Zofeen T Ebrahim

KARACHI — The questions ‘Who are you wearing?’ and ‘Who is doing your wedding?’ may be construed by the uninitiated as bending the syntax of modern English a bit too much. For those in the know, however, these are the two most important and pertinent questions to be asked of the bride and the groom, just before the seasonal wedding blitz hits Karachi every December.

“When you hang out in a certain crowd, there are expectations,”  23-year-old Ume Hani explained.

By Keya Acharya

BANGALORE, Aug 25 (IPS) - While India has been steadily attracting foreign investment into its booming mining sector, the fact that the best prospects lie in tribal-dominated and heavily forested areas is cause for concern.

India is mineral-rich. Approximately 24 types of minerals, including iron, bauxite, copper, chromite, gold, lead, manganese, zinc and coal, are found in nearly 50 percent of its total landmass of 3.20 million sq km.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

NEW DELHI, Oct 23 (IPS) - As India's leaders gear up to boost the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to a dizzying 10 percent per annum, analysts warn that although double digit growth is achievable the country's problems of endemic poverty, unemployment and agrarian distress are unlikely to disappear in a hurry.

Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Oct 4 (IPS) - As Nepal emerges from a week-long annual holiday to celebrate the Dasain, the most important religious and cultural festival of the majority Hindus, the country is again faced with the problem of getting the coalition government to sit down for talks with armed Maoist rebels.

The Seven Party Alliance (SPA) government, which came to power last April on the heels of a peoples' uprising against King Gyanendra, is scheduled to hold crucial "summit" level talks with the Maoist leadership on Oct. 8. But the meeting is fraught with uncertainty and has already been postponed twice.

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Oct 5 (IPS) - She is in the news again. This time appearing in a documentary film 'Shame', that tells her tale of being ordered gang-raped as retributive punishment by a village council.

Far from shrouding herself in a cloak of victimhood, taking a vow of silence or committing suicide -- which would have been in keeping with the fate of other victims of this bizarre punishment before her -- Mukhtaran Mai fought back.

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Oct 7 (IPS) - Of those who survived last year's catastrophic earthquake, it is the people of Balakot district in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that are least prepared to face another Himalayan winter without adequate shelter. It took until April for the government to announce that Balakot will need to be entirely relocated.

By Zofeen Ebrahim

 KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct 2 (Asia Water Wire)  - "Since we started using the toilet, we cannot even think of life without one now," says 70-year old Qasim Jan, grandmother of 10.