A school textbook used in India’s western Rajasthan state compares housewives with donkeys and says the animals are more loyal and make better companions, The Times of India reported. The book was approved by the state’s governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya… Read moreIndia school textbook: donkeys better than women
India’s Maoist Naxalite rebels have been very busy lately, but the wave of attacks is going virtually unreported outside India. From PTI via The Hindu, March 14: Naxalites this morning released the passenger train that they had seized last evening… Read moreIndia: Naxalite rebels in new attacks
From AP, March 7, links added: VARANASI – Explosions rocked a packed railway station and crowded Hindu temple Tuesday in Hinduism’s holiest city, and at least 12 people were killed and dozens injured, officials said. Authorities were scrambling to determine… Read moreIndia: explosions rock Hindu holy city
From China’s The Standard, March 3: US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday sealed what they hailed as an “historic” nuclear deal, seen as the bedrock of a new strategic partnership. Capping eight months of… Read moreUS signs nuclear pact with India
The anti-cartoon protests in Pakistan seem to be mounting towards a national revolutionary movement. The government has banned the latest march in Islamabad, arrested some 200 followeres of the organization that called it, and placed its leader under house arrest…. Read moreProtests banned in Pakistan; opposition vows defiance
The heroic Mukhtar Mai is exploited by the Bushes for war propaganda—then sold down the river by the UN to appease Pakistan. Did the US protest this cynical capitulation? We doubt it. From the New York Times, via India’s Deccan… Read moreUN censors rape victim
Nepalese police fired tear gas and charged with batons in clashes with pro-democracy activists in Kathmandu Jan. 21. Street battles lasted for two hours around Durbar Square. The protests came after the house arrest of political leaders campaigning to force… Read moreNepal protesters defy repression
Business and commerce in Sri Lanka’s port city of Trincomalee were paralyzed as a three-day strike in protest against renewed violence by the Tamil Tiger guerillas entered its last day Jan. 14. Main roads in the town were deserted except… Read moreStrike for peace in Sri Lanka
Maoist guerrillas bombed two police stations and a municipal office on the outskirts of Kathmandu Jan. 14, killing at least 11 officers in the first attacks in the capital region since the rebels ended their cease-fire on Jan. 2. Hours… Read moreNepal: Maoists attack capital; Buddhists march for peace
Naga separatist guerillas in India’s remote northeast are once again being hunted down by the authorities in neighboring Burma (Myanmar), where they had previously been granted refuge. This appears to be leading to a two-front insurgency in which the Naga… Read moreBurma resumes crackdown on Naga guerillas
The gas pipeline to the Uch power plant in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan was blown up late Jan. 3, cutting off gas supplies to the plant. The attack came as sporadic rocket and artillery duels continued between Pakistani… Read morePakistan: Baluch rebels blow up pipeline
In a surprising shift of strategy, Nepal's Maoist guerillas have reached a 12-point common agenda with the top parliamentary parties, subsequently endorsed by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. The new pact between the armed rebels and political opposition does not seek… Read moreNepal: Maoists in accord with democratic opposition
