul. Two years ago Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had banned the hunting of rare birds and animals, but hunting continues across …

Situated in the center of Kazakhstan, ALZHIR (Акмолинский лагерь жен изменников родины, “the Akmola camp of wives of traitors to the homeland”) was a notorious prison for thousands of women during its nearly two decades of operation. Behind the barbed wire, the women had to renounce their family and loved ones in order to submit to the will of the “leader of all nations.” …

blob:https://www.rferl.org/dcefe08e-1a40-434b-bb68-ee6b75191810 A Kyrgyz wildlife center is nursing a snow leopard named Zhaabars back to health after he was badly wounded by a shotgun. Despite conservationists’ efforts, the rare cats are sometimes targeted by poachers and farmers protecting their herds. By Current Time thehighasiahttps://thehighasia.com

Herald Report   The US invasion of Iraq was aimed at setting up permanent military bases there and to benefit energy corporations and weapons industry, comments Professor Noam Chomsky, an internationally acclaimed American linguist in a conversation with Hassan Mirza, published in The Express Tribune Blogs section. The conversation is based on correspondence between the two over a period of …

Two references are under trial in a NAB court in Gilgit against the accused for their role in Rs48.28m   Herald Report   The country’s top anti-graft body has filed a corruption reference against four retired officers of the Gilgit-Baltistan’s Forest Department for inflicting over Rs48 million loss to the national exchequer by allowing the transportation of illegally cut timber. …

Herald Report Soviet architecture in Central Asia, as the name tells, is a fusion of Soviet modernity with traditional Central Asian culture that remains remarkable to this day, writes Xeniya Mironova, in Voice on Central Asia website. Persian and Islamic motifs can be still found among Soviet buildings in Dushanbe, Tashkent, Almaty, and Bishkek. But these buildings are becoming exceedingly …

Herald Report  Something remarkable is taking place around the Shigar and Khaplu forts of Baltistan. Immersed in the breathtaking scenery of the Karakoram Mountains — some of the highest in the world — and steeped in four centuries of folklore and legends, community heritage and culture are being revitalised, according to a report published on AKDN website.  Remote communities are …

Japan wants to revive the archaeological mission in Pakistan: Dr Satoshi   By Farman Ali   While appreciating the Pakistan government’s opening of Kartarpur Corridor to facilitate the Sikh community to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, diplomats, academia and culture activists seek as similar initiatives for Buddhists to visit holy places in Gandhara Valley. They echoed this at a lecture on …

Zeeshan Ali Ahmed shows a novel way of community service by rebuilding old hut at Batura valley an ultimate destination of tourists By Asif Sakhi PASSU: Life must have some objectivity and dedicating your time as a community service, could be one of the best objectives in life, Zeeshan Ali Ahmed, a young architect who is rebuilding a historic hut …

KARACHI: Once a prime candidate for extinction, the population of vultures in Pakistan has shown tentative signs of recovery in the past five years, but nature’s “garbage disposal” is still facing looming threats on several fronts, experts said. The population of several species of vulture started declining in the mid-1990s due to the ingestion of livestock carcasses containing residues of deadly …