Asia

“World Unity Day”, 29 November 2010, was celebrated in Kathamandu’s Kevre District, in Panauti, where the call went out to the city’s population drawing attention to the need for unity wherever in the world. The slogan: “We wish Peace Force and Joy to all on this day calling for unity among people.” Flags, banners, and lots of school age children made the event very lively.

The renown and revered botanist Leonardo L. Co, 56, was killed by gunfire 15 November, 2010, in a geothermal reservation in Leyte in Upper Mahiao, Barangay. Lim-ao, Kananga town, Leyte. He was doing research work for the Energy Development Corporation and was with four other team members. Three of them were killed and two survived.

*It could be said that by respecting human diversity we stand together, united in our understanding that the differences in our landscape of formation is what makes life dynamic and interesting. Wouldn’t it be boring to think alike, to want to eat the same foods, go to the same places, to express ideas in the same way?*

China is rapidly becoming self-sufficient in reactor design and construction, as well as other aspects of the fuel cycle, according to a dossier by the World Nuclear Association (WNA), which places the number of atomic power reactors in operation in China at 13.
[http://www.indepthnews.net/news](http://www.indepthnews.net/news)

*A gathering of about 30 friends of Silo, connected through activities concerning The Message of Silo, and the Humanist Movement over these past forty years, took place at Parke Banahaw, Philippines, Saturday November 2010. The occasion was marked with the symbolic scattering of Silo’s ashes. Friends from around Asia and Australia also took part.*

Western governments have called Myanmar elections November 7, 2010, a “missed opportunity” according to press agencies AFP and Al Jazeera as Myanmar’s military government set itself up to win the country’s first elections in 20 years, with the ruling generals voting themselves back into power, amid opposition claims of intimidation and poll irregularities.

A tsunami triggered by a 7.7 magnitude quake in Western Indonesia has killed 113 people while another 500 are missing, local authorities reports today.
The powerful jolt that struck the island of Sumatra yesterday just 20 kilometers (13 miles) beneath the ocean floor was followed by at least 14 aftershocks, the largest measuring 6.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

This is how it’s done in China, ignore everything and without stretching things to any limits, get on with it. This was the message the lone meditator seemed to express as he sat in lotus style under the trees in the quiet hinterland of the Taoist temple of the Yellow Dragon. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Common Man relaxed while children frolicked in a heady afternoon of family fun.

*China’s Communist Party Central Committee 15 October, 2010, started its annual closed-door meeting to map out the country’s economic course for the next five years, amid increasingly fervent calls for political reform and against the continuing crackdown on human rights activists, dissidents and lawyers. Also, open letters by opposing voices and a wider press coverage*

*Over the years since the founding of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh the country’s secular constitution has been gradually eroded, and increasingly, a religious bias came into play. Religious-based political parties appeared. However, the general tenor of the people favoured a secular state while remaining firmly set in their Islamic faith fundamental to their daily life.*