India opened it first hospital for elephants last week. I find it interesting in a society they uses elephants for not only work but cultural ceremonies that the care for the animals is so pour. Also they must be a huge investment. The animal its self must cost a lot of money therefore I doubt they are easily replaced. I… Read more »
DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Tajikistan started the first turbine of its Rogun hydroelectric power plant on Friday, part of a dam project that aims to secure the Central Asian nation’s energy independence. The former Soviet republic issued its first Eurobond last year to help finance the project, which will include the world’s tallest dame when it is completed in 2026. Italy’s… Read more »
KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan hopes to cement a peace deal with Taliban insurgents by April 2019, local media reported on Sunday. Zalmay Khalilzad, in Kabul to lead talks between the United States, the Taliban and the Afghan government, told reporters he hopes “a peace deal is reached before April 20 next year”, when Afghanistan is… Read more »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Two men on motorcycles threw a grenade at a Sikh religious gathering of about 250 people in Amritsar city in the northern Indian state of Punjab on Sunday, killing three and injuring around 20, police said. Initial reports suggest that two people armed with pistols came to the venue, said provincial police chief Surinder Pal Singh…. Read more »
MATHURA, Uttar Pradesh (Reuters) – At India’s first hospital for elephants, opened last week in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 49-year old Asha placed her left foreleg on a stool for a doctor to attend to an injury while visitors filmed it all on their mobile phones. The facility, armed with facilities such as wireless digital X-Ray, thermal imaging,… Read more »
Uzbekistan is attempting to reform their government and its laws on individual freedoms. Under the new president the government has seemed to make huge leaps forward. However, recently eight facebook bloggers were detained after criticizing a new law that bans hijabs with school uniforms. I find it interesting because Uzbekistan is not a country that wants to reform because they… Read more »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker has called the president’s sacking of the prime minister to bring a former leader back to power a non-violent coup d’etat. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya is a key figure in the political standoff that started on Oct. 26, when President Maithripala Sirisena fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former president Mahinda… Read more »
TASHKENT (Reuters) – When Uzbek authorities detained several online activists in September, blogger Davronbek Tojialiyev packed some clothes in a bag and waited for the knock on his door. The police never came, and Tojialiyev, one of a handful of bloggers breaking taboos by criticizing state policies and officials, writes on. The 34-year-old’s experience suggests the new government in Tashkent… Read more »
MOSCOW, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Economies in Central Asia and the Caucasus will average growth of 4.2 percent annually in coming years, less than half the rate seen in the early 2000s, and need to redouble reform efforts, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. The IMF called on the former Soviet republics, in particular, to reduce the state’s role… Read more »
KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban militants attacked a border outpost in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 20 government soldiers in the latest assault likely to compound fears that the security forces are facing an unsustainable casualty toll. Sparsely populated Farah, on the border with Iran, has seen months of heavy fighting, with hundreds police and soldiers killed. The Taliban threatened to… Read more »