NEW DELHI As China seeks to intensify engagement with Bhutan, a country it does not have diplomatic relations with, Chinese ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui is visiting Thimphu again, starting Tuesday. China’s Bhutan outreach poses a significant foreign policy challenge for India in the neighbourhood, not least because the new government in Thimphu is likely to look at Beijing more and… Read more »
Kukeldash Madrasah, a medieval madrasa in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. (Shutterstock/File) Uzbekistan on Friday granted visa-free entry to citizens of 45 countries to boost tourism, which the government views as vital for economic growth. The countries benefiting from a 30-day visa waiver that went into force on Friday include the majority of European countries including Britain as well as Australia, Canada, Argentina… Read more »
Nepal has decided to resume talks with Bhutan to repatriate the remaining 6,500 Bhutanese refugees who are living in two camps in Jhapa. The initiative will be first in the last one and a half decades after the 15th round of ministerial-level talks with Thimphu failed in 2003. A Cabinet meeting on December 3 had decided to resume talks with… Read more »
A 21-year-old Nepali woman died of suffocation in a windowless “menstruation hut” after she lit a fire to keep warm, say police. Parwati Bogati was found when her mother-in-law went to check on her. “She was excited about the next day as her menstruation would end. Poor child closed her eyes forever,” Laxmi Bogati told the Kathmandu Post. The incident… Read more »
The Indian government has announced the introduction of a basic income for poor farmers, as part of a budget full of expensive vote-winning policies clearly geared towards a general election in just a few months time. The handouts will affect 620 million people, including millions of smallholding farmers who will be paid 6,000 rupees (£64) a year. The measures are… Read more »
Unemployment in India has reached a 45-year high, according to leaked official jobs figures that the government had delayed publishing with just a few months to go until a general election. With jobs creation one of the key pledges that delivered prime minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014, the report that the unemployment rate stands at 6.1 per cent… Read more »
More than 100 security forces members have been killed in a Taliban assault on a military base in eastern Afghanistan, an official said. An interior ministry spokesperson said a suicide car bomber struck the base first, followed by insurgents who opened fire at the Afghan forces in Maidan Shar, the capital of Maidan Wardak province. An official in the defence… Read more »
A US military service member was killed in combat in Afghanistan on Tuesday. The Department of Defence is withholding any further information until 24 hours after the next of kin is notified. The incident is currently under investigation. “In accordance with US Department of Defence policy, the name of the service member killed in action is being withheld until 24… Read more »
People in India are speaking out and protesting for better pay and working conditions. India’s unemployment rate rose to the highest it’s ever been in the last 45 years. So in New Delhi, workers took to the streets and marched for their rights. Ninety percent of the Indian labor force doesn’t have any security, extremely low wages, and most have… Read more »
NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Hundreds of workers rallied in the Indian capital to demand fair wages, job security and other benefits on Friday as the government presented its last budget before a general election. Construction workers, farm labourers and sex workers came together to demand change in a country where almost 90 percent of the labor force works… Read more »