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Classes began in early September last year at a small new international university, called Nalanda, in Bihar in northeast India -- one of the most backward parts of the country. Only two faculties -- history, and environment and ecology -- were holding classes for fewer than twenty students. And yet the opening of Nalanda was the subject of headlines in all the major newspapers in India and received attention across the world. "Ritorno a Nalanda" was the headline in Corriere della Sera. The new venture is meant to be a revival of Nalanda Mahavihara, the oldest university in the world,...

FULL TITLE: Jihadists bomb the holiest site for Buddhists in the world, coordinated terror attack of 9 serial blasts Bodh Gaya is the holiest site for the Buddhists world over. It was bombed early this morning in a series of Islamic terror attacks. Their most holy site. The Muslims prohibit the Jews from praying at their most holy site (the Temple Mount), not to mention their false religious claims to Jerusalem. The Muslims are converting one of the most important monuments of Christianity, the 6th-century Church of Hagia Sophia, into a mosque. Tens of thousands of Hindu temples have been...

Insight - From darkest India, an enlightened leader PATNA, India (Reuters) - There's an apocryphal story about Bihar, a sprawling state on the Gangetic plains of eastern India that for decades held the dubious honour of being the most violent, poverty-stricken and corrupt in the land. A Japanese minister visiting in the 1990s, shocked at the decrepit buildings, the darkness at night even in the centre of town and the crumbling roads, declared that it was all solvable. "Give me three years," he told a state leader, "and I can turn Bihar into Japan." "That's nothing," came the laconic reply...

An Indian villager burrowed for 14 years with a hammer and chisel to cut a tunnel through a mountain so that his neighbours could reach nearby fields and he could park his truck outside his home. Ramchandra Das, 53, who lives in eastern Bihar state, carved a 10m-long, 4m-wide tunnel through the hill range from his village of Kewati. Das took up the Herculean task after villagers found the 7km trek over the mountain increasingly arduous. When the authorities refused to help to cut the journey time, Das began carving his way through the earth in the direction of the...

At least nine people, including six policemen, have been killed in clashes between security forces and Maoist rebels in India, officials say. Two rebels and a civilian were also killed in the shoot-out in Gaya district of the northern Bihar state. The fighting started when the police challenged a group of Maoists who were attempting to rob a bank, police say. More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight for a communist state in parts of India. The rebels later managed to escape from the area after the clashes. Police are conducting a search operation. In April,...

Vigilante justice has become common in Bihar Pics: Prashant Ravi Vigilante justice appears to have become the order of the day in the lawless northern Indian state of Bihar.The latest incident in which 10 men suspected to be thieves were lynched by a group of villagers in Vaishali district on Thursday underscored the people's frustration with the police. The villagers said that they were fed up with rising theft for the last two months in spite of informing the police regularly. "But when the police did not take any action we started patrolling our village ourselves to catch the...

Remains of past emerge from the dark - Ancient buddhist stupas discovered in bihar districts SANTOSH SINGH A mound discovered recently at Turki in Bihar’s Vaishali district. Telegraph picture Patna, May 7: A forgotten chapter of ancient history is emerging, slowly and silently, in Bihar with Patna’s KP Jaiswal Research Institute identifying as many as 70 Buddhist stupas, 50 of which remain buried underground. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) approved project plans to document all the stupas by September this year, said director of the institute Vijay Chaudhary. Buddhist texts indicate that when the Buddha died, he was cremated...

JALPAIGURI (Indo-Nepal-Bhutan-Bangladesh Border), July 24: Over 165 Maoist cadres are being trained in Bhutan at present, as Bhutan has been included in the future Maoist country, ‘Dandkaranya Desam’. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) are imparting the training. A senior leader of the Standing Committee of a Maoist outfit confirmed this to the South Asia Tribune.

Explosives found on India train The blast destroyed an unreserved compartment Indian bomb disposal experts have found traces of a high explosive in a passenger train which was rocked by a blast on Thursday, officials say. At least 10 people were killed and more than 50 others injured in the explosion on the Shramjivi Express in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Traces of the high explosive RDX have been found in the compartment where the blast occurred. The train was travelling from Patna in eastern Bihar state to Delhi. Packed Indian Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has ordered an...

Two Convents Attacked In Bihar BETTIAH (ICNS) -- Unidentified assailants have attacked two convents in Bihar seriously injuring nuns in apparent robbery attempts. An elderly nun was hospitalized with serious head injuries after a gang of 15 men attacked the Notre Dame convent at Raxual in Bihar on the midnight of June 9. The convent comes under the diocese of Bettiah. In another incident, Sisters of Charity of Nazareth convent at Sokho in Bhagalpur diocese was attacked a week ago. More details of the attack on this rural convent were not available. Notre Dame Sister Manjula in her late 60s...

The MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) theory applies for both-Touch me at the centre and lose your corner. With considerable success on the western coast the back-stabbing technique was perfected for the Bihar. While the Regina in the window let her hair down enticing the fief, her henchmen went about ransacking his fiefdom. By the time Laloo realized half of his accumulated treasure over the last fifteen years had been burgled. He can now sit and lick his wounds, rue his vanity but he is not getting a chance in near future to avenge his annihilation. With yet another Congress supported...