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Links to internet articles of topical interest on & to the South Asian region. Updated fortnightly

South Asian View Point
International Press on South Asia

South Asian Viewpoint

• Where we have to go, News International, Pakistan, December 24, 2003
Track II and III circles are agog and the governments are engaged in frenetic activity to restore normal relations between India and Pakistan. The whole world favours the burying of the hatchet between these two nuclear powers. Is peace beginning to break out? It is too early to say.

• Islamabad resents C'Wealth decision, Dawn, Karachi, December 10, 2003
1989 was election year in India and that more than most things seems to have put paid to the chances of an agreement on Siachin being implemented. Now, another election year is coming up. Hopefully, the Indian leadership can demonstrate greater statesmanship this time around

• Rainwater harvesting , Kuensel, Thimpu, December 09, 2003
Even as the construction industry strives for quality and standard Bhutan’s biggest industry seems to be bogged down with problems.

• Eligible candidates for settlement in Hulhumale, Haveeru, Male, Decemner 07, 2003
Maldives Housing and Urban Development Board told a press conference that people are expected to start living in the artificial island by early next year.

• Towards quality construction, Kuensel, Thimpu, December 06, 2003
Even as the construction industry strives for quality and standard Bhutan’s biggest industry seems to be bogged down with problems.

• AIDS an increasing social concern in Maldives, Haveeru Daily, Male, december 01, 2003
Health Minister Ahmed Abdulla on Monday said that HIV/AIDS is a rising concern among other social problems facing this tiny island nation.

• Moving towards peace? Daily Times, Lahore, November 29, 2003
1989 was election year in India and that more than most things seems to have put paid to the chances of an agreement on Siachin being implemented. Now, another election year is coming up. Hopefully, the Indian leadership can demonstrate greater statesmanship this time around

• Next phase of the negotiations, Daily Mirror, Colombo, November 28, 2003
Is the Southern polity ready to do serious political business with the LTTE? Unless the Sinhalese political class makes up its mind in the next few weeks to do pretty serious political business with the LTTE in the coming months, the paths of political change in the North and the South may not perhaps intersect again for some time to come. One needs to make this prognostic assertion even at the risk of being branded as
alarmist.

International viewpoint

• Kashmir peace prospects grow, Boston Globe, December 26, 2003
SOome of the best news this year came from the Indian subcontinent, where two nuclear powers, who have fought three wars and nearly went to war again two years ago, now seem to be almost competing in who can move faster to repair half a century of hostility.

• Pakistan makes Kashmir concession, BBC, UK, December 18, 2003
Pakistan is ready to put aside its demand for a referendum in the disputed territory of Kashmir, President Pervez Musharraf has said.

• Delivered into hell by US war on terror, Los Angeles Times, USA, December 10, 2003
Maher Arar is back in Canada. He's seeking a public investigation there and preparing a lawsuit, with the help of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, against the U.S. government.

• Something rotten in the state of India, Asia Times, Hong Kong, December 10, 2003
While celebrating the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) unexpected victory in three major states last week in the Hindi heartland of India - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh - the party's jubilant leader, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, asked: "We are called communal and are accused of practicing communal politics. But what about this election?"

• What's the commonwealth for? The Economost, UK, December 08, 2003
Robert Mugabe has angrily withdrawn Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. If the club of mostly former British colonies cannot encourage or enforce democracy in its own members, then what is it for?

• Gateway to world of environmental law online, ENS, USA, December 08, 2003
The world’s largest environmental law database, ECOLEX, is now available online. With more than 100,000 legal references, ECOLEX is intended as an essential resource for developing the necessary tools to promote environmental management and build capacity worldwide.

• Asia is winning war against hunger, Asia Times, Hong Kong, December 05, 2003
Asia is winning the war against hunger, and it has happened despite the best efforts of politicians, according to the United Nations. But Africa and the Near East continue to lag behind, making it unlikely that the lofty goal of halving global poverty by 2015, laid down at the World Food Summit in 1996 and reiterated at the 2000 Millennium gathering, will be attained.

• Pesticide endosulfan delays male sexual maturation, ENS, USA, December 05, 2003
Exposure to the pesticide endosulfan damages developing male reproductive organs and hormones, according to the first human study to assess the effects of this chemical on male sexuality. Boys in India who were exposed to endosulfan showed delayed sexual maturity compared with similar children who were not exposed, the new research indicates.

• The temptations of victory, The Economist, UK, December 05, 2003
The results of four important state elections held on December 1st were a big boost for Vajpayee's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads India's governing coalition. But they were probably still not a convincing argument for bringing forward the national vote, which must be held by October next year.

• Safe only in the departure lounge, The Economist, UK, November 27, 2003
Bangladesh's religious minorities - murder, intimidation and fear of more to come.

• Overcoming racial predudice, The Economist, UK, November 20, 2003
Covering up predudice is tiring. How hard do people work to overcome a prejudice that they feel but are not allowed to express? That is the question Jennifer Richeson, of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, attempts to answer in this month's Nature Neuroscience.

• Arms race leaves medicine behind, Los Angeles Times, USA, November 12, 2003
India and Pakistan spend billions on weapons while aid groups struggle for funds to fight polio and tuberculosis.