Free Republic

The king (left) is spending five days in India India and Bhutan are due to update their friendship treaty to give the Himalayan kingdom greater control over many areas of governance. The revised 57-year-old agreement will allow Bhutan more freedom in areas of foreign policy and military purchases. The Bhutanese monarch, Jigme Khesar Namgyel, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi to sign the treaty. In 2008 Bhutan becomes a parliamentary democracy with a new constitution. The meeting is part of a six-day visit by the Bhutanese monarch to India. After taking over from his father, King...

Affluence is more apparent these days BBC World Service will be dedicating a week of special programmes from 3-11 February looking at how India is changing. The BBC's George Arney has been reporting on India for many years and, for just as long, the country's promise has been waiting to be fulfilled. How do you summarise a country which is home to one in six members of the human race, which contains a third of the world's poorest people and yet has an increasingly consumer-oriented middle-class twice the size of the population of Germany? And which - according to...

India could overtake Britain and have the world's fifth largest economy within a decade as the country's growth accelerates, a new report says. If trends continue, India's economy may then surpass the US and be second only to China's by mid-century, the report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says. Manufacturing has helped to drive India's economy The report says India's programme of reforms has brought increased competition and efficiency. But there will be a heavy cost as India demands more and more energy. Boom time Everywhere you turn in India's cities are signs of economic boom. The implications of...

Thousands of people have been attending mass ceremonies in India at which hundreds of low-caste Hindus (Dalits) converted to Buddhism and Christianity. The events in the central city of Nagpur are part of a protest against the injustices of India's caste system. By converting, Dalits - once known as Untouchables - can escape the prejudice and discrimination they normally face. The ceremonies mark the 50th anniversary of the adoption of Buddhism by the scholar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. He was the first prominent Dalit to urge low-caste Indians to embrace Buddhism. As the chief architect of India's constitution, he wrote...

"U.S. helicopters fly to places which haven't been reached for the whole week and drop food... No talking but action. European countries are until now invisible on the ground." "U.S. Navy flying aid missions, Bundeswehr still looking things over," said the headline Jan. 3rd in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel (the Mirror). "While advance teams of the Bundeswehr (German army) are still camping in three tents at the Banda Aceh airport, Americans, Australians and New Zealanders have already flown tons of aid packages into disaster areas." At least the Germans were on the scene. On Jan 3rd, Canada's Disaster Assistance...

I was awakened just after dawn by the person who had duty that morning telling me there had been an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale in the Indian Ocean, and that a tidal wave had already hit some coastal areas. I was told that about over 1,000 people were reported dead. An 8.9 earthquake is an extraordinary event. We knew that there had been a tidal wave. We also knew that first reports in major disasters normally underestimated casualties. The reason is simple. In a really bad disaster, the first thing to go down are communications. The areas...

Subject: Don't listen to CNN I've edited out the identity of the person who sent this as his job would be in serious jeopardy if Senator Leahy gets wind of this. But it may begin to explain to some people how their preoccupation with single 'issues' can have disastrous repercussions for all the other things they may - or may not - hold dear. And it may lend some balance to the media's tendentious reporting on efforts being made to alleviate the suffering. On a final note, this guy is an American who, along with a lot of other Americans,...

After the horrific loss of life in the Indian Ocean region from the record earthquake and resulting tsunami last week, I was struck by the immensity of what had happened. While scientists continue to argue over whether we can even measure mankind's influence on weather or climate in the face of naturally occurring hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, cold waves, blizzards, and floods, Mother Nature shows us that she still rules the day. There is no question that the Earth knows that humans live here -- six billion people are going to have some effect on the environment, no matter how...

While the death tolls are still mounting from last week’s catastrophe in the Indian Ocean, some prominent religious leaders haven’t wasted any time engaging in politicking and opportunism. Last Thursday, Rev. Sam Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, issued statements rebuking the United States, among other nations, for not signing on to the Kyoto protocol. Don’t see the link between a massive earthquake and global warming? Kobia and Noko certainly do. The results of the disaster are “a clear warning on what climate change could to...

The Tsunami in South Asia is a truly catastrophic event. The human carnage is overwhelming and my Christian heart can’t help but respond to the human tragedy. However… As the events were unfolding on our TV screens, I found myself feeling uneasy about something, internally conflicted, a feeling I just couldn’t shake. As someone who follows politics and world views, (views towards America and Americans that is), I was keenly aware of the views in that part of the world, even before the Tsunami struck. It has become a popular international pastime to bash America at every opportunity, and news...