Newslook :: Nepal's Premiere Online Newsmagazine, Since 1999

Nepali news media typically tend to ignore any high-voltage political dramas in the northern neighborhood. That is in line with a foreign policy which tends not to antagonize China in any way, particularly if it concerns Tibet. But the latest reports are apparently too disturbing to ignore for their news values. News dispatches quote eyewitnesses who say Chinese Border Security soldiers shot and killed a Tibetan near Nangpa La Pass on the morning of 30th September 2006. The victim was among a group of 75 Tibetans (17 children) trying to escape into Nepal from the northern border. A Romanian TV has been disseminating a footage of that shooting.
• Video footage of Nangpa Pass shooting refutes official Chinese statement, ICT
• There is no excuse, Mt. Everest
• China tries to gag climbers who saw Tibet killings, The Independent Online, UK
• Romanian Nangpa La report: Tibetans were hunted like rats, Mt Everest
• Nangpa La update: Kids marched in single file after shooting, Mt Everest
• Nangpa La update: Young Tibetan nun shot dead in front of climbers, Mt Everest
• Cho Oyu ABC swarmed by Chinese Army, Tibetans shot?, Mt Everest

Our ailing PM may trust a Thai or an Indian doctor more than the Nepali one. Prachanda bows before New Delhi and his Indian comrades the like of Yechuri rather than the home of his idealogue Mao Zedong. But never mind-- here is yet another inspiring lesson from the north that must be heeded whatever our leaders' inclinations. China is shooting the clouds for a reason. And in the first place, they do it because they can. Time to do something worthwhile with those arms in the hands of the Maoists and the army.
• Gunners shoot special ammo at clouds to unleash the rain, USA Today
• China declares war on the clouds, Telegraph, UK

Wake up, Nepal! A train is passing by your northern border. This is no ordinary train. Chinese President Hu Jintao today opened the world's most elevated railway from Golmud to Lhasa. Mao had confided to King Birendra in 1973 that he would not be able to sleep without constructing this railway. After 33 years, his dream has been fulfilled. Tibet is no longer a “remote” place. The USD 4.1 billion Qinghai-Tibet railway is 1,956 kilometers long. The construction started on June 29, 2001 even as civil war began to intensify in Nepal. The railway is sure to tranform Nepal's neighborhood. Before the train left, Hu said the project is not only a magnificent feat in China's history of railway construction, but is also a great miracle of the world's railroad history. Shouldn't Nepal now create its own history by focusing on major development efforts? How long will we continue to miss the train?
• Train to the Roof of the World, Wired News
• Gormo - Lhasa railway: An unparallel track to invasion, Phayul
• High-tech features first Tibetan railway, People's Daily
• China completes railway to Tibet, BBC