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How could remote Nepal – and the shocking murder of its king and members of the royal family last June – be connected with the global response to Sept. 11? One obvious link is the recent declaration by Nepal’s King Gyanendra, successor to his murdered elder brother Birendra, that the country’s six-year-old rebel movement is “a terrorist organization.” With this announcement, Nepal, like India, Israel, Pakistan, Colombia, and other regimes that may find the label useful in squashing public opposition to their policies, fell into line with the US-led strategy of routing out all resistance to its dictates. read more

The world abruptly woke up to revelations about Nepal’s internal problems on June 1, 2001, the day it was told that the kingdom’s crown prince had killed his parents and other royals, then turned the gun on himself. According to official reports, it was all the result of a dispute over the prince’s choice of a wife. The news sparked a nationwide trauma, and brought the world press to the streets of Kathmandu.

The massacre’s grisly details – though none of forensic significance – were dutifully reported to the world. The archaic funerary rites were also widely broadcast. But none of the bulletins offered real insights about the country: the poverty, the failing democracy, the army’s role in Nepal’s politics, or the insurgent Maoist movement that controls over a quarter of the countryside and has the support of as much as half the nation’s 23 million population, and possibly more. read more

On any warm day, visitors to public parks around the US may see people listening to Chinese music while making slow, graceful movements with their arms, executing slow-moving standing postures and stretching exercises, or even engaging in sitting meditation. Often, they aren’t practicing Yoga or Tai Chi, but rather an ancient Chinese system of mind/body cultivation known as Falun Gong.

“You can really feel it,” said Jayne Schmidt, after participating in a practice session at a local community park in Pennsylvania. “It’s like you’re holding electricity.” read more

In July, the G8 Summit Meeting was held in Okinawa, a group of islands in Japan that serves as a US stronghold with huge military bases. In response, the Japanese Peace Committee called for international support end to this occupation. Here is the group’s statement:

Like a colony, Okinawa is burdened with US military bases, a situation with no parallel in other sovereign states in the world. Huge bases occupy more than 10 percent of the whole territory (20 percent of the main island). They were built in violation of international law. read more

India is in deep turmoil on a number of religious fronts. While the mainstream press focuses mainly on the conflict between predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan over the threatened separation of the Indian Jammu and Kashmir state, the death toll rises in other parts of the country as internecine war widens.

Muslim-Hindu Clashes

On Jun 25, a bomb exploded in a mosque in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, injuring two people. An ensuing riot injured five more, including a TV crew. This led to a one-week curfew in Muslim-dominant areas of Guntur and the state capital, Hyderabad, where police guarded both mosques and churches. It was yet another sad chapter in the boiling conflict between Indian Muslims and Hindus. read more