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International Business Times

Paavan MATHEMA

UN Chief Urges World To 'Stop The Madness' Of Climate Change

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world Monday to "stop the madness" of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witness the devastating impact of the phenomenon.

https://www.ibtimes.com/un-chief-urges-world-stop-madness-climate-change-3716939

2023-10-30 10:12:35.000000

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world Monday to "stop the madness" of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witness the devastatin… [+2444 chars]

Nepal

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world Monday to "stop the madness" of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witness the devastating impact of the phenomenon. "The rooftops of the world are caving in," Guterres said on a visit to the Everest region in mountainous Nepal, adding that the country had lost nearly a third of its ice in just over three decades. "Glaciers are icy reservoirs -- the ones here in the Himalayas supply fresh water to well over a billion people," he said. "When they shrink, so do river flows." Nepal's glaciers melted 65 percent faster in the last decade than in the previous one, said Guterres, who is on a four-day visit to Nepal. Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below. The glaciers feed 10 of the world's most important river systems, including the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong and Irrawaddy, and directly or indirectly supply billions of people with food, energy, clean air and income. Scientists say they are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters. "I am here today to cry out from the rooftop of the world: stop the madness", Guterres said, speaking from Syangboche village, with the icy peak of the world's highest mountain Everest towering behind him. "The glaciers are retreating, but we cannot. We must end the fossil fuel age," he said. The world has warmed an average of nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since the mid-1800s, unleashing a cascade of extreme weather, including more intense heatwaves, more severe droughts and storms made more ferocious by rising seas. Hardest hit are the most vulnerable people and the world's poorest countries, which have done little to contribute to the fossil fuel emissions that drive up temperatures. "We must act now to protect people on the frontline, and to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, to avert the worst of climate chaos," Guterres said. "The world can't wait." In the first phase of climate change's effects, melting glaciers can trigger destructive floods. "Melting glaciers mean swollen lakes and rivers flooding, sweeping away entire communities", he added. But all too soon, glaciers will dry up if change is not made, he warned. "In the future, major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges and Brahmaputra could have massively reduced flows, he said. "That spells catastrophe".

Prtimes.jp

RANDEBOOよりワンランク上の大人っぽさが漂うニットとベストが新登場。

[株式会社Ainer] RANDEBOO（ランデブー）では2023年7月18日(火)より公式WEBストアにて2023 Autumn Winter コレクションの発売を開始。 シーズンコレクションとして、"Nepal Handmade ram vest"と”Nepal Handmade ram kn...

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000147.000032220.html

2023-10-06 04:40:02.000000

RANDEBOO2023718()WEB2023 Autumn Winter "Nepal Handmade ram vest"Nepal Handmade ram knit"2023106()12:00WEB 106() 12:00 https://x.gd/226uY Nepal Handmade ram vest ¥17,600() Gray/Ivory [] 1 [D… [+583 chars]

Nepal

VOA News

webdesk@voanews.com (Agence France-Presse)

UN Chief Urges World to 'Stop the Madness' of Climate Change

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world Monday to "stop the madness" of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witness the devastating impact of the phenomenon. "The rooftops of the world are…

https://www.voanews.com/a/un-chief-urges-world-to-stop-the-madness-of-climate-change-/7332605.html

2023-10-30 10:53:30.000000

Kathmandu, Nepal  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world Monday to "stop the madness" of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witn… [+2468 chars]

Nepal

The Indian Express

Editorial

Sikkim warning: Hydroelectricity push must be accompanied by safety measures

Ecologists caution against the adverse effects of dam construction — it increases the volatility of rocks in the Himalayan region. Wednesday's disaster is a warning to take such caveats seriously

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/sikkim-warning-hydroelectricity-push-must-be-accompanied-by-safety-measures-8970365/

2023-10-06 01:20:24.000000

At least 14 persons lost their lives and more than 100 others, including 23 army personnel, are reportedly missing in Sikkim after the Teesta river went into spate on Wednesday. The flash floods seem… [+1826 chars]

Nepal

At least 14 persons lost their lives and more than 100 others, including 23 army personnel, are reportedly missing in Sikkim after the Teesta river went into spate on Wednesday. The flash floods seem to have been triggered by a combination of factors. A cloud burst ripped apart the South Shonak Lake — a glacial body in the state’s northwest. According to Sikkim’s Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), the Teesta has inundated at least four districts in the state. The calamity was aggravated by the release of water from the Chungthang dam — initial reports suggest that the breach was caused by water rushing from the mountains. Disaster management authorities are also investigating the possibility of the event being triggered by an earthquake in Nepal on Tuesday. The probe is likely to throw more light on the immediate causes of the flash flood but one thing has long been clear — states in the Himalayan region must respect the fragile ecology of the mountains and put in adequate safeguards to mitigate the damage caused by increasingly frequent extreme rainfall events. For years, studies have red-flagged the South Shonak Lake’s expansion due to glacial melting and warned that the water body is susceptible to breaches. In 2021, for instance, a study by scientists from IIT Roorkee, Indian Institute of ScienceBangalore, University of Dayton, USA, University of Graz, Austria, and the Universities of Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland recommended regular monitoring of the lake’s growth and continuous assessment of the region’s slope stability. The National Disaster Management Authority guidelines also say that risk reduction has to begin with mapping such water bodies, taking structural measures to prevent their breach and establishing mechanisms that can alert people about glacial lake outbursts. The IMD has collaborated with the US National Weather Service to warn people about six to 24 hours before a flash flood. But the system doesn’t seem to have come to terms with the Himalayan region’s idiosyncrasies. The Northeast has a key place in the hydel power push of successive governments at the Centre. The Chungthang Dam is a part of the 1,200 MW Teesta Stage 3 Hydroelectric Project. The government claims that such projects are climate-friendly because of their low emissions intensity. Hydroelectric power is also a major source of revenue for Sikkim. Ecologists, however, caution against the adverse effects of dam construction — it increases the volatility of rocks in the Himalayan region. Wednesday’s disaster is a warning to take such caveats seriously and install robust safety mechanisms.

The Times of Israel

Jacob Magid

200 foreigners, dual nationals cut down in Hamas assault. Here’s where they were from

France lost 35 citizens, Thailand 33, US 31, Ukraine 21, Russia 19, UK 12, Nepal 10, Germany 10, Argentina 9, Canada 6, Romania 5, Portuguese 4, China 4, Philippines 4, Austria 4 The post 200 foreigners, dual nationals cut down in Hamas assault. Here’s where …

https://www.timesofisrael.com/200-foreigners-dual-nationals-cut-down-in-hamas-assault-heres-where-they-were-from/

2023-10-27 01:08:34.000000

Scores of foreign citizens were killed, taken hostage or listed as missing after the Hamas terror group launched a major assault on Israel on October 7. More than 1,400, mainly civilians, have been … [+4658 chars]

Nepal

BBC News

https://www.facebook.com/bbcworldservice/

中印交惡令尼泊爾機場難以發展國際航線

尼泊爾花費數百萬美元建造一座新機場，希望藉此推動旅遊業——但是機場建好了，卻沒有人來。

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/world-67015581

2023-10-05 07:30:45.000000

Getty Images 20225 ·Bishnu Sharma Lumbini Lumbini Development Trust2022100760061005Gautam Buddha International Airport Bhairahawa Airport250155 BBC BBC/Anbarasan Ethirajan 12 Getty Images 2… [+196 chars]

Nepal

al-jazeera-english

Al Jazeera English

Kaushik Raj

Pro-Israel rallies allowed in India but Palestine solidarity sees crackdown

India, the first non-Arab country to recognise the PLO, is now seen closer to Israel and its biggest benefactor, the US.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/25/pro-israel-rallies-allowed-in-india-but-palestine-solidarity-sees-crackdown

2023-10-25 09:58:17.000000

New Delhi, India Israels relentless bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip and killing of nearly 6,000 people a third of them children in two weeks has outraged people across the world, triggering mass p… [+9013 chars]

Nepal

India, the first non-Arab country to recognise the PLO in the 1970s, is now seen closer to Israel and its biggest benefactor, the United States. New Delhi, India– Israel’srelentless bombingof the besieged Gaza Strip and killing of nearly 6,000 people – a third of them children – in two weeks has outraged people across the world, triggering mass protests and a call for an immediate ceasefire. However, in India – the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but now seen closer to Israel and its biggest benefactor, the United States – some pro-Palestine protesters reported being targeted by the government. Less than a week after the Gaza assault began, police in Hamirpur district of India’s most populous Uttar Pradesh state were looking for Muslim scholars Atif Chaudhary and Suhail Ansari. Their alleged crime: putting a WhatsApp display photo that said: “I stand with Palestine.” The two men were charged with promoting enmity between social groups. Ansari is under arrest, while Chaudhary is on the run, according to the police. In the same state, governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), four students of the Aligarh Muslim University were booked by the police after they took out a pro-Palestine march on the campus a day after the Gaza assault began on October 7. However, when the Hindu far-right group Bajrang Dal took out a pro-Israel march in the same Aligarh city, raising slogans such as “Down with Palestine, Down with Hamas”, no action was taken against them by the authorities. In the national capital, New Delhi, there have been several examples of people being detained during rallies organised by student groups, activists and citizens for solidarity with the Palestinians since October 7. In the western state of Maharashtra, also governed by the BJP in alliance with a regional party, two protesters, Ruchir Lad and Supreeth Ravish, were arrested on October 13 for holding a march against the war on Gaza and charged with unlawful assembly. Pooja Chinchole, member of the Revolutionary Workers Party of India and one of the organisers of the protest held in state capital Mumbai, told Al Jazeera the police “created many hurdles before us when they got to know that we are organising a pro-Palestine protest”. “They detained one of the organisers a day before the protest and three organisers on the morning of the protest. When we still gathered to protest, they snatched our microphone, placards, and after a while, started using force on some of us,” she said. The crackdown, however, was not limited to the BJP-ruled states only. In the southern Karnataka state, governed by the main opposition Congress party, police charged 10 activists with creating a public nuisance after they organised a silent march in support of the Palestinians on October 16 in Bengaluru, the capital of the state. The Karnataka police also arrested a 58-year-old Muslim man for allegedly posting a video in support of Hamas on WhatsApp. Police also briefly detained Alam Nawaz, a Muslim government employee, for updating his WhatsApp status with a Palestinian flag and “Long Live Palestine” message. “People started seeing me with suspicion as if I have committed some crime by expressing my solidarity with Palestinian people,” Nawaz, 20, told Al Jazeera. All this despite the Congress expressing its support for the “rights of the Palestinian people to land, self-government and to live with dignity” as the party called for an immediate ceasefire in a resolution passed by its working committee on October 9. Meanwhile, pro-Israel rallies, organised mainly byHindu right-wing groups, were seen across India, while many on social media offered their services to the Israeli forces. On Saturday, dozens of supporters of a retired Indian army soldier travelled 182km (113 miles) to reach the Israeli embassy in New Delhi where they offered to go to Israel to fight against the Palestinians in Gaza. Last week, one of India’s most influential Hindu nationalists, Yati Narsinghanand, released a video in which he said Hindus and Jews “have the same enemy: Muhammad and his satanic book” as he urged the Israeli government to allow 1,000 Hindus to settle in Israel in order to “take on those Muslims”. Israel’s ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, on October 8 said he had received several requests from Indians wanting to voluntarily fight for Israel. Apoorvanand, professor of Hindi language at Delhi University, told Al Jazeera he was not surprised that the Hindu far right, which openly admires Adolf Hitler for his action against the Jews, is now supporting the Zionists in Israel. “Hindu far-right organisations in India have always supported those who dominate by violence. Hitler did once, so they supported him. Now Israel is doing this, so they are supporting it,” he said. Apoorvanand said the Hindu right in India thinks there are ideological linkages between them and the Zionists in Israel. “It looks like Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the Hindu far right. They think Israel is fighting and decimating Muslims on their behalf. The way they want to establish Akhand Bharat [Unified India] by joining Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal together with India, they think Israel is following the same expansionist ideology,” he said. This was not always the case. India’s foreign policy has historically supported the Palestinian cause, which began with India voting against the United Nations resolution to create the state of Israel in 1947 and then recognising the PLO as a representative of the Palestinian people in 1974. India’s pro-Palestine stand was guided by the shared history of colonisation by the British, Zikrur Rahman, former Indian ambassador to Palestine, told Al Jazeera. “In the postcolonial era, we identified that this is a colonial attempt to divide the country and to create another country. We were not in favour of the creation of a country on the basis of religion,” he said. Rahman, however, added that while India’s position on Palestine has not changed, it is not as strong as it used to be. India recognised the creation of Israel in 1950, but did not establish diplomatic relations until 1992, when the details of the firstOslo Accordwere being finalised. Since then, India has tried to strike a balance between its strategic relations with Israel and sympathising with the Palestinian struggle. Today, India is the largest buyer of Israeli-made weapons, while strategic and security cooperation between them has grown manifold. Comparisons have also been made between Israel demolishing homes of Palestinians in the occupied territories and a similar policy adopted by some BJP state governmentsmainly against Muslimsas forms of “collective punishment” of the community. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he has made public statements, calling his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu a “good friend” on several occasions. Modi was one of the first global leaders to post his solidarity with Israel after Hamas’s unprecedented incursion on October 7. “Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel,” said his post on X, which came four hours before US President Joe Biden reacted to the event. Modi also condemned the Israeli attack onal-Ahli Arab Hospitalin Gaza on October 18, in which nearly 500 Palestinians were killed, though his message on X appeared nearly eight hours after Biden’s post. Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on October 12, reiterating New Delhi’s position of establishing a “sovereign, independent, and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel”. Last week, Modi posted on X about his phone call with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in which he repeated India’s “longstanding principled position on the Israel-Palestine issue”. He said his government is sending humanitarian assistance for the besieged residents of Gaza. Journalist Anand K Sahay, however, thinks India’s response to the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza has not been adequate. “What India didn’t say is important. India didn’t demand a ceasefire. Historically, India has always demanded a ceasefire in case of a [foreign] war. In this case also we should have strongly said: stop the war,” he told Al Jazeera. Sahay said Modi’s flaunting of closeness with Israel is also aimed at appeasing his core vote bank: the Hindus. “Suppose there was another religion in majority in Palestine. Then our stand may have been different. During the Russia-Ukraine war, we said ‘this is not an age of war’. Why couldn’t we say this in case of Israel-Palestine war?” asked Sahay. “By not asking for a ceasefire, India was also indirectly signalling the US that the Indian position was very close to the US line.” Follow Al Jazeera English:

The Indian Express

New York Times

No nation in the world is buying more planes than India. Here’s why.

India's largest airlines have ordered nearly 1,000 jets this year, committing tens of billions of dollars to a spending spree that is unparalleled in aviation.

https://indianexpress.com/article/business/aviation/no-nation-world-buying-more-planes-than-india-here-why-9010202/

2023-11-02 05:48:58.000000

No nation in the world is buying as many airplanes as India. Its largest airlines have ordered nearly 1,000 jets this year, committing tens of billions of dollars to a spending spree that is unparall… [+7083 chars]

Nepal

Written by Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar No nation in the world is buying as many airplanes as India. Its largest airlines have ordered nearly 1,000 jets this year, committing tens of billions of dollars to a spending spree that is unparalleled in aviation. In NewDelhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport will be ready for 109 million passengers next year, as it prepares to become the world’s second busiest, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. And this is happening in a vast country still heavily reliant on trains — with 20 journeys by rail for every one by air. The enormous aviation build-out, with a surge of investment behind it, has pride of place in India’s case for a greater standing on the world stage. As it moves up the ranks of the world’s biggest economies, India is scrambling to meet the expanding ambitions of its ascendant middle class. Its airports present highly visible achievements. Air travel remains out of the financial reach of most Indians. An estimated 3% of the country’s population flies on a regular basis. But in a nation of 1.4 billion people, that percentage represents 42 million — executives, students and engineers who yearn to get quickly from here to there inside India’s borders, and to gain easier access to destinations beyond, for both business and vacation. Kapil Kaul, CEO of CAPA India, an advisory firm focused on aviation, calls “the next two to three years critical for achieving the quality of growth that India desires and deserves.” Growth has so far been profitless. Now Indian aviation must prove it can make money. The effects of the spending spree should redound across India’s economy. Cargo comes with passenger traffic, and foreign investment tends to follow closely behind, Kaul said. Arrivals to the international terminal at Indira Gandhi Airport are greeted by a wall of giant sculptural hands, their fingers and palms folded into the signifying shapes of the Buddha’s gestures, looking both ancient and futuristic. In 2012, when they were installed, 30 million passengers passed through the airport. By the time the airport has expanded to its new capacity, another one will have been built from scratch on the other side of the city. Indira Gandhi Airport is racing to get bigger. In July it added a fourth runway and opened an elevated taxiway. The company that operates it, GMR Airports, took over in 2006, a time when all arrivals walked past cows lazing in the dust to reach a taxi stand. By 2018 the facility was rated as India’s most valuable infrastructural asset. To spare the use of jet fuel, a battery-powered TaxiBot lugs idling planes around the tarmac. An automated luggage-handling system can sort 6,000 bags an hour. Two beneficiaries of India’s expanding aviation market are the world’s largest airplane makers: Boeing in America and Airbus in Europe. In February, Air India, which Tata Group took private last year, agreed to buy 250 planes from Airbus and 220 from Boeing, worth a combined $70 billion. In June, IndiGo, the country’s biggest carrier by passengers and flights, ordered 500 new Airbus A230s. The bulk of the growth of Indian aviation has been among homegrown airlines, which have clocked a 36% increase in passengers since 2022. Foreign tourist arrivals are rebounding since the pandemic, but are still relatively scarce, barely topping 10 million in a good year (about the same as Romania). So low-cost carriers are adding new countries to their destinations in order to accommodate India’s demand for foreign tourism. Azerbaijan, Kenya and Vietnam are all a direct flight from Delhi orMumbai, India’s financial capital, for less than 21,000 rupees ($250) one way. The air corridor between Delhi and Mumbai was already one of the world’s 10 busiest. Like Delhi, Mumbai has new airport terminals that would be the envy of any city in America, not to mention the glorious new all-bamboo Terminal 2 at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, a city in southern India. But the expansion in infrastructure is not limited to the country’s premier metropolitan areas. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s government likes to point out that the number of airports has doubled in the nine years since he took office, to 148 from 74. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Modi’s aviation minister, said there would be at least 230 by 2030. The government has invested more than $11 billion in airports over the past decade, and Scindia has promised another $15 billion. That means that sleepy towns such asDarbhanga, a former principality in the impoverished state of Bihar in eastern India, now have nonstop access to Delhi, Bengaluru and beyond. For many of the 900 travelers a day who fill its flights, including plenty from nearby Nepal, the new airport has transformed the journey. Prasanna Kumar Jha, 52, was born in Darbhanga but works in Delhi as a tax consultant. “Who ever expected that Darbhanga would be on the air map?” he asked. Flying to his hometown on short notice to see his ailing mother cost him 10,500 rupees ($126), which pinched. “But if you calculate the alternative — by train from Delhi and then taxi to Darbhanga — it will take at least 30 hours,” he said. “The plane journey is no longer a luxury but a necessity.” Darbhanga’s airport is a far cry from New Delhi’s. There is no parking lot. Passengers walk from the edge of a highway past a checkpoint to wait on benches outside the terminal. Then they wait on another set of outdoor benches after clearing the security check. But it works. Another passenger on the same flight at Darbhanga, Ajay Jha, was cradling his 1-year-old daughter, Saranya, as he stood near the rudimentary baggage claim. His family was on the last leg of a trip that started in Bellevue, Washington, where he works as an engineer for Amazon, to a family reunion in the Bihari countryside. Traveling halfway around the world took less time than Jha used to spend getting home from his school in Bengaluru. Yet a vast majority of Indians cannot afford such conveniences. The annual mean income is still less than a single economy-class fare from the United States, and, in this top-heavy economy, most Indians earn much less than that. Middle class, in Indian parlance, indicates somewhere close to the top of the pyramid. A report by CAPA India counted just 0.13 passenger seats per capita in 2019 for Indians, compared with 0.52 for Chinese and 3.03 for Americans. But aviation companies and India’s elected officials look at the low penetration and see opportunity. A scarcity of competition, in the face of an emerging duopoly between IndiGo and the Tata-led airlines, is one of the new landscape’s most striking features. Smaller competitors keep going bust, most recently Go First, which declared bankruptcy in May. A shortage of pilots, after dozens were poached by bigger companies, forced Akasa Air, a promising upstart, to cancel flights in August. But supply shortages are not the worst kind of problem to have in today’s global economy. With aviation’s growth in the decade before the pandemic steady at about 15% a year, the Indian boom seems all but guaranteed to change the future of aviation worldwide. If the benefits accruing to the winners in India’s economy can be coaxed into trickling outward and downward, the same could go for many other sectors.

abc-news-au

ABC News (AU)

ABC News

More than 130 people have reportedly been taken to Gaza as hostages. Here's what we know

Hamas fighters have escaped back to Gaza with dozens of captives, including women, children and the elderly, after an unprecedented attack that has seen at least 700 people killed in Israel, followed by more than 400 in the Palestinian territories after retal…

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-09/hamas-takes-hostages-to-gaza/102950956

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/ec96e8c1e1aca987e5156a05e3429b91?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=450&cropW=800&xPos=0&yPos=75&width=862&height=485

2023-10-09 01:09:03.000000

Hamas fighters have escaped back to Gaza with dozens of captives following the group's unprecedented attack on Israel which saw at least 700 Israelis killed, followed by 400 Palestinians after retali… [+1553 chars]

Nepal

bbc-news

BBC News

World Cup: New Zealand v Bangladesh - clips, radio & text

Follow live text, in-play video clips and radio commentary as New Zealand play Bangladesh in the Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/66854573

2023-10-12 14:27:52.000000

Here we are then. Match 11 of the Cricket World Cup. A week and a day into the tournament and we've seen records broken, plenty of passion and a decent helping of DRS controversy. What we haven't ha… [+252 chars]

New Zealand

Wired.co.uk

Arbab Ali, Nadeem Sarwar

Glacial Lakes Threaten Millions in a Warming World

A Himalayan lake fed by melting ice just released a devastating flood in northern India. Thousands of other unstable lakes are getting bigger every year.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/glacial-lake-outburst-flood-glof-india-sikkim

2023-10-24 06:00:00.000000

Known formally as glacial lake outburst floodsor GLOFsthese deluges are driven by rising mountain temperatures. Where glaciers terminate, they deposit rocky debris that has been carried in their ice,… [+3376 chars]

Nepal

VOA News

webdesk@voanews.com (Agence France-Presse)

UN Chief Urges Peace From Site Venerated as Buddha's Birthplace

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an impassioned plea for peace on Tuesday from a Nepalese site venerated as Buddha's birthplace, against a backdrop of conflict, including in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan. While on his visit to Nepal, Guterr…

https://www.voanews.com/a/un-chief-urges-peace-from-site-venerated-as-buddha-birthplace/7334409.html

2023-10-31 14:23:18.000000

Lumbini, Nepal  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an impassioned plea for peace on Tuesday from a Nepalese site venerated as Buddha's birthplace, against a backdrop of conflict, including … [+1617 chars]

Nepal

the-times-of-india

The Times of India

Durgesh Nandan Jha

PM Hasina’s war on terror gets daughter India’s vote in WHO

India News: NEW DELHI: India preferred Bangladesh over Nepal for the post of regional director of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Southeast Asia Region contribu.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pm-hasinas-war-on-terror-gets-daughter-indias-vote-in-who/articleshow/104900983.cms

2023-11-02 01:12:47.000000

Ranked! Worlds most loved landmarks; Taj Mahal secures 2nd spot

Nepal

NEW DELHI: India preferred Bangladesh over Nepal for the post of regional director of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Southeast Asia Region contributing to the comfortable victory of Saima Wazed, daughter of Bangla PM Sheikh Hasina .Although officials were tight-lipped about which way India voted, sources said that it voted for Wazed at the expense of Dr Shambhu Acharya, who could manage one vote, apart from Nepal’s.It could not have been an easy decision as India has been working to improve ties with both neighbours. The decision may have been influenced by Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s effort to stop Islamic terrorist groups, many of them backed by Pakistan, from using Bangladesh as a base to launch attacks against India. The personal stake of Sheikh Hasina, who faces an increasingly tough situation on the domestic front ahead of elections next year, in the outcome of a contest featuring her daughter and China’s effort to woo her, also perhaps helped tip scales in Wazed’s favour.Wazed, who is a global autism advocate and has been a member of the WHO’s 25-member expert advisory panel on mental health, would have won in any case as eight of the 10 member nations preferred her over Dr Acharya who is a WHO specialist.WHO said that Wazed’s nomination will be submitted to the WHO executive board during its 154th session, taking place on 22-27 January 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland, and that the newly appointed regional director will take office on 1 February 2024.The Bangladesh High Commission, in its statement announcing the victory, said their ministry of foreign affairs, in coordination with the ministry of health and family welfare, conducted an effective campaign in Wazed’s favour since the very beginning of the election process.

The Star Online

The Star Online

Over 1,000 call centre scammers detained this year, say cops

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have detained 1,160 individuals for suspected involvement in call centre scam syndicates in the first nine months of this year. Read full story

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/10/20/over-1000-call-centre-scammers-detained-this-year-say-cops

2023-10-20 13:08:00.000000

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have detained 1,160 individuals for suspected involvement in call centre scam syndicates in the first nine months of this year. They comprise 791 individuals from Malaysia, Chin… [+1770 chars]

Nepal

the-jerusalem-post

The Jerusalem Post

By REUTERS

Magnitude 5.6 earthquake strikes Nepal

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Nepal on Tuesday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said.The

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-761462

https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_407,w_690/534687

2023-10-03 09:37:27.000000

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Nepal on Tuesday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said. The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), GFZ said. The quake was also felt in parts … [+40 chars]

Nepal

CNA

China expands climate change surveillance on Himalayan peak

BEIJING: China has set up weather stations on Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world on Tibet's border with Nepal, expanding a series of high-altitude meteorological gauges in the Himalayas to monitor the impact of climate change on Asia's "water to…

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sustainability/china-expands-climate-change-surveillance-himalayan-peak-3826266

2023-10-06 08:37:56.000000

BEIJING: China has set up weather stations on Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world on Tibet's border with Nepal, expanding a series of high-altitude meteorological gauges in the Himalayas… [+1801 chars]

Nepal

BEIJING: China has set up weather stations on Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world on Tibet's border with Nepal, expanding a series of high-altitude meteorological gauges in the Himalayas to monitor the impact of climate change on Asia's "water tower". Scientists are increasingly watching how climate change is impacting the environmentally fragile Himalayas, home to the planet's tallest peaks and the source of water for rivers that hundreds of millions of people depend on. Since the end of September, a Chinese team has set up five automatic weather stations on Cho Oyu, at altitudes from 4,950m to its summit at 8,201m, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday (Oct 6). Snow and ice samples at the summit had been collected for the first time, Xinhua reported. Initial research showed that the ice layer on Cho Oyu was the thickest among peaks above 8,000m, with a thickness of more than 70m being seen, Xinhua reported. The weather stations on Cho Oyu, which means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan, expand a Chinese meteorological network in the Himalayas that includes monitoring of the 8,848m Everest, also on the border with Nepal, and the 8,013m Shishapangma in Tibet. Monitoring the effects of global warming has taken on urgency after one of the warmest summers in the northern hemisphere this year.Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest peak, has lost more than 2m in height over two yearsbecause of its shrinking snowpack, researchers said on Thursday. Torrential rain in India's northeastern Sikkim state burst the banks of a glacial lake and triggered flash floodsthis week, killing at least 40 people in the latest example of extreme weather events in the mountain range that scientists have blamed on climate change. High-altitude surveillance was imperative to avoid disasters such as floods and ice avalanches as glaciers melt, Xinhua reported, citing Yang Wei, a researcher at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Upenn.edu

Victor Mair

Middle Sinitic in Indological Transcription

A fascinating, valuable new proposal from Nathan Hill: "An Indological transcription of Middle Chinese" Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 52 (2023), 40-50. Abstract Because most Sino-Tibetan languages with a literary tradition use Indic derived scripts …

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=61092

2023-10-29 01:06:43.000000

« previous post | A fascinating, valuable new proposal from Nathan Hill: "An Indological transcription of Middle Chinese" Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 52 (2023), 40-50. Abstract Beca… [+6610 chars]

Nepal

Hurriyet Daily News

hurriyetdailynews.com

AI of tiger: Tiny camera protects people

Tiger populations are on the rise in the jungles of India and Nepal and the predators are roaming ever closer to villages, sparking a race among conservationists to find ways of avoiding conflict.

https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ai-of-tiger-tiny-camera-protects-people-186800

2023-10-06 04:00:00.000000

PARIS Tiger populations are on the rise in the jungles of India and Nepal and the predators are roaming ever closer to villages, sparking a race among conservationists to find ways of avoiding confl… [+2298 chars]

Nepal

CNA

CNA wins gold in Best Use of Video category at WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awards 2023

SINGAPORE: For its first-hand look at the direct impact of global warming on lives in Nepal, CNA picked up a gold award at this year's WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awards in the Best Use of Video category.  The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) …

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/cna-wins-best-use-video-wan-ifra-asian-digital-media-awards-2023-nepal-climate-3857826

2023-10-19 09:37:00.000000

SINGAPORE: For its first-hand look at the direct impact of global warming on lives in Nepal, CNA picked up a gold award at this year's WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awards in the Best Use of Video cat… [+1392 chars]

Nepal

SINGAPORE: For its first-hand look at the direct impact of global warming on lives in Nepal, CNA picked up a gold award at this year's WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awardsin the Best Use of Video category. The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is the global organisation of the world’s media and has 60 member publisher associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries. The award was presented on Thursday (Oct 19) at the Digital Media Asia (DMA) conference. Now in its 15th year, the event is Asia Pacific’s largest regional news media industry event on digital trends, revenue and technology. CNA’s Climate Correspondent Jack Board travelled to Upper Mustang, once known as Nepal's last forbidden kingdom, where he shot his winning digital video piece,Climate Change and Nepal’s Dying Village in the Mountains. Even as glaciers melt, the village of Samdzong is running dry. And as global warming ravages the Himalayas, communities there have no choice but to adapt and uproot themselves. Recounting his experience, Mr Board said filming the story was an "absolute privilege and challenge". "Upper Mustang is a naturally breathtaking environment, and while it felt so distant, the local challenges there are so connected to the overall climate change threat that the world is facing," he said. "Reaching the high-altitude glacial lake, featured in the story, was the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done in my life. Yet it’s in these hard-to-reach places that climate change is hitting in most dramatic fashion. What happens up there really matters.”

VOA News

webdesk@voanews.com (Shaikh Azizur Rahman)

WHO Regional Election Sparks Nepotism Concerns in Bangladesh

The coming election to choose the World Health Organization's next chief of the South-East Asia Regional Office, or SEARO, has become contentious as the person who takes up that post could influence the health of billions of people.  The daughter of Banglad…

https://www.voanews.com/a/who-regional-election-sparks-nepotism-concerns-in-bangladesh/7322556.html

2023-10-23 14:47:54.000000

The coming election to choose the World Health Organization's next chief of the South-East Asia Regional Office, or SEARO, has become contentious as the person who takes up that post could influence … [+6608 chars]

Nepal

AOL

Alastair Gee

McDonald’s and Amazon’s ties to alleged labor trafficking: five key takeaways

Foreign workers at the Middle East locations of US and UK brands allege low pay, harsh conditions and a legal limbo with few protections

https://www.aol.com/finance/mcdonald-amazon-ties-alleged-labor-090035425.html

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/8cQIdi0h3jb_LjJHmP_cJQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD03MjE-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_the_guardian_702/9260a676d8c1414277ce7692e2db5735

2023-10-10 09:00:35.000000

Today the Guardian has published an investigation into labor conditions at the Persian Gulf locations of major US and UK brands, including Amazon, McDonalds and the InterContinental Hotels Group. Al… [+4285 chars]

Nepal

rt

RT

RT

India leads in migration to 'high-income' countries - report

US, Australia and Canada were the top destinations for Indians to acquire foreign citizenship in 2021 Read Full Article at RT.com

https://www.rt.com/india/585738-indians-migration-rich-countries/

2023-10-25 06:46:38.000000

India topped a chart of countries with the largest number of emigrants to “high-income” Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member nations, with about 407,000 people having … [+2915 chars]

Nepal

India has topped a list of countries with the largest number of emigrants to“high-income”Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member nations, according to a new report. While about 407,000 Indian nationals emigrated in 2021, the country also leads in acquiring citizenship in the OECD area, with the US, followed by Australia and Canada, dominating. According to theresearch, titled“International Migration Outlook: 2023,”released on Monday in France, the US handed out the most passports to Indian immigrants (56,000), followed by Australia (24,000) and Canada (21,000). A total of 133,000 Indians were granted citizenship in an OCED country in 2021. The OECD, which has 38 member countries, was founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Most of these countries are considered"rich"and"developed"and attract migrant workers and students. Canada, according to the study, recorded the most significant proportional increase in granting citizenship to foreign nationals, with a 174% increase between 2021 and 2022. The North American country, which recently accused New Delhi of conducting a political assassination in a Vancouver suburb, added a record 375,000 new citizens in 2022. The highest number of immigrants issued Canadian passports in 2022 came from India (60,000), followed by the Philippines (42,000), Syria (20,000) and Pakistan (15,000). A shift overseas generally results in higher incomes for Indians. The World Development Report, released in April, showed an estimated 120% gain for Indians who moved abroad for work. According to the report, low-skilled Indians immigrating to the US stand to gain the most, as they would see a jump in income of nearly 500%, followed by immigration to the UAE, at almost 300%. “To step up efforts to actively recruit immigrant workers, several OECD-member countries continue to sign bilateral agreements and advance migration and mobility partnerships with selected origin countries,” the report noted, adding that Portugal, Germany, and Austria have recently concluded agreements on “migration and mobility” with India. Notably, it is the first time that Germany has signed such a bilateral agreement. The report added there was 26% more ‘permanent-type’ immigration to OECD countries in 2022 compared with the previous year, and preliminary figures for 2023 suggest a further increase. With more than 6 million new permanent immigrants, not including Ukrainian refugees, permanent immigration reached a record level in 2022, the report noted. Temporary labor migration, especially of the seasonal variety, also registered a “strong increase.” India has also emerged as the second-largest source of international students in OECD countries; 424,000 Indian students travel abroad for studies in 2021, only surpassed by China, which sent 885,000 students. According to the report, the number of students from India, Vietnam, and Nepal have more than doubled between 2014 and 2021. The report further revealed that Indians account for the largest number of international students in Canada and Latvia.

International Business Times

AFP News

At Least 10 Dead, 102 Missing In India Glacial Lake Burst

Indian rescue teams searched on Thursday for 102 people missing after a devastating flash flood triggered by a high-altitude glacial lake burst killed at least 10, officials said.

https://www.ibtimes.com/least-10-dead-102-missing-india-glacial-lake-burst-3714190

2023-10-05 09:00:39.000000

Indian rescue teams searched on Thursday for 102 people missing after a devastating flash flood triggered by a high-altitude glacial lake burst killed at least 10, officials said. Violent flooding f… [+2949 chars]

Nepal

Indian rescue teams searched on Thursday for 102 people missing after a devastating flash flood triggered by a high-altitude glacial lake burst killed at least 10, officials said. Violent flooding from glacier lakes dammed by loose rock has become more frequent as global temperatures rise and ice melts, with climate scientists warning it poses an increasing danger across the wider Himalayan mountain range. "At least 10 people were killed and 102 others reported missing," Prabhakar Rai, director of the Sikkim state disaster management authority, told AFP a day after a wall of water rushed down the mountainous valley in northeastern India. Authorities said roads had been "severely" damaged and that 14 bridges had been washed away. Rescuers were battling to help those hit by the flood, with communications cut across large areas and roads blocked. "Floodwaters have caused havoc in four districts of the state, sweeping away people, roads, bridges," Himanshu Tiwari, an Indian Army spokesman, told AFP. Twenty-two soldiers are among the missing, the army said. One previously missing soldier was rescued. The army was working to reestablish telephone connections and provide "medical aid to tourists and locals stranded", it said in a statement. The water surge came after intense rainfall burst the high-altitude Lhonak Lake, which sits at the base of a glacier in peaks surrounding the world's third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga. Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) research group. Water powered downstream, adding to a river already swollen by monsoon rains, damaging a dam, sweeping away houses and bridges, and causing "serious destruction", the Sikkim state government said. Damage was recorded more than 120 kilometres (75 miles) downstream, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised "all possible support" for those affected. Lhonak Lake shrunk by nearly two-thirds in size, an area roughly equivalent to about 150 football pitches (105 hectares), satellite photographs released by the Indian Space Research Organisation showed. "Intense rain has led to this catastrophic situation in Sikkim where the rain has triggered a glacial lake outburst flood and damaged a dam, and caused loss of life," said Miriam Jackson, a scientist specialising in ice who monitors Himalayan regions with the Nepal-based ICIMOD. "We observe that such extreme events increase in frequency as the climate continues to warm and takes us into unknown territory." Earth's average surface temperature has risen nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times but high-mountain regions around the world have warmed at twice that pace, climate scientists say. Sikkim is close to India's border with Nepal and China and boasts a sizeable military presence. India has been wary of China's growing military assertiveness and their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension, with parts of Sikkim claimed by Beijing.

Globalresearch.ca

Barbara Nimri Aziz

“We Are at War!” declares Netanyahu. Oh really? Your War or My War

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name. To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here. Click the share button above to email/forward this arti…

https://www.globalresearch.ca/your-war-or-my-war/5835885

2023-10-12 13:36:56.000000

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the authors name. To receive Global Researchs Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click he… [+4221 chars]

Nepal

ARTnews

Karen K. Ho

Metropolitan Museum of Art Initiates Return of Two Artifacts to Nepal

Officials have been discussing the provenance of the ancient religious artifacts since last October.

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/metropolitan-museum-art-initiates-return-ancient-stone-sculpture-temple-strut-nepal-1234681175/

2023-10-04 20:59:16.000000

The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced it had initiated the return of two artifacts from Nepal, a stone sculpture and a delicately carved temple strut. The 13th-century wooden temple stru… [+2705 chars]

Nepal

BusinessLine

PTI

After export ban, rice smuggling booms along Indo-Nepal border

Over 111.2 tonnes of rice being smuggled into Nepal has been seized by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and police in the last four months.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/after-export-ban-rice-smuggling-booms-along-indo-nepal-border/article67423000.ece

2023-10-15 05:27:30.000000

At the crack of dawn every day, hushed frantic activity begins in villages located along the India-Nepal border here as some residents set out on foot or in small vehicles to smuggle rice into the ne… [+3608 chars]

Nepal

breitbart-news

Breitbart News

Simon Kent, Simon Kent

Tally Rises of Foreigners Murdered, Abducted or Reported Missing in Hamas Terrorist Attack

Hundreds of foreign nationals in Israel have been reported murdered, missing or abducted by Hamas terrorists following the deadly invasion from the land, air and sea on Saturday.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/10/10/tally-rises-of-foreigners-murdered-abducted-or-reported-missing-in-hamas-terrorist-attack/

2023-10-10 11:38:01.000000

Hundreds of foreign nationals in Israel have been reported murdered, missing or abducted by Hamas terrorists following the deadly invasion from the land, air and sea on Saturday. As Breitbart News r… [+8671 chars]

Nepal

BusinessLine

G Naga Sridhar

K&R Rail Engineering inks MoU for $500 m cable car project in Nepal

The Nepal government has accorded all necessary approvals for the project

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/kr-rail-engineering-inks-mou-for-500-m-cable-car-project-in-nepal/article67388510.ece

2023-10-06 11:35:19.000000

K&R Rail Engineering signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for execution of the worlds longest cable car project in Nepal with Muktinath Darshan Private Limited, a concessionaire with the Go… [+1038 chars]

Nepal

Moneycontrol

PTI

Revolt Motors looks to ramp up sales infra, roll out new products

The company, which was acquired by RattanIndia Enterprises earlier this year, also plans to enter international markets.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/revolt-motors-looks-to-ramp-up-sales-infra-roll-out-new-products-11552241.html

2023-10-18 04:09:55.000000

Electric bike maker Revolt Motors is looking to scale up sales infrastructure, roll out new products as part of its growth plans over the next few years, a top company official said. The company, wh… [+2245 chars]

Nepal

Energycentral.com

[Energy Central] Len Rosen

The First Big Environmental Problem We Thought We Had Solved Has Come Back to Bite Us

Human-engineered ozone remains a problem coming largely from petrochemical industrial sources. Where is it worse? The Persian Gulf has the highest concentrations of industrial ozone. Qatar leads the way. Another country with high ozone levels is Nepal where r…

https://energycentral.com/c/ec/first-big-environmental-problem-we-thought-we-had-solved-has-come-back-bite-us

2023-10-23 16:07:22.000000

Human-engineered ozone remains a problem coming largely from petrochemical industrial sources. Where is it worse? The Persian Gulf has the highest concentrations of industrial ozone. Qatar leads the … [+591 chars]

Nepal

Psychology Today

Dinesh Sharma Ph.D.

Robert LeVine: A Founder of Psychological Anthropology

The pioneering work of a cultural explorer of the psyche who researched childhood around the globe.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/leaders-in-the-making/202308/robert-levine-a-founder-of-psychological-anthropology

2023-10-02 16:51:39.000000

Robert Alan LeVine (19322023) was a founder of psychological anthropology, a social science discipline at the intersection of socio-cultural anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, developmental sc… [+7594 chars]

Nepal

rt

RT

RT

India rejects its ranking in Global Hunger Index, citing ‘malafide intent’

New Delhi labelled index as “an erroneous measure of hunger with serious methodological issues” Read Full Article at RT.com

https://www.rt.com/india/584837-india-rejects-global-hunger-index/

2023-10-13 14:33:26.000000

The Indian government has rejected the new edition of the Global Hunger Report 2023, which ranks India 111th out of a total of 125 countries. In a statement on Thursday, the country’s Ministry of Wom… [+2970 chars]

Nepal

The Indian government has rejected the new edition of the Global Hunger Report 2023, whichranksIndia 111th out of a total of 125 countries. In a statement on Thursday, the country’s Ministry of Women and Child Development cited“serious methodological issues,”noting that the Global Hunger Index“continues to be a flawed measure of ‘hunger’ and does not reflect India’s true position.” The Global Hunger Index is released by NGOs Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, from Ireland and Germany, respectively. It is considered a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at the global, regional, and national levels. The new edition gave India a score of 28.7, noting that the country has a“serious”level of hunger. According to the report, undernourishment in India stands at 16.6% and the mortality rate for children below the age of five is 3.1%. It also showed that India has the highest child ‘wasting’ (the term describing low weight relative to height) rate in the world, at 18.7%, which reflects acute undernutrition. The index also claims that 58.1% of Indian women aged 15-24 suffer from anemia, a condition in which the body does not have enough healthy red blood cells. Notably, India was ranked below neighboring countries Pakistan (102th), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th), and Sri Lanka (60th). In 2022, India ranked 107th out of 121 countries surveyed – again, well below its neighbors. “Three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children,”the Health Ministrysaidin a statement, positing that it therefore,“cannot be representative of the entire population.” The government further pointed out that the fourth and“most important indicator,”the ‘proportion of undernourished (PoU) population’, is based on an opinion poll conducted on“a very small sample size of 3,000.”  “The data collected from a miniscule sample for a country of India’s size through FIES has been used to compute PoU value for India which is not only wrong and unethical, it also reeks of obvious bias,”the statement reads. The Health Ministry also claimed that the index didn’t use data collected via the government application called the Poshan Tracker, which was created as part of the drive to address malnutrition. This is despite the fact that key international organizations, including UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank,“have acknowledged the Poshan Tracker as a game-changer in the area of nutrition,”the statement said. Based on data from the Poshan Tracker, the percentage of child ‘wasting’ in India is consistently below 7.2% month-on-month, which is in stark contrast to the 18.7% value in the Global Hunger Index 2023. The statement also pointed out that“there is hardly any evidence”that child mortality is an outcome of hunger. The Indian government allocated over 112 million metric tonnes of food grains under its food security scheme during the financial years 2020-21 and 2022-23, benefitting nearly 80 million people. It extended the scheme in January 2023, the statement added, calling it the“largest food security program in the world.”

cbc-news

CBC News

Northern Ontario colleges rely on students from India to survive. What if that revenue strategy fails?

Colleges in northeastern Ontario rely more heavily than other schools on international revenue, notably from students from India. Developments including India suspending visa services in Canada amid allegations the country was involved in the killing of a Can…

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/international-students-funding-postsecondary-institutions-data-canadore-cambrian-1.6981326

2023-10-03 08:00:00.000000

Students are taking a break between classes on this sunny September day just outside Pures College's Scarborough campus, where diplomas are issued from Timmins's Northern College. It's a familiar ba… [+8227 chars]

Nepal

Bangkok Post

Reuters

Floods in India leave 14 dead, 102 missing

NEW DELHI - At least 14 people were killed and 102, including 22 army personnel, were missing in northeast India on Thursday after heavy rain caused a glacial lake to burst its banks, triggering flash floods down a mountain valley, officials said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2658074/14-dead-102-missing-after-indian-glacial-lake-bursts-bank-in-heavy-rain

2023-10-05 04:36:00.000000

NEW DELHI - At least 14 people were killed and 102, including 22 army personnel, were missing in northeast India on Thursday after heavy rain caused a glacial lake to burst its banks, triggering flas… [+1969 chars]

Nepal

Rlsbb.ru

saamaan1@yahoo.com (Master)

Darpan Magazine - September/October 2023

The publication primarily serves South Asians, who originate from India, Pakistan, Nepal and other parts of the globe, but have roots from the Indian sub-continent, such as Fiji Islands, England and Africa. DARPAN also appeals to the mainstream populace – Can…

https://rlsbb.ru/darpan-magazine-september-october-2023/

2023-10-17 17:00:41.000000

The publication primarily serves South Asians, who originate from India, Pakistan, Nepal and other parts of the globe, but have roots from the Indian sub-continent, such as Fiji Islands, England and … [+383 chars]

Nepal

abc-news

ABC News

The Associated Press

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Nepal damages dozens of homes and causes a landslide

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake and some aftershocks have damaged nearly two dozen houses near Nepal's capital

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/52-magnitude-earthquake-nepal-damages-dozens-homes-causes-104207301

2023-10-22 15:34:02.000000

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- A 5.2 magnitude earthquake and some aftershocks damaged nearly two dozen houses in the hilly Dhading district near Nepal's capital Sunday, an official said. The shaking also caus… [+1025 chars]

Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal --A 5.2 magnitudeearthquakeand some aftershocks damaged nearly two dozen houses in the hilly Dhading district nearNepal's capital Sunday, an official said. The shaking also caused a landslide in the region, Hum Nath Parajuli, a district government administrator, said. Details were not immediately available. The area is nearly 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Kathmandu, and the earthquake was felt in the Nepalese capital. Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.1. The U.S. Geological Survey provided measurements of a 5.2 magnitude with a depth of 24.7 kilometers (15.4 miles) and an epicenter near Bharatpur. Three tremors of 4.3, 4.1 and 3.8 magnitude also hit the region later Sunday, according to India’s Center for Seismology. The Press Trust of India news agency said the tremors were also felt in Bagmati and Gandaki provinces and caused panic among people. One woman suffered injuries in the Gorkha district, which adjoins Dhading, when she jumped from a two-story building, Parajuli said. Earthquakes are common in mountainous Nepal. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015 killed some 9,000 people and damaged about 1 million structures.

Ozbargain.com.au

oztechtraders

Boost $300 Prepaid SIM Starter Kit (260GB Data if Activated by 27-11-2023) $238 Delivered@ Oztechbiz

BOOST MOBILE $300 PREPAID SIM STARTER KIT 260 GB Data (240GB + 20GB Bonus) Activate before 27-11-23 Expiry date 14-07-2025. (Customer 365 days expiry date starts from the date of sim activation) We aim to process the orders within 48 hours after the cleare…

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/807849

2023-10-25 11:05:32.000000

BOOST MOBILE $300 PREPAID SIM STARTER KIT 260 GB Data (240GB + 20GB Bonus) Activate before 27-11-23 Expiry date 14-07-2025. (Customer 365 days expiry date starts from the date of sim activation) W… [+2577 chars]

Nepal

bbc-news

BBC News

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

India-China feud keeps international planes out of Nepal airport

Nepal has spent millions constructing a new airport in hopes of boosting tourism - but no-one is coming.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66425253

2023-10-03 21:06:51.000000

The bright orange hotel sticks out as far as the eye can see - but unfortunately for its owner Bishnu Sharma, there is hardly anyone there to see it. His hotel offers breath-taking mountain views f… [+5039 chars]

Nepal

The bright orange hotel sticks out as far as the eye can see - but unfortunately for its owner Bishnu Sharma, there is hardly anyone there to see it. His hotel offers breath-taking mountain views from the town of Lumbini in Nepal - Buddha's birthplace. But a hoped-for surge in tourist numbers has failed to materialise, blamed in part on tensions between Nepal's giant neighbours India and China. Lumbini saw close to a million visitors in 2022, according to the Lumbini Development Trust - and it was this number the government was betting on when it spent $76m (£61m) to build the Gautam Buddha International Airport, which opened in May last year. Domestic tourists make up most of the visitors, with just less than a third travelling from neighbouring India. The terminal, also known as Bhairahawa Airport, lets tourists fly directly to Lumbini instead of travelling 250km (155 miles) by land from the capital, Kathmandu. Yet the anticipated travel boom never materialised, something travel industry experts attribute to a lack of early promotion and incentives to international airlines. "The government asked us to expand tourism infrastructure saying more international flights would come. But my hotel is two-thirds empty. I am now struggling to repay my loan," Mr Sharma tells the BBC, adding that he is millions of rupees in debt. Travel industry experts argue tourist arrivals, particularly from overseas, will go up if there are regular scheduled international flights operating out of Bhairahawa airport. But Nepali officials say Delhi has refused to allow big passenger planes to fly west through its airspace - meaning planes cannot fly over India to reach the Gautam Buddha airport. Access to Indian airspace would mean shorter flights at lower cost. Some in Nepal also believe that Delhi is wary of the fact that the Gautam Buddha airport was constructed by China's Northwest Civil Aviation Airport. The airport is also located near Nepal's border with India - west of where the two Asian giants' troops clashed last December in the Arunachal Pradesh region, just seven months after the terminal opened to international traffic. In 2020, a major encounter between India and China killed at least 20 troops. At the centre of their dispute is an ill-defined, poorly-demarcated 3,440km (2,100-mile)-long border- called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC. The presence of rivers, lakes and snowcaps means the line can shift. The soldiers on either side - representing two of the world's largest armies - come face to face at many points. The situation at the border is mirrored by growing political tension, with strained ties between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Observers say talks are the only way forward because both nuclear-armed countries have much to lose. The two countries have fought only one war, in 1962, when India suffered a humiliating defeat. The Gautum Buddha airport was meant to be the key to Nepal's plan to grow traffic by easing the load of Kathmandu - which has been for years its only international gateway. Kathmandu Airport is heavily congested and was briefly shut down by a powerful earthquake in 2015. A third international airport located in Pokhara - a town with stunning views of the Annapurna mountains and known for adventure sports - is facing a familiar problem to Bhairahawa. Since it opened last January, the airport - built with a $215m loan from China - has not welcomed any international flights, save for a charter flight from Chengdu that brought in Chinese officials and tourists. Currently, Gautama Buddha and Pokhara have a combined traffic of 80-85 domestic flights per day. But experts say the terminals need substantial international traffic to sustain operations. "I don't think only domestic flights will make these two airports commercially viable. It may be difficult to repay the loan without regular international flights," says Tri Ratna Manandhar, the former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. Pokhara International Airport chief Bikram Raj Gautam says Nepal needs "proactive diplomacy" to convince countries like India to open their airspace to commercial flights that will land in Nepal. Experts say Nepal can also look at attracting tourists from the east like Thailand, Japan and Cambodia, while Delhi's restrictions choke traffic from the west. Nepal Airlines has just started a weekly flight from Bhairahawa to Kuala Lumpur - something that should send a positive message to other airlines, Dipak Bajracharya, director of the Gautam Buddha International Airport tells the BBC. But Nepal's minister for tourism and civil aviation, Sudan Kiranti, remains optimistic that there will be a resolution with Delhi - and soon. "We are in constant touch and dialogue with Indian officials and diplomats," he tells the BBC. "They are very positive." With additional reporting by Surendra Phuyal in Kathmandu

DW (English)

Deutsche Welle

India: Top court to rule on same-sex marriage

India's Supreme Court is expected to deliver a historic judgement on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. The BJP government has opposed this move, saying it goes against traditional family values.

https://www.dw.com/en/india-top-court-to-rule-on-same-sex-marriage/a-67116174

2023-10-17 05:06:00.000000

On Tuesday, India's Supreme Court is expected to deliver a verdict on whether to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages. The historic case comes five years after the top court ruled in favor … [+910 chars]

Nepal

Sightunseen.com

Deborah Shapiro

Each Rug in the Latest Collection from Cc-Tapis Looks Like a Portal to Somewhere Else

Made of hand-knotted Himalayan wool at the cc-tapis atelier in Nepal, the Memento collection by Yabu Pushelberg features a trio of undyed, tone-on-tone variations in off-kilter geometries. There are arches that could be doorways; squares, trapezoids, and circ…

https://www.sightunseen.com/2023/10/each-rug-in-the-latest-collection-from-cc-tapis-looks-like-a-portal-to-somewhere-else/

2023-10-04 13:00:30.000000

The Yabu Pushelberg designs for cc tapis new Memento collection are surrealistic and ephemeral in the way that dreams can be those images and feelings you cant quite hold onto when you wake, but also… [+1235 chars]

Nepal

Skift

Skift

Indigo and Air India See More Domestic Flights This Winter: India Report

As Go First’s operations remain suspended and financially-troubled SpiceJet’s schedule shrinks, Indigo and Air India will shoulder the bulk of responsibilities in the Indian aviation industry. -Peden Doma Bhutia

https://skift.com/2023/10/25/indigo-and-air-india-see-more-domestic-flights-this-winter-india-report/

2023-10-26 03:00:00.000000

In this year’s winter schedule, Indigo will have the largest number of domestic flights among Indian airlines, with a total of 13,119 flights each week a 30% increase from a year earlier. Amid risi… [+6980 chars]

Nepal

Biztoc.com

reuters.com

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Nepal - National Seismological ..

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck the Nepal on Sunday, the National Seismological Centre of Nepal said. The epicentre of the quake was at Dhading, about 55 km (35 miles) west of Kathmandu, it said. "We felt very strong tremors. Some residents rushed out o…

https://biztoc.com/x/35c4b2868f8e15c6

2023-10-22 04:14:07.000000

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck the Nepal on Sunday, the National Seismological Centre of Nepal said.The epicentre of the quake was at Dhading, about 55 km (35 miles) west of Kathmandu, it said… [+242 chars]

Nepal

Bangkok Post

India's top court rejects same-sex marriage

NEW DELHI - India's top court on Tuesday said it cannot legalise same-sex marriages, with the chief justice saying making such a law is the domain of parliament.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2665976/indias-top-court-rejects-same-sex-marriage

2023-10-17 07:54:00.000000

NEW DELHI - India's top court on Tuesday said it cannot legalise same-sex marriages, with the chief justice saying making such a law is the domain of parliament. A five-judge bench headed by Chief J… [+968 chars]

Nepal

The Indian Express

Ravik Bhattacharya, Atri Mitra

Rats! Kolkata has a rodent problem: ‘They are eating this bridge like it’s cake’

Flyovers to cable lines, food and papers in the Assembly building, rodents are nibbling their way through Kolkata. An exasperated city administration has all but thrown its hands up

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/kolkata-rodent-problem-eating-bridge-8968085/

2023-10-04 09:53:05.000000

It’s a rat race in Kolkata and so far, the rodents are winning it hands down.Rats have so far dug through the concrete bases of at least two flyovers, gnawed at underground sewerage and cable lines, … [+8933 chars]

Nepal

It’s a rat race in Kolkata — and so far, the rodents are winning it hands down. Rats have so far dug through the concrete bases of at least two flyovers, gnawed at underground sewerage and cable lines, and taken over the much of the city, from the slums and eateries of south and centralKolkatato the colonial-era buildings of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Bidhan Sabha at Esplanade. The menace has set off alarm bells in the government, with the Trinamool Congress-run KMC scrambling for solutions — from running awareness campaigns on waste disposal to resorting to quick-fixes and reaching out to its counterparts in other states for ideas to exterminate the rats. Firhad Hakim, Trinamool leader and Kolkata Mayor, admitted toThe Indian Expressthat while they are yet to assess the extent of damage to the wires and cable lines, rats “are a major problem”. “We do not know about the population (of rats), but the effects are visible every day. Our sewerage lines, underground cables and electricity wires are getting damaged,” he told The Indian Express. KMC authorities say central Kolkata, where footpaths are lined with eateries that cater to the office crowd, and the slum areas of south Kolkata’s Dhakuria and Bhabanipore are among the worst affected. It was two years ago that the KMC was alerted to the sinking of the approach road to the Dhakuria Bridge flyover. “We reinforced the road with concrete but the problem persisted. Then we discovered these huge holes underground that rats had burrowed through and realised what was causing the subsidence,” said Mayor Hakim, blaming “illegal squatters” and “roadside eateries that throw waste food on the road” for the problem. KMC sources said rats have also damaged parts of the AJC Bose flyover in south Kolkata, digging through and loosening the soil around the foundation. With no solution in sight and no precedent to fall back on, the corporation has been reinforcing damaged structures and filling up holes on footpaths, roads and walls of bridges with a mix of concrete, sand and glass shards. “We mixed glass shards and sand grains with concrete and used that to fill up holes made by rats on the walls and pillars of flyovers. We hope this mix will restrict their movement, though we have no proof yet if it is working,” said Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh. Ghosh said the KMC has also been conducting awareness campaigns for roadside eateries and restaurants, asking them not to throw food outside and warning them of legal action. Rat tales:Mumbaito New York From New York to Mumbai, almost every major city has been waging a battle against rat infestation. Aided by uncontrolled urbanisation, rats have outsmarted the best of city administrations, living in the darkest depths of sewerage systems and tunnels and nibbling through anything that comes their way — heaps of overflowing trash, cables, wires, even concrete. Mayor Hakim says that “sometime back”, the KMC approached the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for help. “But they could not help us find a solution,” he said. While BMC authorities did not confirm receiving such a letter from their counterparts in Kolkata, they said their battle against rats is an ongoing one. The BMC’s insecticide department kills lakhs of rats every year as part of its monsoon drive across the city’s 24 wards. The BMC also has ‘rat labourers’, who work in shifts to hunt down rats in the city. As of July this year, 2.81 lakh rats have been killed in Mumbai. But it’s New York’s rat problem that has garnered global attention. From mandating the use of covered trash cans to establishing rat exclusion zones, and appointing a ‘Rat Czar’, Kathleen Corradi, earlier this year to tackle the city’s severe rodent crisis, New York has declared war on the rodents. In an email to The Indian Express, Noah Levine, Chief of Staff of Communications in the office of the Mayor of New York City, said one of the key steps the city took to contain rats was to replace black trash bags with lidded containers to cut down on the food source of the rodents. The rule mandates that all commercial trash — approximately 20 million pounds per day — must be in secure, lidded containers, Levine said, adding that the city’s efforts over the past 20 months have resulted in “rat sightings dropping 25 per cent this summer” compared to last year. From nibbling on toes to exposing footpath plaster Back in Kolkata, rat sightings are easy. On a weekday afternoon, a colony of rats scurry out of the ground near one of the pillars of Dhakuria Bridge, an ageing four-lane flyover in Ballygunge that has a rail line connecting Gariahut to Jadavpur running underneath. Down the flyover and on either side of the railway line are slums, shacks and eateries, with their waste finding space on the tracks and elsewhere. Sitting on the tracks of the Sealdah-Budge Budge railway line, Sonia Mondol, 25, who lives in the slums under the bridge, said, “Rats have been eating this bridge like it’s cake. Every day we see broken parts of the bridge falling off.” Two years ago, Nepal Paul, 40, shifted his tea stall from under the Dhakuria Bridge to a corner of the underpass. “The rats are a huge menace. Look at the holes in the footpath here. They are so big that two people fell down and got injured. I have had to change the plastic containers in my shop to glass,” he said. Around five km away, at the AJC Bose flyover and the nearby Nizam Palace, another of the areas that Hakim identified as rat-infested, Pintu Shaw, 28, a hawker, says, “It’s impossible to do any work here. The rats come and nibble on our toes. The PWD came here and fixed the footpath, but within a month, the holes were back,” said Shaw, pointing to the exposed plaster on the footpath and the flyover. Asim Basu, councillor of ward number 70, said, “Eateries throw leftovers, and the oil and fat from the food stick onto the walls of the underground drains. Rats eat and nibble through the concrete walls of the drain, damaging them.” The KMC headquarters and the Assembly building in the Esplanade area too have had their share of rat tales. A KMC official said, “Rats are everywhere in the KMC, but the worst-hit is the server room. The rats have chewed on the wires and machines there. They have also been damaging the control room’s electric wires regularly.” A senior IT official at the KMC said things have been a little quieter ever since the corporation installed a “RODENT” machine in the server room two months ago. “The machine generates sound waves of a very high frequency which keeps rats away,” the official said. In the Assembly building, Speaker Biman said, “I have seen rats here… with my own eyes. We are very worried. We don’t want to use poison to kill rats because the stench will be unbearable. We have spoken to the Public Works Department about this. Let’s see what can be done.” A senior official said, “Here in the Assembly, I must say rats are the only creatures that are neutral. They trouble both the ruling party as well as the Opposition. Rats have eaten food in Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari’s room and they have damaged papers in the Speaker’s room.” The way out? Experts agree that while rats are everywhere, they are hard to get rid of — and even harder to count. Mukesh Thakur, head of the mammals section at the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, said, “It is true that there is almost no data or research on the rat population for the city of Kolkata. If KMC sends us a request, we can possibly look into it.” Shilanjan Bhattacharya, Professor of Zoology at West Bengal State University, said, “The most common rats species in the city are the Rattus norvegicus, the common brown rats with a maximum body length of 6-8 inches, and the Bandicota indica, the Indian bandicoot that can grow up to 1 foot in length and weigh nearly a kg.” “The only way the rat population can be checked is by innovating and allowing natural predators such as owls, monitor lizards and jungle cats to breed and roam in the infested area. If authorities decide that this is an emergency and absolutely necessary, the Forest Department and naturalists can work on how to manage such biological controls. No other mechanical or chemical procedures have ever been successful — especially in humid Indian cities, where garbage is abundant.” Renowned ecologist and academic Professor Madhav Gadgil offers an even more unconventional solution. Talking to The Indian Express, he said, “It may sound unorthodox, but the solution is to catch the rats, remove harmful pathogens if any and turn it into poultry feed. The solution is to bring the rats back into the food chain. In various parts of India, people eat rats, mainly field rats.”

Ozbargain.com.au

oztechtraders

Boost $300 Prepaid SIM Starter Kit (Get 260GB Data if Activated by 27-11-2023) Use Code 2YB2Y2Q3 for $244 Delivered @Oztechbiz

BOOST MOBILE $300 PREPAID SIM STARTER KIT 260 GB Data Activate before 27-11-23 Expiry date 14-07-2025. (Customer 365 expiry starts from the date of sim activation) We aim to process the orders within 48 hours after the cleared funds are received. PLEASE V…

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/805355

2023-10-12 12:22:55.000000

BOOST MOBILE $300 PREPAID SIM STARTER KIT 260 GB Data Activate before 27-11-23 Expiry date 14-07-2025. (Customer 365 expiry starts from the date of sim activation) We aim to process the orders wit… [+2550 chars]

Nepal

VOA News

webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)

5 Civilians Dead, 23 Soldiers Missing After Flooding in India

Five people have died and 23 soldiers are missing after flash flooding Wednesday in India's Lachen Valley in the northeastern state of Sikkim, according to army officials.  The flood, caused by heavy rainfall, blocked the main highway to Sikkim's capital, G…

https://www.voanews.com/a/civilians-dead-23-soldiers-missing-after-flooding-in-india/7296513.html

2023-10-04 15:43:54.000000

Five people have died and 23 soldiers are missing after flash flooding Wednesday in India's Lachen Valley in the northeastern state of Sikkim, according to army officials. The flood, caused by heav… [+941 chars]

Nepal

BusinessLine

BL Mumbai Bureau

Zydus Lifesciences to co-promote Guardant Health biopsy tests in India and Nepal

Zydus Lifesciences and Guardant Health have collaborated to jointly promote a range of biopsy tests in India and Nepal, including Guardant360 and Guardant360 TissueNext for genomic profiling, as well as Guardant360 Response for treatment monitoring.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/zydus-lifesciences-to-co-promote-guardant-health-biopsy-tests-in-india-and-nepal/article67488066.ece

2023-11-02 07:02:51.000000

Zydus Lifesciences and Guardant Health have agreed to jointly promote the Guardant360 portfolio of liquid and tissue biopsy tests across India and Nepal. The tests to be promoted include the Guarda… [+2192 chars]

Nepal

Raw Story

Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan hit by second strong quake days after first killed more than 2,000

Another strong earthquake shook part of western Afghanistan on Wednesday morning after an earlier quake killed more than 2,000 and flattened whole villages.The latest 6.3-magnitude earthquake was about 28 kilometres (17 miles) outside Herat, the capital of He…

https://www.rawstory.com/afghanistan-hit-by-second-strong-quake-days-after-first-killed-more-than-2000/

2023-10-11 11:32:44.000000

Here is what we know so far: - Thailand: 20 dead, 14 hostages - Twenty Thais have been killed, 13 wounded and 14 are estimated to have been abducted, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. There … [+4438 chars]

Nepal

cnn

CNN

Anna Bahney

Mortgage rates drop for first time in seven weeks

Mortgage rates ticked down this week, snapping a seven-week streak of increases.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/homes/mortgage-rates-november-2/index.html

2023-11-02 17:01:28.000000

Mortgage rates ticked down this week, snapping a seven-week streak of increases. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to an average of 7.76% in the week ending November 2, down from 7.79% the week b… [+3067 chars]

Hiking

Mortgage rates ticked down this week, snapping aseven-week streak of increases. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to an average of 7.76% in the week ending November 2, down from 7.79% the week before, according to data from Freddie Mac released Thursday. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate was 6.95%. The news comes a day after the Federal Reserve said in a widely anticipated move that it wouldleave its benchmark lending rate at the highest level in 22 years. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage paused its multi-week climb but continues to hover under 8%,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The Federal Reserve again decided not to raise interest rates but has not ruled out a hike before year-end,” he said. “Coupled with geopolitical uncertainty, this ambiguity around monetary policy will likely have an impact on the overall economic landscape and may continue to stall improvements in the housing market.” Although the rate for a 30-year fixed-rate loan ticked down slightly, it remained elevated in the leadup to the two-day monetary policy meeting, which concluded Wednesday, said Hannah Jones, economic research analyst at Realtor.com. “Though the committee chose to take a pause from further contractionary policy in this week’s meeting, Chair [Jerome] Powell made the point that the committee will remain open to further policy action to bring inflation down to 2% over time, dependent on incoming data,” she said. Realtors found liable for $1.8 billion in damages in conspiracy to keep commissions high Although the Fed does not set the interest rates that borrowers pay on mortgages directly, its actions influence them. Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year US Treasuries, which move based on a combination of anticipation about the Fed actions, what the Fed actually does and investors’ reactions. When Treasury yields go up, so do mortgage rates; when they go down, mortgage rates tend to follow. On Wednesday the Treasury Department also announced that it will slow the pace of its longer-dated 10-year and 30-year bond issuance. “However, longer-term debt issuance will continue to climb, which keeps upward pressure on mortgage rates,” said Jones. With average rates over 7% since mid-August, applications for mortgages have been trending down. They declined for the third consecutive week as low inventory and high rates continued to stifle borrower demand, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rates are expected to stay elevated until it becomes clear the Fed is done hiking rates, according to MBA. How the Fed is using its multi-trillion-dollar balance sheet to fight inflation “We were pleased to see that the Fed held short-term rates steady yesterday and continue to believe that it should not hike again and not sell its holdings of mortgage-backed securities until and unless the housing finance market has stabilized,” said Bob Broeksmit, MBA president and CEO. “These actions would help to lower mortgage rates and improve homebuyer affordability heading into 2024.” Mortgage rates should stay stable in the next few months, said Jones, since another two-day monetary policy meeting is not scheduled until December. That should give homebuyers a small bit of comfort, she says. “Today’s buyers face scarce for-sale inventory, still-high listing prices, and multi-decade high mortgage rates, so any potential relief from climbing housing costs is welcomed,” Jones said.

Raw Story

Agence France-Presse

US arrests Chilean ex-soldier for murder of singer Victor Jara

A former Chilean soldier accused of torturing and killing beloved folk singer Victor Jara 50 years ago during the country's dictatorship was arrested in Florida, officials said Tuesday.Pedro Pablo Barrientos is in the custody of immigration authorities after …

https://www.rawstory.com/us-arrests-chilean-ex-soldier-for-of-singer-victor-jara/

2023-10-11 11:28:43.000000

Here is what we know so far: - Thailand: 20 dead, 14 hostages - Twenty Thais have been killed, 13 wounded and 14 are estimated to have been abducted, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. There … [+4438 chars]

Nepal

Raw Story

Agence France-Presse

NASA to unveil first images of historic asteroid sample

NASA is set to reveal on Wednesday the first images of the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, something scientists hope will yield clues about the earliest days of our solar system and perhaps the origins of life itself.The OSIRIS-REx mission co…

https://www.rawstory.com/nasa-to-unveil-first-images-of-historic-asteroid-sample/

2023-10-11 11:24:57.000000

Here is what we know so far: - Thailand: 20 dead, 14 hostages - Twenty Thais have been killed, 13 wounded and 14 are estimated to have been abducted, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. There … [+4438 chars]

Nepal

cbs-news

CBS News

At least 10 dead, 102 missing as India glacial lake burst sparks flood

Officials in India say at least 10 people are dead and 102 missing after a flash flood triggered by a swollen glacial lake bursting its banks.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/india-flood-glacier-lake-deaths-missing-himalayas-climate-change-glacial-melting/

2023-10-05 13:13:05.000000

Guwahati, India — Indian rescue teams searched Thursday for 102 people missing after a devastating flash flood triggered by a high-altitude glacial lake burst that killed at least 10 people, official… [+3319 chars]

Nepal

Biztoc.com

nytimes.com

How Nepal’s Deal With China for an Airport Became an Albatross

Nepal had long hoped that an international airport would make Pokhara a tourist site. Credit...Rebecca Conway for The New York Times China called the project a “signature” of its cooperation with Nepal. Insiders and documents reveal the pitfalls of China’s in…

https://biztoc.com/x/a78a09d03eada465

2023-10-16 06:42:11.000000

Nepal had long hoped that an international airport would make Pokhara a tourist site. Credit...Rebecca Conway for The New York TimesChina called the project a signature of its cooperation with Nepal.… [+286 chars]

Nepal

cbs-news

CBS News

U.S. climber and her guide dead, 2 missing after Tibet mountain avalanches

Anna Gutu and Mingmar Sherpa were confirmed dead after avalanches struck the slopes of a Tibetan mountain, while two others remained missing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-climber-anna-gutu-mingmar-sherpa-dead-2-missing-avalanches-mount-shishapangma-tibet/

2023-10-09 10:31:13.000000

American mountaineer Anna Gutu and a Nepalese guide Mingmar Sherpa were confirmed Sunday dead after avalanches struck the slopes of a Tibetan mountain, while two others remained missing, according to… [+2772 chars]

Nepal

Globalsecurity.org

John Pike

WHO Regional Election Sparks Nepotism Concerns in Bangladesh

The coming election to choose the World Health Organization's next chief of the South-East Asia Regional Office, or SEARO, has become contentious as the person who takes up that post could influence the health of billions of people.

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2023/10/mil-231023-voa10.htm

2023-10-25 03:19:20.000000

By Shaikh Azizur Rahman October 23, 2023 The coming election to choose the World Health Organization's next chief of the South-East Asia Regional Office, or SEARO, has become contentious as the pers… [+6787 chars]

Nepal

By Shaikh Azizur Rahman October 23, 2023 The coming election to choose the World Health Organization's next chief of the South-East Asia Regional Office, or SEARO, has become contentious as the person who takes up that post could influence the health of billions of people. The daughter of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is one of two candidates for the SEARO position. Saima Wazed's nomination has sparked controversy with many health experts calling it "nepotism," and expressing concern over the election process to fill senior roles at the U.N. health body. A candidate for the SEARO post should have a "strong technical and public health background and extensive experience in global health", according to the WHO website. The candidate should also have "competency in organizational management" and "proven historical evidence for public health leadership", the website says. The next SEARO chief will be elected through a secret ballot by the region's 11 member countries, which include Bangladesh, Nepal and India. The vote is scheduled to take place in New Delhi during a WHO regional committee meeting Oct. 30-Nov. 2. Countries in the region nominate candidates to head the WHO regional office. Wazed was nominated by the government of Bangladesh. In addition to Wazed, who is a mental health advocate, only one other candidate has been put forward: Shambhu Acharya, a public health expert and senior WHO official who was nominated by Nepal. Questions have been raised about the disparity between the candidates' qualifications.Wazed has a master's degree in clinical psychology from Barry University, a school in Florida. She has spent nearly a decade serving as an adviser to the director general of the WHO on mental health and autism issues. Acharya has been with the WHO for almost 30 years. He has experience working with the U.N. body in senior positions and holds a Ph.D. in public health, health policy and financing from the University of North Carolina. Sixteen public health experts in Nepal issued a statement saying that Acharya "is the better fit" of the two candidates vying for the SEARO director's position. "[Acharya] possesses a very strong public health background and has extensive leadership experience in tackling global health issues," the statement said. "He knows the public health and medical challenges of our region intimately, having worked for three decades to strengthen responses at local, national, regional and global levels, including in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, apart from his responsibilities at [the] WHO headquarters in Geneva." So far there have not been any public statements of support for Wazed from public health experts in Bangladesh. Right now a strong anti-Hasina wave is sweeping Bangladesh, ahead of next general election all likely to be held in January. With the US closely monitoring the forthcoming election in Bangladesh many believe the ruling Awami League party will not be able to rig the elections this time and lose power. In such a situation many, long-known as pro-Awami League groups, are not speaking in support of Hasina, her party and family members now. However, AK Abdul Momen, Bangladesh's foreign minister spoke in support of Wazed's candidacy several days ago. In an interview with the Indian newspaper The Hindu, the minister demanded that Nepal withdraw its candidate from the contest for the WHO-SEARO post. "[Nepal's candidate] had been working in the WHO for the last 30 years and was in a decision-making position. So why have [health indices] not improved in the whole of the South East Asian region, even though he himself is a person of South Asian origin?" Momen asked while adding that Acharya should "step down" from the race for the WHO-SEARO post. Wazed, who has held advisory positions at some Bangladesh government mental health bodies, rebuffed accusations that her nomination was "fueled by nepotism" because her mother is the prime minister. She said those critical of her nomination were overlooking her experience and achievements in the field of mental health. "They ignore that I have been an adviser to WHO's DG on Mental Health & Autism, or that I have been a member of the WHO's Expert Advisory Panel on mental health for almost a decade," Wazed wrote in an Inter Press Service opinion piece earlier this month. "They do not mention that I am [the] chief adviser to Bangladesh's National Mental Health Strategic Plan, or that I was a technical expert for Bangladesh's National Mental Health Act of 2018," she wrote. Bangladesh's nomination of Wazed has also come under scrutiny by several activists and public health experts. Bishow Parajuli, former U.N. resident coordinator and U.N. Development Program representative in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, said that Wazed has limited experience and qualifications to assume such a leadership position. "In a country with so many qualified and competent health professionals, the nomination of Ms. Wazed, and her use of the Prime Ministerial Office to engage with the various world leaders, also shows nepotism and the influence of her mother's office in the process. …The selection must be made 'on the basis of merits,'" he said in emailed comments. Paris-based Bangladeshi social activist and physician Pinaki Bhattacharya said Wazed has none of the required qualifications for the WHO-SEARO post. "Hasina and her daughter are not aware that while being a descendant of the powerful can give one political advantage, the position of a professional international health leader requires the necessary education, skills and talent," he told VOA. In recent weeks, Wazed accompanied her mother, Sheikh Hasina, on a high-profile diplomatic tour attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York and the summit in New Delhi of the 20 biggest economies, known as the G20. Wazed accompanied Prime Minister Hasina during her meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Wazed said she is used to being held to different professional standards than men, and having her identity reduced to simply being "her mother's daughter," which is blatant sexism, Wazed said. Wazed has not responded to a VOA email requesting direct comment on the nepotism issue. Kent Buse is director of the Global Healthier Societies Program at The George Institute for Global Health at Imperial College London. Buse told VOA that the rules governing the selection of directors across all WHO regions need considerable reform to ensure public confidence in the merit-based nature of the organization. "This relates to improving transparency and delivering enhanced oversight of the election process. This should include better scrutiny of the candidate's compliance with the existing codes of conduct governing the campaign processes."

Eater

Robert Sietsema

The 10 Best Biryanis in NYC

Will biryani replace pizza as New York’s favorite dish?

https://ny.eater.com/2023/10/25/23930364/best-biryanis-in-nyc

2023-10-25 17:03:17.000000

Robert Sietsema/Eater NY Will biryani replace pizza as New York’s favorite dish? Biryani is shaping up to be the breakout dish of the year. A variation on pilaf brought to the South Asian subc… [+5200 chars]

Nepal

CNA

Death toll from flash floods in Indian Himalayan state climbs to 74, scores missing

RANGPO, India: The death toll from flash floods unleashed by a glacial lake bursting its banks in India's Himalayas climbed to 74 on Monday (Oct 9) with 101 people still missing day

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indian-himalayan-state-sikkim-floods-death-toll-rises-3831606

2023-10-09 07:48:02.000000

Sikkim, a Buddhist state of 650,000 people wedged in the mountains between Nepal, Bhutan and China, received 101mm of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels. In Octob… [+926 chars]

Nepal

RANGPO, India: The death toll fromflash floodsunleashed by a glacial lake bursting its banks in India's Himalayas climbed to 74 on Monday (Oct 9) with 101 people still missing days after the calamity struck, according to provincial officials. Following days of torrential rain in the northeastern state of Sikkim, torrents of water swept down narrow river valleys from Lohnak Lake, damaging a dam and wreaking destruction in villages and Rangpo town, about 50km south of state capital Gangtok. Sikkim's chief secretary Vijay Bhushan Pathak, the most senior bureaucrat, told Reuters that rescuers had found 25 bodies in the state and bodies of eight army men washed away were found in the neighbouring downstream state of West Bengal. He said that 101 people were still missing in the latest of a series of natural disasters caused by extreme weather events in the Himalayas. Fourteen army personnel were among the missing, a defence ministry statement said. The search for survivors was hampered by damaged roads, poor communications and bad weather, and residents were struggling to clear sludge and debris in the wake of one of the worst disasters in the remote region in more than 50 years. Parveen Shama, the top district official of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, said that 41 bodies were found in the district.

CNA

At least 23 Indian soldiers missing in flash flood: Army

GUWAHATI, India: The Indian army said on Wednesday (Oct 4) that 23 soldiers were missing after a powerful flash flood caused by intense rainfall tore through a valley in the mountainous northeast state of Sikkim. "Due to sudden cloud burst over Lhonak Lake in…

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/least-23-indian-soldiers-missing-flash-flood-army-3819686

2023-10-04 04:49:56.000000

GUWAHATI, India: The Indian army said on Wednesday (Oct 4) that 23 soldiers were missing after a powerful flash flood caused by intense rainfall tore through a valley in the mountainous northeast sta… [+890 chars]

Nepal

Css-irl.info

@CSSInRealLife

Greenwashing and the COP28 Website

A member of the Sustainable Web Design Community Group recently highlighted some sustainability issues with the COP28 website.

https://css-irl.info/greenwashing-and-the-cop28-website/

2023-10-11 06:07:07.000000

A member of the Sustainable Web Design Community Group recently highlighted some sustainability issues with the COP28 website that warrant a closer look. The COP28 website The COP28 climate summit,… [+5786 chars]

Sustainability

CNA

Quick chaat at a Little India kiosk where the street food is as authentic as it gets in Singapore

In this final Makan Kakis instalment, Mediacorp Gold 905 DJ Denise Tan chats over chaat with a private hire driver at Dwaraka Restaurant’s street food kiosk, just opposite Mustafa Centre.

https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/little-india-street-food-chaat-dwaraka-restaurant-373156

2023-10-18 23:21:04.000000

After returning from his studies in England, he went on a soul-searching, life-changing trip to Nepal. Inspired by how simple the Nepali way of life was, he envisioned a cafe in Singapore where he co… [+1153 chars]

Nepal

“We're going to end this series with a bang,” I announced excitedly to my friend and occasional private hire driver Oliver Pang, who made it patently clear I had not chosen my words wisely. “Can I get out now?” he asked, jokingly trying to exit my vehicle. As I drove us to Oliver’s choice for Indian street food, we chatted about how the theatre performer/drama teacher/yoga instructor got into private hire driving. As with many gig economy workers, it was to cover costs while he was between jobs for two months. “I thought it'd be nice to rent a car and drive my mum around. I drove two to four hours a day mainly to pay for the petrol and rental,” he explained. Ironically, just two weeks after he started, job opportunities picked up and he found himself juggling driving with rehearsals, teaching yoga and lecturing classes. The workload became exhausting, so he decided to take a hiatus. Still, Oliver really enjoyed his private hire driving experience – despite the physical toll on his back and bladder – and would return to it should the need arise.

Prtimes.jp

カレーのスペシャリスト カレー研究家・三嶋達也氏が厳選！名店19店舗が集結！究極のコラボカレーが決定！『カレー大作戦~香辛の神無月（オクトーバー）~』開催

[株式会社パルコ] [画像1: https://prtimes.jp/i/3639/2638/resize/d3639-2638-cd0348f3a6eaed57b6ca-7.jpg ] 「カレー大作戦~香辛の神無月（オクトーバー）~」開催！ ■期間：10月6日(金)～10月29日(日) ■会場：B2F特設スペース...

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000002638.000003639.html

2023-10-02 07:40:02.000000

~~  106()1029()  B2F24  PARCO  https://shinsaibashi.parco.jp/page/curry/ 14 1016()1029()1100 B2F 19PARCO 19 LOVE NEPAL Asian kitchen café ()spice curry harappi()toiMASH-UPINDIA GATE 20… [+367 chars]

Nepal

The Punch

Adetutu Sobowale

40 die in India glacial lake flood

40 people have been confirmed dead in a glacial lake burst that triggered a torrential flash flood in India, according to officials. Violent torrents stuck the remote state of Sikkim on Wednesday after the sudden bursting of a high-altitude glacial lake in ne…

https://punchng.com/40-die-in-india-glacial-lake-flood/

2023-10-06 09:16:15.000000

40 people have been confirmed dead in a glacial lake burst that triggered a torrential flash flood in India, according to officials. Violent torrents stuck the remote state of Sikkim on Wednesday af… [+1049 chars]

Nepal

40 people have been confirmed dead in a glacial lake burst that triggered a torrential flash flood in India, according to officials.Violent torrents stuck the remote state of Sikkim on Wednesday after the sudden bursting of a high-altitude glacial lake in neighbouring Nepal.Climate scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts.Downstream search-and-rescue teams recovered more bodies overnight as the waters cut a swathe through the countryside towards the Bay of Bengal.“Nineteen bodies have been recovered” in Sikkim state, V.B. Pathak, its top civil servant, told AFP.Related NewsShama Parveen, a district magistrate in neighbouring West Bengal, said that an additional 21 bodies had been recovered in her state over the past three days.Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP Violent torrents stuck the remote state of Sikkim on Wednesday after the sudden bursting of a high-altitude glacial lake in neighbouring Nepal.Climate scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts.Downstream search-and-rescue teams recovered more bodies overnight as the waters cut a swathe through the countryside towards the Bay of Bengal.“Nineteen bodies have been recovered” in Sikkim state, V.B. Pathak, its top civil servant, told AFP.Related NewsShama Parveen, a district magistrate in neighbouring West Bengal, said that an additional 21 bodies had been recovered in her state over the past three days.Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP Climate scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts.Downstream search-and-rescue teams recovered more bodies overnight as the waters cut a swathe through the countryside towards the Bay of Bengal.“Nineteen bodies have been recovered” in Sikkim state, V.B. Pathak, its top civil servant, told AFP.Related NewsShama Parveen, a district magistrate in neighbouring West Bengal, said that an additional 21 bodies had been recovered in her state over the past three days.Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP Downstream search-and-rescue teams recovered more bodies overnight as the waters cut a swathe through the countryside towards the Bay of Bengal.“Nineteen bodies have been recovered” in Sikkim state, V.B. Pathak, its top civil servant, told AFP.Related NewsShama Parveen, a district magistrate in neighbouring West Bengal, said that an additional 21 bodies had been recovered in her state over the past three days.Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP “Nineteen bodies have been recovered” in Sikkim state, V.B. Pathak, its top civil servant, told AFP.Related NewsShama Parveen, a district magistrate in neighbouring West Bengal, said that an additional 21 bodies had been recovered in her state over the past three days.Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP Shama Parveen, a district magistrate in neighbouring West Bengal, said that an additional 21 bodies had been recovered in her state over the past three days.Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP Nearly 8,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, according to a state government bulletin.“There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP “There may be a window of opportunity for evacuation of stranded tourists by helicopters” with weather conditions improving on Friday, the statement added.The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP The PUNCH on Thursday, reported that 10 persons were confirmed dead, while 82 were missing.AFP AFP

Atlas Obscura

Carolyn Tillie

The Decadent Diet of Aleister Crowley

Controversial and colorful British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a man of many epithets, known variously as “The Wickedest Man in the World,” “The King of Depravity,” and even “The Beast 666.” He was praised as an accomplished mountaineer, poet, …

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/aleister-crowley-diet

2023-10-20 18:12:00.000000

Controversial and colorful British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a man of many epithets, known variously as “The Wickedest Man in the World,” “The King of Depravity,” and even “The Beast… [+9456 chars]

Nepal

Bangkok Post

Reuters

Second woman declared dead on Tibet peak

BEIJING - A second woman hoping to be the first American female climber to scale all of the world’s 8,000-metre (26,246 feet) mountains has been declared dead on a remote peak in Tibet, according to her family.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2661466/second-woman-declared-dead-on-tibet-peak

2023-10-10 14:18:00.000000

BEIJING - A second woman hoping to be the first American female climber to scale all of the worlds 8,000-metre (26,246 feet) mountains has been declared dead on a remote peak in Tibet, according to h… [+3315 chars]

Nepal

Newsit.gr

Στεφανος Συριγγας

Σοκαριστικές μαρτυρίες φοιτητών του Νεπάλ, που επέστρεψαν από το Ισραήλ - «Δεν μπορώ να κοιμηθώ, βλέπω ποτάμια αίματος»

Σοκάρουν οι μαρτυρίες φοιτητών από το Νεπάλ που βρέθηκαν στη δίνη του πολέμου στη Μέση Ανατολή ανάμεσα στο Ισραήλ και τους τρομοκράτες της Χαμάς. Οι φοιτητές από το Νεπάλ επέστρεψαν πίσω στην πατρίδα τους με την πρώτη ειδική πτήση από το Ισραήλ, έγιναν δεκτοί…

https://www.newsit.gr/kosmos/mesi-anatoli-sokaristikes-martyries-foititon-tou-nepal-pou-epestrepsan-stin-patrida-tous-vlepo-pantou-aima/3882494/

2023-10-13 09:22:26.000000

. , (7.10.2023) . 254 (13.10.2023) , 1.300 , . ’ . « » 25 , , «, » . «», . , . , , , . 4.500 . . Flight carrying the first batch of Nepali students evacuated from Israel arrived in #Nep… [+141 chars]

Nepal

International Business Times

Sailendra SIL

India Flood Toll Hits 56, Army Warns On Stray Munitions

At least 56 people are confirmed dead in floods that hit India's northeast as of Saturday, with the army warning munitions washed away by the deluge posed a public safety risk.

https://www.ibtimes.com/india-flood-toll-hits-56-army-warns-stray-munitions-3714418

2023-10-07 07:51:30.000000

At least 56 people are confirmed dead in floods that hit India's northeast as of Saturday, with the army warning munitions washed away by the deluge posed a public safety risk. Violent torrents stru… [+2711 chars]

Nepal

At least 56 people are confirmed dead in floods that hit India's northeast as of Saturday, with the army warning munitions washed away by the deluge posed a public safety risk. Violent torrents struck Sikkim state on Wednesday after the sudden bursting of a high-altitude glacial lake. Climate scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts. "So far 26 bodies have been found in Sikkim," state relief commissioner Anilraj Rai told AFP by phone. Thirty more bodies had been recovered from the Teesta river basin by search and rescue teams downstream in neighbouring West Bengal state, Jalpaiguri district police superintendent K. Umesh Ganpat told AFP. "The river stretches up to 86 kilometres," he added. "The search operation is continuing." Among the dead are seven Indian army soldiers posted in Sikkim, which sits on India's remote frontiers with Nepal and China and boasts a sizeable military presence. Sixteen soldiers are among the more than 100 people still missing. India's defence ministry said in a statement that the floods had washed away "firearms and explosives" from military camps. The army has "established lookout teams all along the river" to recover loose ordnance, the ministry added. Local media reports on Friday said that two people had been killed and four others injured by a mortar shell that exploded while flowing through the flood waters in West Bengal. Roads, bridges and telephone lines have been destroyed across much of the state, complicating evacuations and efforts to communicate with thousands cut off from the rest of the country. More than 1,200 houses had been damaged by the floods, according to the latest Sikkim government bulletin. More than 2,400 people had been rescued while nearly 7,000 others were taking shelter at makeshift relief camps set up at schools, government offices and guesthouses, the bulletin said. The water surge came after intense rainfall burst the high-altitude Lhonak Lake, which sits at the base of a glacier in peaks surrounding the world's third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga. Water powered downstream, adding to a river already swollen by monsoon rains, damaging a dam and sweeping away houses. Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) research group. "The root cause is climate change and this going to increase in the future," ICIMOD climate change specialist Arun Bhakta Shrestha told AFP. "Similar glacial lake outbursts flood events are very likely." Earth's average surface temperature has risen nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times but high-mountain regions around the world have warmed at twice that pace, climate scientists say.

International Business Times

AFP News

Indian Flood Toll Up To 77 As Waters Recede

At least 77 people are confirmed dead in the floods that hit India's northeast, authorities said Sunday, with destroyed roads and bridges leaving thousands more still cut off despite waters receding.

https://www.ibtimes.com/indian-flood-toll-77-waters-recede-3714446

2023-10-08 07:30:40.000000

At least 77 people are confirmed dead in the floods that hit India's northeast, authorities said Sunday, with destroyed roads and bridges leaving thousands more still cut off despite waters receding.… [+2548 chars]

Nepal

At least 77 people are confirmed dead in the floods that hit India's northeast, authorities said Sunday, with destroyed roads and bridges leaving thousands more still cut off despite waters receding. Violent torrents struck Sikkim state on Wednesday after a high-altitude glacial lake suddenly burst. Scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts, spurred by climate change. "A total of 29 bodies have been retrieved from different parts of Sikkim," state relief commissioner Anilraj Rai told AFP by phone. In neighbouring West Bengal state, Jalpaiguri district police told AFP that another 48 bodies had been recovered. More than 100 people are still missing, according to official figures. Water levels along the Teesta river "returned to normal" four days after the floods hit, an official from Sikkim's state disaster control room told AFP. The office said more than 2,500 people stranded in the floods had been rescued. But evacuations have been complicated by the destruction of roads, bridges and telephone lines across much of Sikkim. Another 3,000 people were still stranded in several relief camps in the state's north with airlift rescues delayed by bad weather, the office said. More than 1,200 houses were damaged by the floods, according to the state government. Among the dead were eight Indian army soldiers posted to Sikkim, which sits on India's remote frontiers with Nepal and China and boasts a sizeable military presence. India's defence ministry said in a Saturday statement that the floods had washed away "firearms and explosives" from military camps. Local media reports on Friday said that two people had been killed and four others injured by a mortar shell that exploded while flowing through the flood waters in West Bengal. The water surge came after intense rainfall burst the high-altitude Lhonak Lake, which sits at the base of a glacier in peaks surrounding the world's third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga. Water powered downstream, adding to a river already swollen by monsoon rains, damaging a dam and sweeping away houses. Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) research group. "The root cause is climate change," ICIMOD's Arun Bhakta Shrestha told AFP on Thursday. "Similar glacial lake outbursts flood events are very likely." Earth's average surface temperature has risen nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times but high-mountain regions around the world have warmed at twice that pace, climate scientists say.

Biztoc.com

nbcnews.com

Amazon workers in Saudi Arabia say they were exploited by labor and recruiting firms

Twenty workers interviewed for this story said labor supply firms told workers they could not go home to Nepal unless they paid exit fees that often equaled several months’ wages. Mansur is back home in Nepal, cultivating crops on his family’s small plot of l…

https://biztoc.com/x/a6dcb4185b95b3b0

2023-10-10 09:22:12.000000

Twenty workers interviewed for this story said labor supply firms told workers they could not go home to Nepal unless they paid exit fees that often equaled several months wages.Mansur is back home i… [+292 chars]

Nepal

bbc-news

BBC News

Kohli & Shami lead India to win over New Zealand

Virat Kohli hits a masterful 95 and Mohammed Shami takes 5-54 as World Cup hosts India beat New Zealand by four wickets.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/67187007

2023-10-22 16:54:37.000000

<table> <tr><td>ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, Dharamsala:</td></tr><tr><td>New Zealand 273 (50 overs): Mitchell 130 (127), Ravindra 75 (87); Shami 5-54</td></tr><tr><td>India 274-6 (48 overs): Kohli … [+1754 chars]

New Zealand

National Institutes of Health

Study Finds Hybrid Work Improves Mental Health Compared to Remote or In-Office

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a considerable expansion in the way work settings are structured, with a continuum emerging between working fully in-person and from home. The pandemic has also exacerbated many risk factors for poor mental health in the ...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9517068/

2023-10-03 18:49:10.000000

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a considerable expansion in the way work settings are structured, with a continuum emerging between working fully in-person and from home. The pandemic has also exacerb… [+60607 chars]

Nepal

The Punch

Adetutu Sobowale

Gaza growing more desperate ‘by the hour’, UN chief warns

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres on Sunday, warned that the situation in Hamas-ruled Gaza is declining rapidly as he repeated desperate appeals for a ceasefire to end the “nightmare” of bloodshed. Guterres gave this warning during…

https://punchng.com/gaza-growing-more-desperate-by-the-hour-un-chief-warns/

2023-10-29 07:00:48.000000

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres on Sunday, warned that the situation in Hamas-ruled Gaza is declining rapidly as he repeated desperate appeals for a ceasefire to end the… [+1964 chars]

Nepal

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres on Sunday, warned that the situation in Hamas-ruled Gaza is declining rapidly as he repeated desperate appeals for a ceasefire to end the “nightmare” of bloodshed.Guterres gave this warning during a visit to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.He said, “The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations.“The number of civilians who have been killed and injured is totally unacceptable.”Israel unleashed its massive retaliation after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.After weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza, which the Palestinian health ministry said has claimed over 8,000 lives, the Israeli army said “stage two” of the war started with ground incursions since late Friday.Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP Guterres gave this warning during a visit to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.He said, “The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations.“The number of civilians who have been killed and injured is totally unacceptable.”Israel unleashed its massive retaliation after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.After weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza, which the Palestinian health ministry said has claimed over 8,000 lives, the Israeli army said “stage two” of the war started with ground incursions since late Friday.Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP He said, “The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations.“The number of civilians who have been killed and injured is totally unacceptable.”Israel unleashed its massive retaliation after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.After weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza, which the Palestinian health ministry said has claimed over 8,000 lives, the Israeli army said “stage two” of the war started with ground incursions since late Friday.Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP “The number of civilians who have been killed and injured is totally unacceptable.”Israel unleashed its massive retaliation after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.After weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza, which the Palestinian health ministry said has claimed over 8,000 lives, the Israeli army said “stage two” of the war started with ground incursions since late Friday.Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP Israel unleashed its massive retaliation after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.After weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza, which the Palestinian health ministry said has claimed over 8,000 lives, the Israeli army said “stage two” of the war started with ground incursions since late Friday.Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP After weeks of heavy bombardment of Gaza, which the Palestinian health ministry said has claimed over 8,000 lives, the Israeli army said “stage two” of the war started with ground incursions since late Friday.Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP Panic and fear have surged inside Gaza, where over one million people are displaced, and where communications went dark for days after Israel cut internet lines, although connectivity had gradually returned early Sunday.Related NewsUS wants civilians’ protection as Israeli troops surround GazaIsreal-Hamas war: UN warns Isreal against targeting populated residential areasIsrael-Hamas war: Ceasefire more important than aids, says envoy“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP “The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes.“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP “More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life –- food, water, shelter and medical care while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink,” Guterres addedThe UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP The UN’s top diplomat arrived in Nepal on a four-day visit following talks in Qatar.“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP “I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza, he said.“We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP “We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal.”Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP Ten Nepali students were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, and one Nepali citizen is missing.AFP AFP

Forbes

Judy Stone, Senior Contributor, Judy Stone, Senior Contributor https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/

A Disfiguring Parasite From Sand Flies Is Endemic In The U.S.

The Leishmania found in Texas and OK causes the mildest form, cutaneous leishmania, affecting only the skin. Will more serious leishmania strains become established, too?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2023/10/30/a-disfiguring-parasite-from-sand-flies-is-endemic-in-the-us/

2023-10-30 15:05:37.000000

A picture taken on January 1, 2018 shows a Moroccan child suffering from Leishmaniasis, a parasitic ... [+] skin disease which is transmitted by the bite of a certain type of sandfly, in the southern… [+5931 chars]

Nepal

A picture taken on January 1, 2018 shows a Moroccan child suffering from Leishmaniasis, a parasitic ... [+] skin disease which is transmitted by the bite of a certain type of sandfly, in the southern town of Zagora. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP) (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images) A disfiguring parasitic infection, common in the tropics, has now found a home in Texas and Oklahoma and is expanding its range in the U.S. The parasite, Leishmania mexicana, is transmitted by tiny sand flies, which are now found in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio. Researchers examined 2,100 skin samples. Of these, 1,222 showed the presence of leishmania, and, as expected, almost all the patients had traveled internationally to endemic areas (where the organism commonly occurs), according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, 86 patients had no travel history, meaning they acquired the infection in the U.S. There are different strains of leishmania, and they cause different types of disease. The L mexicana found in Texas and Oklahoma causes the mildest form, cutaneous leishmania, affecting only the skin. It generally requires no treatment, explained Dr. David Freedman, professor emeritus of infectious disease at UAB at Birmingham. L brasiliensis (among other species) causes mucocutaneous leishmania, which I saw while studying in Peru. At that time, it was treated with a nasty antimonial antibiotic called Pentostam, with many side effects. The most severe form of leishmania usually occurs in the Middle East, Asia, and northern Africa, but it can also occur in Latin America or elsewhere in immune compromised people. L donovani species causes this systemic illness called kala-azar. It is visceral—infecting organs throughout the body, including the liver and spleen—and often causes death. All of the U.S. cases are of the milder skin form. The scientists also did special genetic studies of the L mexicana in Texas and found two distinctive genotypes. They called one type “CCC” and found it in 94% of the non-travelers. While the “American strain” was found in samples as long as 18 years ago, Freedman said that Leishmania has probably “been there forever.” He was aware of its presence in Texas in the 1980s. It was “under the CDC’s radar” because the skin lesions usually resolve without any treatment and because it is not a reportable disease. Spread: Leishmania is spread through bites of sand flies. Their normal hosts in the U.S. are wood rats (not common Norway or city rats). Anne Straily (CDC veterinary medical officer) said via email, “There is some debate about whether other wildlife species, like armadillos or opossums, could also serve as reservoir hosts.” In some cases, infected humans can transmit the parasite back to sand flies. For visceral leishmania, the most serious form, dogs are the main reservoir. While dogs are an important reservoir, no transmission of the parasite from dogs to people has been identified. Per Anne Straily, CDC veterinary medical officer, L. infantum (the species that causes the visceral form of disease) “is already present in certain dogs in the U.S., primarily in hunting hounds.” Many dogs are being imported to the U.S. as rescues from Southeast Asia and posing a potential risk here. “No sand flies have been found infected with L. infantum in the U.S., and no human cases of locally acquired visceral leishmaniasis caused by L. infantum have been identified, even among people in contact with infected dogs,” Kamb and Cama said via an email interview. An interdisciplinary working group, including the CDC and public health veterinarians, has developed a new “operational risk assessment tool” to help vets recognize and screen dogs that pose the greatest threat. This tool was presented at the recent American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting and will be published in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Christine Petersen, Director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa, explained that most veterinarians are understandably not familiar with this parasite. The risk tool helps them look at where the dog is coming from and what state it is going to. For example, if a dog is going from Italy (or Southeast Asia) to Texas, there is some risk. But “if the dog comes from Sweden and is going to New Hampshire, the risk is very, very low, and we're not worried.” Also of concern is that one-fifth of the 2.7 million soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan have evidence of asymptomatic visceral leishmania, including parasites in their blood, up to 10 years after returning. They could potentially transmit their infection through insect bites, pregnancy, transfusions or IV drug use. A 27-month-old child from North Dakota, who had never left the state, was found to have a skin infection with L donovani, which causes the visceral form of disease (as does L infantum). It’s unclear exactly how transmission occurred; his mother was from Nepal, but there is no report of having tested her. Prevention: Sand flies are much smaller than mosquitoes, so unless the mesh is sized accordingly, bed nets are less effective in preventing bites. Data on results is mixed, but there is some benefit to insecticide-treated nets. These are usually used in rooms that are also sprayed with insecticides. For personal use, DEET and permethrin are effective preventatives. Challenges: The initial hurdle is getting physicians to diagnose leishmania. Many will not likely have ever seen it nor suspect it. Even on biopsy, it may be missed as the organisms are so tiny, and a special Giemsa stain is required. You won’t know the species from appearance, Freedman explained. Diagnosis is generally done by molecular (PCR) testing at the CDC. Testing is now also available at the University of Washington or at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for military only. The other major problem is that there are no reporting requirements in states, except in Texas, or to the CDC. Without uniform reporting to the CDC, we have no chance of tracking how frequently and where it occurs. The magnitude of the role of climate change in the spread of leishmania is as yet unknown—this is another reason to have careful tracking. Insecticide resistance is a concern. The Covid-19 pandemic reduced funding for leishmania programs and surveillance and resulted in less spraying. We also need to watch that the visceral type of leishmania does not become endemic in the U.S., becoming established by sand flies feeding on infected dogs. This hasn’t happened yet (that we know of) but requires ongoing monitoring. For many unusual infections, it’s important that physicians take a careful exposure and travel history and have a high index of suspicion. It’s also important that physicians learn to recognize cutaneous leishmaniasis and know that it can occur in people with no history of international travel. Post was updated with information from Christine Petersen re risk assessment tool for vets.

CNA

IMF's Georgieva lauds Japan's contribution to low-income trust, sees more coming

MARRAKECH, Morocco : Japan made a "very impressive pledge" to an International Monetary Fund account that provides subsidies to enable zero-interest rate loans to the poorest countries, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday.The pledge ma…

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/imfs-georgieva-lauds-japans-contribution-low-income-trust-sees-more-coming-3840876

2023-10-12 11:04:30.000000

MARRAKECH, Morocco : Japan made a "very impressive pledge" to an International Monetary Fund account that provides subsidies to enable zero-interest rate loans to the poorest countries, IMF Managing … [+1591 chars]

Nepal

MARRAKECH, Morocco : Japan made a "very impressive pledge" to an International Monetary Fund account that provides subsidies to enable zero-interest rate loans to the poorest countries, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday. The pledge made Japan the single largest donor - accounting for 20 per cent - of the account that covers the interest payments on loans under the fund's Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT), Georgieva told reporters at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Georgieva said a number of new pledges for the subsidy account were received on Wednesday, and further funds were expected when the IMF's steering committee meets on Saturday. The IMF has been urging member countries to fill a $1.2 billion gap in the $3 billion subsidy account endorsed by the membership in 2021. Georgieva said 40 countries had stepped up to contribute, and one-third were emerging market economies. The IMF is expected to release details on the fundraising effort on Saturday. The PRGT is the fund’s main vehicle for providing low- or zero-interest loans to low-income countries (LICs) that support economic programmes and help leverage additional financing from donors, development institutions, and the private sector. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IMF said it has supported more than 50 low-income countries with some $29 billion in interest-free loans via the PRGT, reducing instability in a wide range of the world’s poorest nations, from Haiti to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal. The IMF projects demand for PRGT lending will reach nearly $40 billion through next year, more than four times the historical average. It says each $1 of subsidy resources allows the PRGT to provide about $5 in zero-interest loans.

Japan Today

Foreigners killed, missing or abducted in Hamas attack

Dozens of foreigners have been killed, injured or taken hostage during a surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that has left 800 people dead, mostly Israelis. Many of the missing foreigners were at an electronic music festival in t…

https://japantoday.com/category/world/foreigners-killed-missing-or-abducted-in-hamas-attack

2023-10-09 21:41:48.000000

Dozens of foreigners have been killed, injured or taken hostage during a surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that has left 800 people dead, mostly Israelis. Many of the… [+4482 chars]

Nepal

newsweek

Newsweek

Robyn White

Sikkim's Devastating Lake Burst Shown in Video, Satellite Images

At least 14 people have been confirmed dead and over a hundred remain missing after a lake in North East India burst.

https://www.newsweek.com/sikkim-devastating-lake-brust-video-1832288

2023-10-05 11:04:00.000000

The devastating burst of a glacial lake in India has been captured on video and via shocking satellite images. So far, at least 14 people have been confirmed dead and over a hundred remain missing i… [+3101 chars]

Nepal

the-times-of-india

The Times of India

PTI

After export ban, rice smuggling booms along Indo-Nepal border

Villagers along the India-Nepal border in Maharajganj are involved in smuggling rice into Nepal. Young unemployed men, women, and sometimes even the elderly act as carriers for local smugglers, delivering rice to warehouses set up across the border. Despite e…

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/after-export-ban-rice-smuggling-booms-along-indo-nepal-border/articleshow/104436706.cms

2023-10-15 05:18:30.000000

At the crack of dawn every day, hushed frantic activity begins in villages located along the India-Nepal border here as some residents set out on foot or in small vehicles to smuggle rice into the ne… [+3623 chars]

Nepal

IANS Representative image. At the crack of dawn every day, hushed frantic activity begins in villages located along the India-Nepal border here as some residents set out on foot or in small vehicles to smuggle rice into the neighbouring country. Young unemployed men, women and sometimes even the elderly act as carriers for local smugglers and are paid up to Rs 300 for delivering a quintal of rice to warehouses set up across the border by Nepali traders. Most of them make multiple trips to earn as much money as possible. Lakshminagar, Thoothibari, Nichlaul, Parsa Malik, Bargadwa, Bhagwanpur, Shyam Kat, Farenia, Hardi Dali and Khanuva are some of the villages from where it is very easy to cross into Nepal and rice is smuggled, police sources said. Maharajganj shares an 84-km open border with Nawalparasi and Rupandehi districts of Nepal's Lumbini province. Ram Prasad, a rice carrier, said, "The Nepali merchants have set up small warehouses along the border where we deliver the smuggled rice. The warehouses are emptied every week and the collected rice is moved to a bigger warehouse." The carriers do most of the work at the crack of dawn, travelling up to one kilometre from their homes to deliver the rice. They carry rice bags weighing 10 kg or more. The second spurt of activity comes post-lunch, when most locals are indoors, enjoying an afternoon siesta. Some of the carriers also move rice bags in the evening, just before nightfall. They rarely move at night as that is when the risk of getting caught is the highest. According to officials, more than 111.2 tonnes of rice being smuggled into Nepal has been seized by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and police in the last four months. Most of the people involved in rice smuggling are unemployed. These villagers take rice from the local smugglers and carry it into Nepal. In most cases, young unemployed men and women act as carriers. Sometimes, the elderly can also be involved, the police sources said. Despite efforts by authorities to check the smuggling of rice, the huge margin of profit continues to drive the illicit activity. Local rice traders said the price of rice in Nepal has spiked in the past few months after the Indian government banned exports of non-basmati white rice in July to boost domestic supply and keep retail prices under check during the upcoming festive season. "Following the export ban, the prices of rice in Nepal have gone up. The rice that is sold here for Rs 15-20 per kilogram is being sold for as high as Rs 70 per kilogram in Nepal," claimed Suraj Jaiswal, a local rice trader who used to export rice to Nepal before the ban. "The smugglers pay these carriers up to Rs 300 for carrying a quintal of rice into Nepal. The remaining profits are pocketed by the smugglers. The carriers make as many trips into Nepal as possible in order to make more money," he said. Due to rampant rice smuggling, local traders claimed, prices of rice here have also gone up over the last few months. Ratan Lal Vaishy, an office-bearer of Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal , said, "Due to the increased smuggling of rice, its prices have increased." Before July, coarse rice was available at Rs 15 to 20 per kilogram but now it is being sold at Rs 30 to 35 per kilogram. The price rise has forced district authorities to intensify efforts to check smuggling operations. Maharajganj District Magistrate (DM) Anunaya Jha has deployed two six-member teams in Nautanwa and Nichaulal tehsils bordering Nepal to curb rice smuggling. These teams were formed on October 3 and have been directed to provide daily reports on smuggling for further action. "Necessary guidelines have been issued to all concerned officials to curb smuggling in the border areas. We are also coordinating with SSB officials in the operations," Jha said. Experience Your Economic Times Newspaper, The Digital Way! Friday, 03 Nov, 2023 Read Complete ePaper  » Digital View Print View Wealth Edition WhatsAppening? Telcos Call Out Tech Cos over Biz SMSes An industry grouping representing India’s top three telcos has accused global consumer-technology majors, such as Microsoft and Amazon, of “presumably circumventing and bypassing the legal telecom route” by using WhatsApp and other unregulated platforms to send enterprise messages to customers, causing a likely ₹3,000-crore annual revenue loss to both the Centre and the service providers. Apple asked to Join CERT-In Probe into iPhone Hacking Bid The government has asked Apple to join a probe into the alleged state-sponsored hacking attempts on iPhones belonging to prominent Indians, including some members of the opposition in Parliament, according to S Krishnan, secretary, ministry of electronics and information technology. Go First Lessors Can Take Back Planes, Engines: DGCA to HC The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told the Delhi High Court Thursday that Go First’s leased aircraft and engines can be preregistered and returned to lessors, severely denting the bankrupt airline’s revival prospects. Read More News on rice export ban rice smuggling Export uttar pradesh udyog vyapar pratinidhi mandal suraj (Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times .) Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News. ... more less Prime Exclusives Investment Ideas Stock Report Plus ePaper Wealth Edition Riding high on the AI wave, are Indian tech startups missing the bus on innovation? Low index option premiums are like Jezebel, sinking retail traders. Prop traders, punters, too, flail Selling cut-price generics, Mark Cuban is shaking up US pharma. Can Indian drug makers benefit? ‘Use no more than what you need’: How Amazon reached the top of India’s green energy market 3 insights to kick-start your day, featuring subscriptions Zurich Insurance-Kotak Mahindra General Insurance deal Stock Radar: Marico sees profit booking after hitting 52-week high in October; should you buy? 1 2 3 View all Stories

the-times-of-india

The Times of India

TNN

Bar Council moves HC against its ruling on enrolling South Korean as advocate

The Bar Council of India has approached the Delhi High Court to challenge a previous direction to process the enrolment of a South Korean national as an advocate. The BCI argued that foreign lawyers are not allowed to practice in Indian courts, and allowing t…

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bar-council-moves-hc-against-its-ruling-on-enrolling-south-korean-as-advocate/articleshow/104536311.cms

2023-10-18 21:08:29.000000

Offbeat Himachal getaways for Dussehra long weekend

Nepal

NEW DELHI: The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Wednesday approached the Delhi high court against an earlier direction to it to process the enrolment of a South Korean national as an advocate.BCI chairman and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra argued that foreign lawyers are not allowed to practice in courts in India since their entry has been permitted in a limited manner.He contended that the order of a single judge allowing the South Korean citizen's request for enrolment cannot be sustained. Mishra also submitted that the apex bar body has to further verify if there is "reciprocity" of similar permission to practice for Indian nationals in South Korea."This will open a floodgate," he argued, adding that this may later result in the entry of lawyers from Pakistan and Nepal into the country.A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula, however, observed that Daeyoung Jung held a law degree from an Indian institute and was not a "foreign lawyer". The HC pointed out that law permitted him to practice in India if Indians were allowed to practice in his country and this aspect has been considered by the single judge."Speaking for myself, I don't find anything wrong in the single judge's order," Justice Narula remarked as the bench gave six weeks' time to BCI to show that guidelines in South Korea do not permit Indians to practice there. "If the South Korean government says Indians will be allowed, you have no case," the high court said.Earlier this year, the single judge had set aside BCI's refusal to accept a request by Jung, a citizen of South Korea, to enrol himself as an advocate in the country and directed the apex bar body to process his application as per law.The HC observed that Jung held a law degree from National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) in Hyderabad, which was duly recognised under the Advocates Act and entitled him to seek enrolment under the law.In its order, the single judge had noted that as per the legal framework under the Advocates Act, a national of any other country may also be admitted as an advocate and the right of enrolment of such a foreign national was subject only to the condition that duly qualified Indian citizens were also permitted to practice law in that other country.

Jalopnik

Steve DaSilva

British Navy Stops Using "Chinese Servants," But Not For The Reason You Expect

Here in the United States, making hiring decisions based on race common but technically illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the United Kingdom, they appear proud of the British Navy’s “century-old custom of having Chinese servants on w…

https://jalopnik.com/british-navy-stops-using-chinese-servants-but-not-fo-1850959922

2023-10-26 12:19:00.000000

Here in the United States, making hiring decisions based on race common but technically illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the United Kingdom, they appear proud of the Britis… [+1828 chars]

Nepal

DW (English)

Deutsche Welle

India: Top court declines legalizing same-sex marriage

India's Supreme Court has said it cannot legalize same-sex marriage, saying the decision must rest with parliament. The BJP government has opposed this move, saying it goes against traditional family values.

https://www.dw.com/en/india-top-court-declines-legalizing-same-sex-marriage/a-67116174

2023-10-17 07:23:00.000000

On Tuesday, India's Supreme Court said it cannot legalize same-sex marriages. Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said such a decision "lies within the domain of parliament and state legislat… [+2438 chars]

Nepal

NDTV News

Strong Tremors In Delhi After 6.2 Magnitude Earthquake In Nepal

Massive tremors were felt in Delhi today after two earthquakes in Nepal - one of magnitude 4.6 and the other of 6.2. The first earthquake hit Nepal at 2:25 pm before being hit by the second at 2:51 pm.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/strong-earthquake-tremors-felt-in-delhi-4445304

2023-10-03 09:24:01.000000

The earthquake was felt in Delhi and other parts of the National Capital Region (NCR). New Delhi: Massive tremors were felt in Delhi today after two earthquakes in Nepal - one of magnitude 4.6 and t… [+1091 chars]

Nepal

NDTV News

Nepal Minister Thanks S Jaishankar For Evacuating Nepalis From Israel

Expressing gratitude to his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the evacuation of Nepal citizens from Israel, Nepal Foreign Minister NP Saud has said the help is appreciated.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/operation-ajay-foreign-minister-np-saud-thanks-s-jaishankar-evacuating-nepalis-from-israel-gaza-hamas-war-4491061

2023-10-18 00:58:03.000000

The fifth flight carrying 286 Indians including 18 Nepalis arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday Kathmandu: Expressing gratitude to his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the e… [+3198 chars]

Nepal

The Times of Israel

Hollywood declares support for Israel, as Disney pledges $2 million

Celebrities call on entertainment community to speak out forcefully against Hamas, and Disney gives humanitarian aid

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hollywood-declares-support-for-israel-as-disney-pledges-2-million/

2023-10-13 15:07:13.000000

More than 700 leaders from the entertainment industry signed an open letter released Thursday by the non-profit entertainment industry organization Creative Community For Peace in support of Israel a… [+2643 chars]

Nepal

Marketscreener.com

Reuters

Nepal says 10 nationals killed in Israel after Hamas attack

(marketscreener.com) Nepal said on Monday at least 10 of its nationals were killed in Israel after the attack by Palestinian group Hamas, and the cabinet will hold an emergency meeting to discuss how to evacuate thousands of others working and studying there.…

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Nepal-says-10-nationals-killed-in-Israel-after-Hamas-attack--45017475/

2023-10-09 07:29:57.000000

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal said on Monday at least 10 of its nationals were killed in Israel after the attack by Palestinian group Hamas, and the cabinet will hold an emergency meeting to discuss ho… [+997 chars]

Nepal

Marketscreener.com

Reuters

One killed in landslide after earthquakes rattle Nepal

(marketscreener.com) Rescue workers in Nepal dug with shovels and their bare hands on Wednesday as they searched for a woman killed the previous day when she was swept away by a landslide triggered by an earthquake, police said.https://www.marketscreener.com/…

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/index/TOPIX-INDEX-61714390/news/One-killed-in-landslide-after-earthquakes-rattle-Nepal-44977757/

2023-10-04 05:32:39.000000

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Rescue workers in Nepal dug with shovels and their bare hands on Wednesday as they searched for a woman killed the previous day when she was swept away by a landslide triggered … [+788 chars]

Nepal

NDTV News

6.1 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Nepal, No Casualties Reported

An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale on Sunday hit Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/nepal-kathmandu-earthquake-6-1-magnitude-earthquake-hits-nepal-no-casualties-reported-4503917

2023-10-22 02:42:58.000000

The jolt was also felt in other districts of Bagmati and Gandaki provinces. (Representational) Kathmandu: An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale on Sunday hit Kathmandu, the capital city o… [+895 chars]

Nepal

Biztoc.com

reuters.com

China expands climate change surveillance on Himalayan peak

Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Monika Deupala/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights BEIJING, Oct 6 (Reute…

https://biztoc.com/x/d93391fc7760c1fd

2023-10-06 18:10:18.000000

Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Monika Deupa… [+289 chars]

Nepal

Biztoc.com

variety.com

Nepal’s Asian Cinema Fund-Winning Busan APM Project ‘Where The Rivers Run South’ Tackles Themes of Migrant Labor, Patriarchy

“Where the Rivers Run South,” the Nepalese project at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Project Market, has received support from the Asian Cinema Fund’s script development pool. The film, which aims to tackle head on two timely issues in Nepal to…

https://biztoc.com/x/6a58c7046ce54f83

2023-10-07 22:32:06.000000

Where the Rivers Run South, the Nepalese project at the Busan International Film Festivals Asian Project Market, has received support from the Asian Cinema Funds script development pool.The film, whi… [+290 chars]

Nepal

Biztoc.com

asiafinancial.com

China Adds Himalaya Peak Weather Station Amid Climate Concerns

China has expanded its chain of Himalaya mountain weather stations amid worries over climate change on Asia’s “water tower”. A new station has been added on Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world on Tibet’s border with Nepal, as part of a series of …

https://biztoc.com/x/271c770369b3e647

2023-10-08 10:42:07.000000

China has expanded its chain of Himalaya mountain weather stations amid worries over climate change on Asias water tower.A new station has been added on Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the wor… [+304 chars]

Nepal

Biztoc.com

reuters.com

India's spies infiltrated West long before Canada's murder claim

Demonstrators gather across from the High Commission of India in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (Reuters) - India's external intelligence service is a feared foe in its neig…

https://biztoc.com/x/0c0e9419c496746a

2023-10-04 11:04:11.000000

Demonstrators gather across from the High Commission of India in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNEW DELHI, Oct 4 (Reuters) - India'… [+295 chars]

Nepal

the-jerusalem-post

The Jerusalem Post

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Seventeen Nepali citizens held hostage by Hamas, 7 others injured

Hamas is holding captive 17 Nepali citizens and seven others have been injured in the terror attacks of Octobe

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-762118

https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_407,w_690/534687

2023-10-07 12:50:52.000000

Hamas is holding captive 17 Nepali citizens and seven others have been injured in the terror attacks of October 7, the government of Nepal confirmed.

Nepal

VOA News

webdesk@voanews.com (Agence France-Presse)

Indian Flood Toll up to 77 as Waters Recede

At least 77 people are confirmed dead in the floods that hit India's northeast, authorities said Sunday, with destroyed roads and bridges leaving thousands more still cut off despite waters receding. Violent torrents struck Sikkim state on Wednesday after a…

https://www.voanews.com/a/indian-flood-toll-up-to-77-as-waters-recede/7301638.html

2023-10-08 11:12:40.000000

Guwahati  At least 77 people are confirmed dead in the floods that hit India's northeast, authorities said Sunday, with destroyed roads and bridges leaving thousands more still cut off despite waters… [+2576 chars]

Nepal

NDTV News

20 Nepal Pilgrims Among 21 Injured As Bus Hits Truck In Odisha

At least 20 pilgrims from Nepal and a person from Uttar Pradesh were injured on Sunday after their bus rammed into a truck on NH-16 in Odisha's Balasore district, police said.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/20-nepal-pilgrims-among-21-injured-as-bus-hits-truck-in-odisha-4461787

2023-10-08 12:05:20.000000

The passenger vehicle was going to Puri from Kolkata when the collision occurred. (Representational) Bhubaneswar: At least 20 pilgrims from Nepal and a person from Uttar Pradesh were injured on Sund… [+1447 chars]

Nepal