Articles from the author

At 4,290 metres above sea level, the Nathu La pass, the high point of the fabled Silk Route, has been closed since 1974 after Sikkim was annexed by India and became a part of the Indian union.

Afghanistan faces yet another Taliban stratagem to destabilise the country, said Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah in the wake of the killing of UN aid worker Bettina Goislard in Ghazni last week.

Pakistan's inspired gesture this week to initiate a unilateral cease-fire could be the first step in many, ahead of a key South Asian summit that will create the atmosphere for a much needed warming of relations between the sub-continental giants.

The irony was lost on no-one. The man from whom India was set to learn lessons in curbing "terror" was forced to return home post haste after two bombs exploded in Israel, killing 15 people.

The outgoing Congress chief minister of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, pilloried in this bruising electoral campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party was asked after he was swept from power yesterday, whether he felt he had been electrocuted.

If I win the presidential election, I will change the constitution to make it a parliamentary democracy," said President Gloria Arroyo, yesterday in an exclusive interview with <i>Gulf News</i> at Sheikh Hamad palace in the Bahrain capital Manama yesterday, in a clear bid to win the support of over two million Filipinos in the Gulf who could hold the key to crucial presidential elections in May 2004.

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo yesterday setout an agenda for peace in Muslim Mindanao that brings in Bahrain as a key player to ensure the president's twin objectives of ending terror and initiating development in the south are met as soon as possible.

The "Great Game" played out even today in the mountains of the Hindukush has found a new theatre in the impenetrable fastness of the Himalayas.

The only allegory that comes even briefly to mind of India being sucked inexorably into the Iraqi quagmire is the sight that legend says transfixed most shipwrecked sailors - a wild-eyed siren beckoning them to their doom.

The Taliban has been quick to claim responsibility for the suicide bombing in Kabul's famed Chicken Street, one stop-shop for carpets, jewellery and antiques and a magnet for all foreigners who visit the Afghan capital.

It's history that has been buried for over 30 years under a mountain of rubble

He is watching you as you walk in, and you don't know which way to look as the thought crosses your mind – this man has no legs.