Jamil Jan Kochai on traditions of Afghan oral storytelling By Jamil Jan Kochai Listen, Before I read Kipling or Faulkner or Pynchon, before I studied John Gardner or Doug Rice, before I journeyed to Hogwarts with Potter, before Ms. Lung re-taught me my alphabets and pretty much all of the English language in second grade, before I learned to spell my first …
By: Francis Xavier Tajikistan is one of the most mountainous countries in the world with over 50% of its land mass at 3000 meters above sea level but it only has one ski resort. Constructed during the Soviet era Safed Dara Ski Resort was fully renovated in 2015 and would make for a really cool off the beaten path ski destination. …
REUTERS KATHMANDU (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A woman and her two sons suffocated to death in Nepal after she was forced to sleep in a windowless shed during her period, police said on Thursday, the latest victims of an age-old Hindu practice that was banned more than a decade ago. Amba Bohara, 35, and her sons, aged 12 and nine, …
KATHMANDU Tourist arrivals in Nepal topped one million for the first time in 2018 — boosted by increased visitors from India, China, the US, Sri Lanka and the UK. The Himalayan nation saw the number of tourists jump nearly 25 percent as it welcomed a record high of 1,173,072 visitors in 2018, the country’s tourism authorities said Tuesday. Rabindra Adhikari, …
A suspect who participated in the illegal hunting of a markhor, Pakistan’s national animal, in Chitral was presented before the court of the assistant commissioner of Chitral on Monday following his arrest, reported daily Dawn on Monday. Aslam Baig was arrested from his house on Sunday night and a case was registered against him under the Wildlife and Biodiversity Act, …
AFP China said on Monday it would welcome UN officials to the restive western region of Xinjiang with the condition that they stay out of the country’s internal affairs. This comes after UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in December that her office was seeking access to the region to verify reports of re-education camps holding Muslim minorities. Reports …
Laila Haidari risks her life to run the country’s only private rehabilitation centre, helping hundreds of addicts a year Ruchi Kumar Kabul People shelter under the Pul-e Sokhta bridge in western Kabul, during a police round-up of suspected drug addicts. Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters Laila Haidari is considered a criminal, despite never committing a crime. The 40-year-old works with drug addicts …
By Andrew MacLeod Recent infrastructure investments in Silk Road countries are putting the historic pathway back on the map. As Andrew MacLeod writes, a trip down the ancient route is not only a glimpse into history – it is a preview of the future Along the Great Silk Road the shadows of predator and prey chase each other across the wide grassland still …
Abhaya Srivastava Thimphu: When I was boarding a plane to head to Bhutan to write about the world’s only carbon negative country, phalluses and nightlife were the last things on my mind. Having grown up in India, I had always pictured Bhutan as a mystic land of ascetics, dotted with prayer flags and Buddhist monasteries. I thought it …
HAH Report Kathmandu: A centre of excellence on Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) was launched on Tuesday (Nov 13) at ICIMOD to improve access to modern, affordable and reliable energy services in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, says a press statement. The centre, called Regional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Capability for the Hindu Kush Himalaya (REEECH), aims to …
