BY BHOLA B RANA

With the latest Arab-Israeli war in a cease-fire mode, it might be useful to engage in a post-mortem focusing, among other factors, on Iran’s increasing shadow over the Middle East. At the outset note what the Arabs call the Sixth War – after the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 – continued for 34 days making it the longest since the very first one of 1948.

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Special supplement on the occasion of 15th anniversary of Independence of Ukraine

Ukraine successfully pursuing strategic targets

(Message from Charge d'Affairs of Ukraine Mykola S. Mischuk, Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of India)

I am privileged to greet my Pakistani brothers and sisters both at home and overseas on the auspicious occasion of our 60th Independence Day....more

Beirut will rise again!

Lebanon has witnessed 15 years long agonizing civil war in the country. The magnitude and intensity of the war was so severe that the war left the country torn apart. The most suffered was the Beirut city where much blood was shed. When war ended the city had already lost most of its treasures the country had immense proud. The prolonged war in Lebanon had reduced Beirut city into rubble. ..more

BY LB THAPA, Pokhara

Future of terrorism: A critical appraisal - I

With war, in the traditional sense of violent conflict between states, gradually losing validity in terms of state policy - except within the context of self-defence - and with the end of bipolarity, states have been increasingly confronted with non-traditional security issues and threats. ..more

BY SHIREEN M MAZARI

Miserable failure of government – and much more

The furious protests on Saturday and Sunday across the country following the government’s announcement on Friday of a drastic across-the-board hike in price of POL products, some as high as 23 percent, led to the government having to eat humble pie soon thereafter. ... more

BY M.R. JOSSE

Constitutional Court: A SOLUTION to EXCESSES of government

Despite much lip-service and rhetoric about people empowerment and liberalization in Nepal, there has been little inquiry into questions about expansion of judicial review and creation of a constitutional court to safeguard civil rights of the people and to check and balance state powers...... more

BY LABA KARKI

Media and terrorism

To harbor means to bring something or someone to safety. How can any media do that with "terrorism", an abstraction meaning the sum of terrorist acts over time? Media can slant the news to favor terrorists, just as media can slant the news (facts and interpretations of the facts) to discredit terrorists. Both are biased (untruthful) reporting. ... more

BY KAMALA SARUP

Maoists losing their relevance

For more than a decade the Maoists have been waging war against the state for a republic Nepal and an election to a constituent assembly. However, the recent political developments have shown that the Maoist demands have lost their relevance.... more

BY BHUWAN SHARMA

Introducing the real Tibet

The recently opened Qinghai-Tibet Railway is bringing not only crowds of tourists but also information to Tibet, which previously was virtually shut off from the outside world. Liu Xuan, Deputy Director of the Information Office of the Tibet regional government, discusses how the local government regards this issue and how it will respond to the new openness in an interview with Beijing Review reporter Feng Jianhua. .... more

Agitation against petro-products price hike

BY COCKTAIL MAN

The beauty of Kathmandu is that it jumps back to normal life after some trouble, it doesn’t limp back like other cities. So Monday was an exciting day for Cocktail Man, although Saturday and Sunday the city had virtually ground to a halt. The morning began with a breakfast meeting at a hotel in Lazimpat. ..... more

Polarization?

The venom with which established political parties built up anti-monarchism since the implementation of Article 127 upon recommendation by the elected government on October 4, 2002 facilitated the seven party coalition with the Maoists in New Delhi allowing for the ultimate success of Janaandolan 2. .. more

Slow drive long life!

This scribe went through a recent report on Shenzhen special economic zone (SEZ) of China in Time magazine. The report reveals how the city was developed after it was designated SEZ by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979. It is reported that Shenzhen today is the most prosperous city in China. The secret behind the city’s present economic standard is of course the visionary policy initiated by the Chinese government and hard work of the people there... more

By PR Pradhan

The reality and fiction of Maoist disarmament

It was interesting to see the main headlines of the normally Maoist-friendly newspaper (The Kathmandu Post) in its Saturday edition:

- Maoist atrocities hit new high

- Minor tortured in captivity

- CDO, others held captive for hours.... more

SHASHI P.B.B. MALLA & RALF NARENDRA B.B. MALLA

Mulling the enduring value of military

By sheer coincidence, a senior Nepalese foreign policy advisory group made public its recommendation to, among other things, drastically reduce the strength of the armed forces as the U.N. Security Council was struggling to muster enough troops for an expanded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).... more

BY MAILA BAJE

It can happen only in India

Sir,

Excerpts from vernacular weeklies and dailies

"Take all, if they have to be taken. Only Bhutan will benefit directly or indirectly." (Bhutanese pro-democracy leader Tek Nath Rijal protesting US plans to settle only some 100,000 plus Bhutanese refugees in USA, Nepal Samacharpatra, 17 August).. more