Uzbekistan has one asset that Washington needs: a railhead into northern Afghanistan, which has become the key node of a US military supply line known as the northern distribution network. For this alone, America and the EU are prepared to look the other way, when confronted with what the US embassy cables described as a [...]

WASHINGTON: Obama administration Monday proposed $2.4 billion in financial aid to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2012-13 while unveiling its annual budget of $3.8 trillion that calls for tax hikes on the rich. For more on this story, visit: US proposes $2.4 billion aid to Pakistan | thenews.com.pk. See Also: WASHINGTON: Unveiling its annual budget [...]

On the roof of the world, Chinese paramilitaries are trying to snuff out Tibetan resistance to Beijing’s rule with spiked batons, semi-automatic weapons and fire extinguishers. Every 20 metres along the main road of Aba, the remote town on the Tibetan plateau that is at the heart of the current wave of protests, police officers [...]

In many ways, China is following a course of keeping its business options open as it rolls ahead with securing the energy it needs to fuel its rapid growth. That complicates U.S.-led efforts to force Tehran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program, but it also allows China to expand its influence in Saudi Arabia [...]

BANGKOK, 9 February 2012 (IRIN) – The health of millions of indigenous people across Asia is at risk, experts say, as lack of recognition of their legal status hinders data collection, making their medical problems invisible in most national health surveys. Indigenous peoples – defined by the UN as people with ancestral ties to a [...]

COLOMBO, 6 February 2012 (IRIN) – Landmine clearance in Sri Lanka’s conflict-affected north could take more than a decade, experts say. “It is expected to take [in] excess of 10 years to fully mitigate all remaining contamination in Sri Lanka,” the Mine Action Project of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka told IRIN, [...]

BEIJING, Feb 3 (Reuters) – A top Chinese newspaper stepped up Beijing’s opposition to a Western push for tighter sanctions against Iran, warning on Friday that tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme are hurting energy markets and could stifle the global economic recovery. China’s criticism of tighter sanctions on Iran, designed to prevent Tehran from developing [...]

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili held high-profile White House meetings today with President Obama, who promised to help expand trade between the two nations and support the Georgian military’s reconstruction. The visit was aimed at bolstering Georgia’s ambitions to join NATO, which are supported loudly by the US but appear overwhelmingly opposed across the rest of [...]

MUMBAI, India — India has joined China in saying it will not cut back on oil imports from Iran, despite stiff new U.S. and European sanctions designed to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program. “It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the import from Iran drastically because, after all, the [...]

Previously, such mapping was distributed to local government units and used primarily for land-use planning and zoning guidelines. However, recent natural disasters, including tropical storm Washi, have prompted the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (MGB-DENR) to find ways to make the geo-hazard maps available to the public. “By [...]