Bhutan News archive for 11 March 2010

International Sources

Asia – Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Central Asia – TMCnet
Bhutan Bhutan, which for a long time preferred to remain isolated from the world, has very … Mobile telephone systems have become increasingly important because the fixed-line infrastructure is outdated and a mobile phone represents the only …    [read more]

Asia-Pacific Overview – The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Muslims living in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes 61 countries and territories, constitute 62% of all Muslims worldwide. The six Asian countries with the largest Muslim populations are: Indonesia (203 million), Pakistan (174 million), India …    [read more]

Beartooth Paddlers to meet at RMC – Billings Gazette
The Beartooth Paddlers meet at 7 tonight to watch a slide show and talk about Bhutan and listen to a local fitness expert talk about conditioning and core training. The meeting will be held at Rocky Mountain College’s Tech Room No. 14 and is free …    [read more]

Is Hong Kong Getting Any Closer to Real Democracy? – Time
When Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was convicted in December of subverting the state after helping to organize a democracy petition , the only protestors gathered outside the Beijing courtroom were foreign diplomats waiting to tell a pack of Western …    [read more]

Get the small town feel in Edmonds, Wash. – Chicago Tribune
EDMONDS, Wash. — When I was growing up there circa 1960, Edmonds was a quintessential American small town. Within about three blocks we had a bakery, a variety store, a soda fountain, a hardware store and the Princess movie theater, where a Saturday …    [read more]

Angry China blasts Dalai Lama’s speech – Reuters AlertNet
Instead it will help people solve problems along the way,” said the vice mayor of Lhasa, Jigme Namgyal, according to the China Daily. Padma Choling, China’s newly appointed Tibet governor, said: “Let (the) Dalai Lama say whatever he wants.    [read more]

Include tshogpas: PM – Kuensel Online
11 March, 2010 – Prime Minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley asked dzongdas from 20 dzongkhags yesterday to take party coordinators on board in the development process at the local level to strengthen democracy. Addressing the 18th yearly meeting of …    [read more]

A fearful frontier life – Kuensel Online
11 March, 2010 – It’s 10 pm and the night is calm and still except for the shrill chirping of the crickets outside. Astamaya Rai, 54, lies awake in her one-storey hut in Tashiling, Sarpang. Her husband is half asleep in the other corner. A rattle …    [read more]

Raiders exit state tourney after a stunning upset – NorthJersey.com
Will Paro and David Fierro were outstanding freshmen. Warren Gross, Tyler Morgan and Mike Radziewicz played important roles, as well. Puzio would also like to wish the best of luck to seniors Stephen George, Matt Calleo, Sean Murphy and Anthony …    [read more]

Nepal: MoAC devises food security plan – FreshPlaza
Among the South Asian countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Pakistan have already formulated such strategy. Under the proposed plan, the MoAC is also proposing different technical research planning so as to enhance productivity in agriculture …    [read more]

Kuensel – Bhutan’s National Newspaper

Forest fire wreaks havoc in T/gang
The fire below Drametse, Mongar as seen from Kanglung
Photo : Pankaj Thapa, Sherubtse College

10 March, 2010 – A forest fire, which started yesterday afternoon from Chenari, near Chazam in Trashigang, has burnt down an automobile workshop, three cars and 25 two-wheelers kept for repair there, as the fire spread, fanned by fierce wind.    [read more]

A new look at an old threat
Japanese project to develop a glacier and glacial lake inventory

GLOF Assessment Project 10 March, 2010 – There is a new twist in the story of the threats looming large high up in the mountains. Ten of the 25 glacial lakes, identified by ICIMOD as most dangerous, could be excluded from the category, according to Koji Fujita, who is on a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) assessment project in Bhutan’s Himalayas.    [read more]

Continuing education goes nationwide
Improved Prospects: More than 1,000 in-service Bhutanese can avail of the programme

10 March, 2010 – The continuing education programme, for in-service Bhutanese to upgrade their qualification, has spread its wings across the country, creating opportunities for more than 1,000 civil servants, corporate and private employees this year.    [read more]

130 illegal workers repatriated
Immigration Update 10 March, 2010 – Following a month-long raid on private homes, immigration officials have repatriated more than 130 illegal workers from the country and collected a fine of over Nu 500,000.    [read more]

Much ado about nothing?
The Wagon-R Saga 10 March, 2010 – While some cabinet ministers admitted that the Wagon-R had to be used for multiple purposes, given the volume of work they had at hand, others claimed that it was being used only for official purposes.    [read more]

Dirty pool
10 March, 2010 – Government pool vehicles being misused has been as issue as long as anyone can remember.

One of the early attempts to curb misuse is recorded in a January 1987 Kuensel story about the government saving Nu 15,600 a day in fuel costs in Thimphu alone after a circular restricted pool vehicle movement.    [read more]

Jamyang Norbu – yak herder to quality carpenter
In the woodcraft trade for forty-plus years, he now runs his own successful business

10 March, 2010 – Sundays are agonisingly slow days for Jamyang Norbu. He actually dreads the approach of the holiday. He doesn’t know what to do with his free time. It bothers him when he can’t do what he loves most.    [read more]

Govt. does about turn
McKinsey liberalisation policy reversed with tariff rise to USD 250

Tourism Tariff 10 March, 2010 – The country’s tour operators are doubly happy about the government’s decision to strike down the tariff liberalisation proposal and instead raise it to USD 250 a tourist a day.    [read more]

Phuentsholing – From gateway to dust-bowl
Increased particulate matter in border town’s air from constant traffic and roadwork

10 March, 2010 – Travellers between the 180 km Thimphu-Phuentsholing highway, who endure the ordeal of driving along the long bumpy, dust-ridden highway, are further vexed on reaching a destination where clouds of dust await them.    [read more]

2 in operation by year-end
Single operator of domestic air service to be decided on March 15
Bathpalathang Airport: The govt. owned land in Bumthang identified for the purpose

Domestic airports 9 March, 2010 –

Work on the domestic airport at Bathpalathang in Bumthang will begin early next week to have it ready for use by the end of September this year.
   [read more]

Bhutan Observer

Found a small girl
Found a small girl (approximately 3 years old) near Public Library in Chubachu, Thimphu at 11 am today. Parents/ relatives may come to Bhutan Observer office to take her home or contact 334891 immediately.
   [read more]

Where are the condoms?
One of the common sights in public places like hospitals, basic health units (BHU), out­reach clinics, gewog offices and hotels is the distinctive daechong or condom boxes placed in prominent loca­tions. What is common ev­erywhere is also that these aptly named ‘blissful utility’ boxes remain empty most of the time everywhere. Some are gathering dust [...]    [read more]

U-13 girls’ team to soon leave for AFC festival
Bhutan’s under-13 girls team will leave for Sri Lanka on March 11 to participate in the AFC under-13 Girls’ Football Festival.
Upon the recommendation of school sports instructors, 22 players were selected for the team, 17 from Thimphu, two from Gasa and one each from Tashigang, Paro and Haa.
The players were selected after a month-long coaching [...]    [read more]

Man dies from drug overdose
Police today reported that a 21-year-old man had died of drug overdose in Thimphu.
At around 7 am, police found an intoxicated boy at the VIP enclave in Motithang. He was wearing a T-shirt and half pants and was shivering.
Police officer on duty recovered 19 capsules of Spasmo Proxyvon from him.
Immediately, the boy was sent to [...]    [read more]

National football team selected
The Bhutan Football Federa­tion (BFF) has selected 25 players to form the national team this year. The selection camp was held from February 23 to 26 at Changlingmith­ang and Changjiji ground in Thimphu.
Forty-two football players from across the country at­tended the camp.
The current national play­ers and players of under-23 and under-19 battled for cov­eted 25-man [...]    [read more]

Namling flashback more than a decade on
One of the survivors of Bhutan’s worst road accident tells our reporter Gyembo Namgyel the heartrending story of that fateful day
Bus accident of June 16, 1998, at Namling between Mongar and Bumthang was the worst road accident in Bhutan’s living memory. Out of 72 passen­gers jam-packed in a bus with carrying capacity of half the [...]    [read more]

Students say GNH transforms them
Students report to the Prime Minister that they are bringing GNH into schools and their communities their way
A GNH wave – if one may call it that – is apparently building up with school students vouching that their beliefs, attitudes and even their lives were transformed by what they learned during the recent GNH meetings [...]    [read more]

Cement plant to make Nganaglm a business hub
The construction of mega Dungsam Cement Corpo­ration Limited (DCCL) in Pemagatshel is in full swing promising many economic opportunities for the local communities.
As part of the project, the 15-km road from Indo-Bhutan border to the project site at Chenkari is being broadened to two lanes. Broadening of the road, which is expected to be complete [...]    [read more]

Bhutan’s first medical college to come up in Serbithang
The site for the construc­tion of Bhutan’s first medi­cal college, Bhutan Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS), has been identified above the Royal Botanical Garden in Serbithang, Thimphu.
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) will be designat­ed as a teaching hospital.
JDWNRH has 17 clini­cal departments out of 20 required for a medical col­lege. Anatomy, biochemistry and [...]    [read more]

Community forest entrusts, empowers, sustains, conserves
The introduction of the people-centric forest management has gained momentum in Bhutan. Almost every day, we hear of com­munity forests being handed over to the people in different parts of the country. This is a tectonic shift from the earlier fully government-backed for­est management policy. Now with the people at the fore­front of forest management, [...]    [read more]

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