Ethnic Nepalese, Bhutanese refugees seek citizenship rights in Bhutan

I have reported several times (see the articles here and here) on the burgeoning refugee crisis in Nepal, where more than 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepali origin have been living in squalid refugee camps since the early 1990's. Now, it seems the few ethnic Nepalis still living in...

Saudi Teenagers' Mobile Phones, World Class Pornography Receptacle

"Up to 70% of files exchanged between Saudi teenagers' mobile phones contain pornography, according to a study in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. The study quoted in Arab News focussed on the phones of teenagers detained by religious police for harassing girls. The...

Guns in the Sand: Saudi Terror Plot Unearthed

The accused terrorists had hidden a cache of weapons beneath the esert sand in a long-term bid to attack a Saudi oil installation."Saudi security forces have arrested scores of suspects in a terror plot involving attacks on senior officials and government oil, military and...

US resettlement plans give hope to Bhutanese refugees

A few weeks ago, I reported on the sad crisis of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali descent living in refugee camps in the poor districts of Jhapa and Morang in eastern Nepal. Bhutan has refused to budge on the issue, arguing now that repatriating the refugees would be "importing...

Party-goers to be flogged and thrown in jail

I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard my friends on the Left describe Conservatives as wanting to establish a "Theocracy" in America.  Maybe it just boils down to understanding what a theocracy is.....for that, all we have to do is to look at the Magic...

Artifact: A Chilling Tale of Global Warming

From Reason Magazine (h/t FR)"The United Nations has ventured into children’s publishing with a scary story about a small boy who loses a dogsled race because of global warming. In November the odd little picture book cum policy brief, Tore and the Town on Thin Ice, made...

Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast is a cocaine kingdom

"Bluefields, the largest town in the Nicaragua and populated by Miskito Indians and descendant of African slaves, has become the hub of cocaine traffickers who were able to set up support networks in the towns along the Miskito coast."

Unrest threatens to derail Nepali peace

"Unrest threatens to derail Nepali peace """A Nepalese driver steers an agricultural vehicle being used as a makeshift form of public transport along a street in Kathmandu yesterday on the second day of a transportation strike. PHOTO: AFP"PM holds emergency meet as protester...

Mist or Smoke or Warriors in Battle . . .

Long before the age of castles, in the centuries after Rome abandoned Britain, the British (Welsh) kingdoms and their Anglian and Saxon (English) neighbours fought frequent wars. Territorial disputes ignited as many early wars as racial conflict; British and English kingdoms...

Tourists return to Nepal as violence makes an exit

"Tourists return to Nepal as violence makes an exit By Vipul Goel Pokhara (Nepal), Jan.16 (ANI): As peace returns to Nepal, the Himalayan kingdom, after the November peace deal between the interim government and the Maoists, thousands of tourists have started visiting...

Saudi Spin Man Is New Ambassador

"Saudi Arabia has informed the State Department that it intends to appoint Adel al-Jubeir as the new ambassador to Washington, according to U.S. officials. Jubeir, who is one of King Abdullah's closest foreign policy advisers, has long been the public face of the oil-rich...