Why do we always find out about breeding grounds for prostitution only after they shut down:

The Indian state of Maharashtra says it is closing its numerous dance bars because they are a breeding ground for crime and prostitution. Only the state capital, Mumbai (Bombay) has been spared for now – pending further inquiries. The state has about 1,500 dance bars employing more than 100,000 women who mostly dance Bollywood numbers. [BBC News]

BBC News: Maharashtra shuts dance-girl bars Continue reading →

The U.S. is exporting all sorts of stuff to Pakistan these days:

The U.S. military has released at least 211 detainees from Guantanamo, but many — including dozens of prisoners sent to the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — are freed on the condition they will be held by their home countries. [AP/Yahoo!]

Some could be innocent:

In Hussainabad, a clutch of mud-brick homes 185 miles south of the capital, the family of one of the prisoners said Tuesday it is desperate to see him freed, and argues the U.S. decision to let him leave Guantanamo is evidence he’s not a dangerous terrorist. Ghulam Farid — brother-in-law of prisoner Bashir Ahmad — said the family’s joy at learning of his release from Guantanamo has turned to frustration. “I have no idea why the government won’t release him. There can be no good reason,” he said. “We are poor people. We can’t get any answers from our government. We are helpless.” [AP/Yahoo!]

Others could be douchebags:

Bashir Ahmad was 17 years old in 2000 when he closed his video rental shop and went off to fight, his mother Jannat Bibi said. A friend of Ahmad’s said he was motivated by a local religious leader from the banned Sunni militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba, which is headquartered just a few miles away in the city of Jhang, a hotbed of militancy. Ahmad told his family he was going to fight in Kashmir, but they heard nothing from him until getting a letter in 2002 saying he was in jail in Afghanistan. A second letter arrived later from the Red Cross saying he was at Guantanamo. Two weeks ago, Red Cross officials came to tell the family that Ahmad had been returned to Pakistan, but said they had no power to get him out of jail or arrange a visit. [AP/Yahoo!]

But since no one’s sure, officials are content to indefinitely hole them up in the pokey:

More than three dozen Pakistanis who were freed from an American prison at Guantanamo Bay remain jailed in their home country, most without charge and with no sign of when they might be released, security and government officials say. [AP/Yahoo!]

AP/Yahoo!: Some Pakistanis jailed without charge Continue reading →

Nepal’s crazy King Gyanendra tries his hardest to make the Maoist rebels look like an attractive alternative:

Police arrested about 120 anti-government activists nationwide Monday for defying a ban on protests to show their anger at last month’s seizure of power by the king… Since the king’s power grab, many politicians have been taken into custody or driven underground. [AP/Yahoo!]

No one in the country will hear about it, since the press has been adequately muzzled:

King Gyanendra imposed sweeping curbs on the media as part of emergency rule introduced last month. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says that about half of Nepal’s newspapers had ceased to publish since the king seized power. A number of journalists have also been detained on charges of showing dissent. [BBC News]

AP/Yahoo!: 120 Nabbed for Defying Nepal Protest Ban BBC News: Nepal journalists urge free press

Previous post: Throwing a little weight around Continue reading →

Apul’s post yesterday demonstrated the importance of the phallus in South Asian culture. As if on cue, Delhi officials announced today that they will be going ahead with plans to build the world’s tallest building on the outskirts of their city. From The Guardian Unlimited:

Local officials said the building in Noida would be 710 metres (2,330ft) tall – 202 metres higher than Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the current tallest building on the planet.

The skyscraper, said to have been designed to resemble the peaks of the Himalayas, is scheduled to be open for business by 2013.

It will contain a 50-floor five-star hotel, a 40-storey glass atrium and 370,000 sq metres (4m sq ft) of shopping centres.

“New York in the 30s, Malaysia in the 90s and China today all have used tall buildings to showcase their countries to the world,” said Hafeez Contractor, the architect behind the building.

“We want this building to show to the world what India can do.”

Ummm. How about working on poverty and literacy first. As you can imagine not EVERYONE is happy about this:

…some experts are critical of the new wave of Indian design, which they say simply mimics what others have done before and does not take account of local conditions.

“It’s not suited for Indian conditions. We do not have enough water. We do not have the uninterrupted electricity supply,” said Balkrishna Doshi, one of India’s most respected urban designers.

“The building will need its own power plant to make sure the lifts do not stop when the electricity does.”

Let’s see if plans for the building thrust forward or end up going limp when faced with pressure from the inevitable protests.

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