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Society

Fighting Sexual Assault In Rubble Of Nepal Earthquake

In the tent cities that arose after the earthquakes, women are learning to protect themselves from sexual assault and violence in the camps.

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Society

Surrogate Mother Industry Carries On After Nepal QuakeÂ

Despite the devastation, growing demand among foreign couples continues to feed medical tourism in Nepal, where surrogacy agencies recruit women to carry babies for infertile couples.

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Ideas Society

Nepal, The Spiritual Roots To Guide Earthquake Recovery

-Essay- PARIS — Once again, the Nepalese are burying their dead and tending to their wounds. It’s impossible to rebuild for now while everything is still so wobbly. Between the houses that disappeared, the villages erased, the roads cut, the survivors are trembling — for the present suffering as much as for the colossal task […]

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blog

ISIS Claims Dallas Attack, Yemen Aid, Iconic Chanel

ISIS CLAIMS ITS FIRST U.S. ATTACK ISIS claimed responsibility today for the weekend attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest at a conference center near Dallas, Texas. Gunmen Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were killed by a police officer after they opened fire and injured a security guard there, The Washington Post reports. This is […]

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blog

Nepal Children Rescued, Yemen’s Worst Fighting, Eurovision Contestants

TWO NEPAL CHILDREN RESCUED Photo: Qin Qing/Xinhua/ZUMA A 15-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl were rescued alive from the rubble in Nepal earlier today after being trapped for five days following Saturday’s devastating earthquake, Reuters reports. FRENCH SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF CHILD RAPE French daily Le Parisien reacts to the revelation of accusations that 16 French […]

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Geopolitics

Searching The Rubble In Nepal, A Nation On Its Knees

KATHMANDU — It’s 4 p.m. in Durbar Square, the iconic piazza in the middle of Nepal’s capital, and a group of volunteers is digging through the rubble of the Hindu Kasthamandap Temple which, according to legend, was built with the wood of a single tree in the 12th century. Suddenly, there’s an explosion of joy […]

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blog

Nepal Devastation, Israel Strikes Syria, Rubik’s Cube Record

NEPAL CONTINUES TO DIG OUT Photo: Pratap Thapa/Xinhua/ZUMA Rescue operations continue to find survivors in Nepal after Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The latest official figures number the dead at 3,726 with more than 6,000 injured. Dozens are also believed to have died in neighboring China and India. The death toll is likely to rise as rescue […]

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blog

Extra! Death Toll Climbs After Nepal Quake

Monday’s front page of Nepalese newspaper The Himalayan Times shows the picture of a house that collapsed in the outskirts of Kathmandu, following Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The official death toll climbed overnight, as rescuers are struggling to reach remote villages. There are also scores trapped, and many feared dead, from an avalanche on Mt. Everest […]

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Society

In Nepal, Women As Second-Class Citizen Takes A Sad New Twist

Though the law says otherwise, citizenship is typically not granted to the children of Nepalese women if they don’t give proof that the father is also from Nepal.

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blog

L’Ennui: Or, Eternal Boredom

Not much to do in Kathmandu? On the doorstep of a Hindu temple, these Nepalese men seemed on the verge of following the dog’s example.

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blog

Buddha Watching

In the heart of the Kathmandu valley lies one of the most sacred and oldest Buddhist pilgrimage sites. At the top of the Swayambhunath dome, or stupa, Buddha is looking in all four directions. At this particular moment, I was hoping it meant a special protective glance over these two Nepalese cleaners, standing dangerously close […]

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blog

The Cradle Of The Himalayas

A wicker basket worked just fine as a crib for this baby in eastern Nepal, though she looked just about ready to outgrow it.

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Society

Using Birthday Presents To Save Nepal’s Forests

LUBHU — How do you celebrate your birthday? By throwing a party and cutting a cake? In Nepal some people plant a tree instead. Making tea at home in her village 11 kilometers outside Kathmandu, Sunita Poudel says, “Forests are everything for us. We are dependent on wood and grass. Some of my neighbors cook with small sticks from the forest — they are very poor and can’t afford gas stoves. I have some cows and goats, so I also need grass from the forest every day.” But due to mismanagement, the forest around the village of Lubhu is in […]

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blog

Small Tibetan Boy, Big Tibetan Trumpet

In a Tibetan refugee camp in central Nepal, we came across this little boy having a blast with a dungchen, or Tibetan horn.

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blog

Back To School

I had only been retired for three years when we visited this school in eastern Nepal. As far as teaching goes, this felt very far indeed from my career as a high school philosophy teacher in France.

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blog Future

A High-Tech Map Of The Himalayas Could Save Your Life

Nepal has commissioned meteorologists and geologists to remap the wind systems, mountains and valleys on the “Roof of the World.” It could help us predict natural disasters.

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blog

I Pictured You Taller

From a distance, mountains look more or less the same height. But in this picture, I’m pretty sure the summit on the right is none other than Mount Everest.

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blog

Nirvana Starts Young

Nepalese prayer wheels come in all shapes and sizes. This one wouldn’t quite fit in my luggage, so I brought a smaller one back home.

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Society

In Nepal, A Private School That Costs One Dollar

KATHMANDU — Uttam Sanjel, founder of Samata School, stands before the morning assembly. Samata means “equal for all.” Today he wants to talk about a story from one of his students, whose mother celebrated the birth of a son over a daughter. “After five girls, my mom finally had a boy. She named him “Holy life water.” But our life has become more difficult. Why is it happening? It’s all because of lack of education. You have to tell your family and neighbors that sons and daughters are equal.” They then sing a song called, “Mother is Great, Love Her, […]

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blog

Rolex Religion

I like the symmetry in this photo, taken on the doorstep of a Hindu temple in Kathmandu. The subjects are so kindred — except for the fact that the statue isn’t wearing an expensive-looking watch.

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

In Nepal, Where Slavery’s New Road Begins And Ends

Some 400,000 people leave the country every year to work abroad, often recruited by agencies that are really human traffickers. A close-up view of the human toll in Katmandu.

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Geopolitics

Rouhani Chides West, Hong Kong Protests, The Who

WILL UK JOIN ANTI-ISIS COALITION?All eyes will be on Westminster today, where the House of Commons will vote on what the British media are calling the “third Iraq war.” Members are expected to support the the anti-ISIS coalition with strikes in Iraq, though Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said these might be extended to Syria in […]

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Geopolitics

On 60th Anniversary Of Reaching Summit, Mount Everest By the Numbers

Worldcrunch SAGARMATHA – Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay ascending to the highest point on earth – the summit of Mount Everest. Since May 29, 1953, an estimated 4,000 alpinists have climbed to the ‘roof of the world.’ We have crunched Everest, by the numbers… 8,848 – The height […]

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Food / Travel

“One Mistake, Game Over” – Driving Nepal’s Highway To Hell

KHADICHAUR – Araniko Highway, connecting Kathmandu to the Nepal-China border, doesn’t look much like a highway. It is narrow strip of roadway sometimes covered in asphalt, sometimes just dirt. This 115-kilometer road, winding between mountains and ravines is also deadly. Or it would be, without the incredible dexterity of the truck and bus drivers who […]

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Society

“Buddhaland” – Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?

The struggle for power in Lumbini, Nepal as a Chinese group pushes a “mega project” to draw Buddhist tourists from around the world.

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Geopolitics

Seven British Among Dead In Nepal Plane Crash

BBC NEWS (UK), TIMES OF INDIA (India) Worldcrunch KATHMANDU – A plane carrying trekkers to the Everest region crashed and burned just after takeoff on the outskirts of Nepal’s capital, killing all 19 people on board, including seven British and five Chinese passengers. According to eyewitnesses, the small plane operated by Sita Air crashed into […]

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Geopolitics

Rescue Operations Continue After Deadly Avalanche In The Himalayas

EKANTIPUR (Nepal), AFP (France), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch Rescue workers have resumed their search Monday morning for mountaineers trapped by an avalanche on Mount Manaslu in Nepal. At least 11 people have been confirmed dead, reports Nepal’s Ekantipur news publication, including climbers from France, Spain, Germany and Nepal. AFP reported that Christian Trommsdorff, the vice-president of […]

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Geopolitics

Bus Crashes Kill At Least 55 In India And Nepal

TIMES OF INDIA (India), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch NEW DEHLI – At least 28 people were killed after a bus plunged off a highway Monday night in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, reports BBC. The bus fell into a 500-foot-deep gorge in the Kangra valley, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the state […]

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Food / Travel

Picking Up The Trash On The World’s Highest Mountain

Would you climb 8,848 meters to pick up other people’s waste, discarded climbing gear and even the occasional dead body? This is what the Eco Everest Expedition sets out to do every year.

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Geopolitics

Hounded By Chinese Regime, Tibetans Make Perilous Himalayan Crossing To Nepal

Tibetan refugees continue to brave harrowing journeys across the Himalayas to Nepal and beyond. Back home Chinese repression has triggered a new wave of self-immolations. But in Nepal too, “pressure from China is visible,” says one Tibetan refugee.

Categories
Future

Measuring Mount Everest — With Ever More Precision

Mount Everest is unquestionably the world’s highest mountain – but just how high, exactly, is it? Toting the latest technology, a team of climbers is heading for the rooftop of the world to find out.

Categories
Geopolitics

With Maoists Refusing To Turn Over Their Arms, Nepal Totters On The Edge Of Political Crisis

Nepal’s major parties have hammered out a last-minute deal to save the Constituent Assembly. But six years after the end of a bitter civil war, the country’s divisions still remain raw.

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