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DNA Edit: China's warmongery Not an ambassador of peace The dogs of war are growling and if the India-China-Bhutan standoff in the Doklam plateau escalates, they would soon be upon us. However, even before things come to such a pass, the Chinese media, it seems, is egging on its government to flex its military muscles against India and teach New Delhi "a bitter lesson". It isn't only the Chinese media that is so eagerly, and so brusquely, baiting war. Even the Chinese ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui has jumped into the fray saying that there is no possibility of a...

..I was having a panic attack.What I wanted to know was: why now – my life was going uncharacteristically well – and what could I do about it? “You need to think about death for five minutes every day,” Ura replied. “It will cure you.” “How?” I said, dumbfounded. “It is this thing, this fear of death, this fear of dying before we have accomplished what we want or seen our children grow. This is what is troubling you.” “But why would I want to think about something so depressing?” “Rich people in the West, they have not touched dead...

As I walked into the department this bright brisk morning, coffee cheerily in hand, the live global seismogram display in the atrium caught my eye with an alarming event that had just happened during my bike ride into work. *gasp* that looks bad *gasp* that looks bad BIG earthquake, somewhere in the vicinity of Central/Southern Asia. Indeed, an earthquake deep (>200 km) beneath the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan had shaken a huge swath of Central and South Asia. The great depth of the earthquake meant less extreme shaking at the epicenter (nobody lives closer than 212 km from the...

The dawn would have illuminated the pools of blood, as the villagers emerged to count their dead. For all of the night of February 24, 2000, residents of the hamlet of Lanjote had bunkered down, hoping not to be hit by artillery fire arcing across the LoC. The 16 bodies on the streets, though, bore evidence of the precision savagery of the knife, not the shell: 90-year-old Mohammad Alam Wali, and a young couple, Mohammad Murtaza and Kali Begum, had been decapitated. Limbs were severed; heads hacked. The youngest victim, Ahmad Niaz, was just two. With deliberation, it seemed, the...

While his government’s focus remains squarely on domestic issues, Mr Modi is also charting a rather ambitious foreign policy course. He has already visited Bhutan and his future destinations over the next few months are likely to include Japan, Brazil, Southeast Asia, Australia and Nepal. Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign minister has saluted the new Modi government for injecting “new vitality into an ancient civilisation”.

In the wake of increased tension with Japan over disputed islands, China’s soldiers have been directed to be ready for a war in 2013 and also win it. Government Chinese media disclosed this in a report. The report also said the soldiers are being prepared to the best possible level and that they are being trained for the purpose. According to reports, in 2012, no such directive- of getting ready for a war and winning it- was given. The Chinese army has also been told to improve its activities and enhance information and intelligence gathering techniques. In 20th century, Japan...

KATHMANDU, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The young king of Bhutan who has been in Bhutan's throne after his father's abdication have tied knot with his long time love at a Royal Ceremony in Bhutani capital Thimpu on Thursday. The 31-year-old King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck married a commoner and his long time love Jestun Pema, ten years younger to him. The marriage ceremony as per the Buddhist rituals took place at a 17th century monastery at Punakha, the country's old capital. The fifth King is immensely popular in the Asian country with a population of some 700,000 people. The Oxford...

Monk first person in Bhutan jailed over tobacco by Adam Plowright Fri Mar 4, 12:56 pm ET NEW DELHI (AFP) – A monk in Bhutan has become the first person jailed under the country's draconian anti-smoking law after a court handed him a three-year prison sentence for smuggling tobacco worth $2.50. Sonam Tshering was jailed Thursday for bringing in 48 packets of chewing tobacco worth 120 Bhutanese ngultrums from India without declaring it to customs in the Himalayan kingdom. Bhutan banned the sale of cigarettes in 2005 and tightened up its law last year to combat smuggling, requiring consumers to...

..... It is laughable that some defend this doctrine tooth and nail. However, if really believed, they would come to realize there is no real good or evil! The Inquisitions, the Mumbai terror killings at the hands of Muslims, as examples, were merely the outgrowth of the victim’s previous karmic lives. Therefore, when those here defend karmic destiny in other posts speak of the horrible atrocities committed by religion, they are not consistently living out their philosophy of life and death, which are illusory. The innocent victims of the Inquisitions, terror attacks, tsunamis, or Crusades then are merely being paid...

NEW DELHI — Indian airports were on high alert Friday after intelligence services received information that Al Qaeda-linked militants were plotting to hijack a plane. Such an attack would be the first major terror strike against India since 10 militants rampaged through the city of Mumbai for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people. Aviation spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said that the airports were placed on alert Thursday after the government received warnings from the intelligence agencies.(continued)

A China-based cyber spy network has hacked into government and private systems in 103 countries, including those of many Indian embassies and the Dalai Lama, an Internet research group said here Saturday. The Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which carried out an extensive 10-month research on cyber spy activities emanating from China, said the hacked systems include the computers of Indian embassies and offices of the Dalai Lama.

China has been in the news of late over the Tibetan issue, which also impacts India in a major way. To put Sino-Indian relations into perspective, it is necessary to look at from a historical as well as a strategic context. Let me begin from the Second Opium War in1860 in which Indian troops took part. Four brigades of British and Indian infantry (Sikh Regiment, Madras Regiment, Bombay Native Infantry and the Ludhiana Rifles) and one cavalry brigade, which included Probyn’s Horse, took part in these operations, in which the Summer Palace in Peking was sacked and looted. I recall...

THIMPU: When its big brother Tibet was invaded by China in 1950, the lesson was not lost on the rulers of the tiny hermit kingdom of Bhutan. Isolation did not pay, and a gradual process of opening up and modernisation culminated on Monday with the first parliamentary elections in the history of the last independent Himalayan kingdom. ( Watch: Bhutan: The transition to democracy ) Sandwiched by giant neighbours India and China, Bhutan had always felt very vulnerable, said Kinley Dorji, managing director of the state-owned Kuensel newspaper. "Our strategy was to hide up in the mountains," he said....

Bhutan was set to bring a century of absolute monarchy to an end Monday with the election of the remote Himalayan nation's first democratic government. The polls are the culmination of an initiative by Bhutan's royal family to peacefully transform the small Buddhist kingdom, which is wedged in the mountains between India and China, into a constitutional monarchy. The country's young Oxford-educated King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck made a strong pitch at the weekend for his subjects, many of whom view the concept of democracy with a mixture of excitement and alarm, to take part. Two parties are locked in...

The kingdom of Bhutan stands poised to become the world's newest democracy on Monday with historic polls ordered by its revered royal family to end their reign. The tiny Buddhist state will elect members for a lower house, ending the century-old absolute rule by the hugely popular Wangchuk dynasty. The country's young Oxford-educated King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk made a forceful last-minute appeal on Saturday to his subjects -- some of whom were initially reluctant to bring in democracy -- to cast their vote. "As you approach the duty of voting at the elections that will bring democracy, do so...

India border weapons plan revived By Subir Bhaumik, BBC News, Calcutta India's Special Services Bureau (SSB) has revived a programme to provide weapons training to youths in border villages after a gap of seven years. The SSB is a para-military agency now responsible for guarding the country's borders with Nepal and Bhutan, It was formed in 1963 after India's humiliating defeat in the 1962 border war with China. Its brief was to train border populations for behind-the-lines partisan warfare. Ten days In 2001, the SSB was placed under the Home Ministry and given the job to guard India's borders with...

The king (left) is spending five days in India India and Bhutan are due to update their friendship treaty to give the Himalayan kingdom greater control over many areas of governance. The revised 57-year-old agreement will allow Bhutan more freedom in areas of foreign policy and military purchases. The Bhutanese monarch, Jigme Khesar Namgyel, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi to sign the treaty. In 2008 Bhutan becomes a parliamentary democracy with a new constitution. The meeting is part of a six-day visit by the Bhutanese monarch to India. After taking over from his father, King...

GAUHATI, India -- Bhutan's new king pledged in a speech to tens of thousands of supporters Sunday to carry on his father's legacy of transforming the secluded Himalayan kingdom into a parliamentary democracy. King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck asked his countrymen for help in completing the task begun by his father, former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who abdicated power to his 26-year-old son earlier this month. "My father has handed over his responsibilities to the people. And now it is our turn to take the country forward by following his legacy," the new king said in his first public address...

Chinese troops in Bhutan raising concernBy UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Published December 28, 2005 NEW DELHI -- The presence of Chinese soldiers in Bhutan has set off alarm bells in Thimphu and New Delhi.          Chinese soldiers are building roads and bridges deep inside Bhutan, The Hindustan Times newspaper said Wednesday. More than 200 Chinese troops crossed into Bhutan in mid-November.          "Relations between the two countries have been on the edge since then," said the report.          Bhutanese Foreign Minister Khandu Wangchuk took up the matter with Chinese authorities after the issue was raised in Bhutanese parliament.          "They (Chinese) told them (Bhutanese)...

The Chinese are in Bhutan — its soldiers are building roads and bridges deep inside the country and setting off alarms in both Thimphu and Delhi. Over 200 Chinese soldiers crossed into Bhutan in mid-November and since then, the relations between the two countries have been on the edge. Bhutan, which has a 470-km unfenced border with China, considers the unasked-for presence of the Red Army in its territory as a violation of the 1998 Sino-Bhutanese border treaty of peace and tranquillity. Rattled by the developments, the tiny kingdom, which shares a special relationship and a 605-km border with India,...