Tuesday, June 2, 2015

World War III: Patrolling the Indian Ocean

(Third in an occasional series as time and events allow)

The eastern half is in safe hand; however, on the western front it is important to note who is taking the blame for the current crisis:

"Human rights icon Suu Kyi absent from talks on Rohingya" by Robin McDowell Associated Press  May 27, 2015

YANGON, Myanmar — An international gathering about the plight of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims boasts a star-studded cast, with three Nobel Peace Prize laureates among those calling on the world to wake up to the unfolding tragedy.

But fellow winner and prodemocracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will not be among them. She was not invited.

Did you know, Suu Kyi is Burmese for CIA? No joke.

During her 15 years under house arrest, Suu Kyi won admiration across the globe for her fiery speeches and scathing criticism of the military regime that ruled Myanmar, or Burma, at the time.

After her release in 2010, when ruling generals handed over power to a nominally civilian government, she won a seat in Parliament.

The 69-year-old says she is a politician and she never sought to be a human rights champion. Critics note she is carefully choosing her battles, in part because she has presidential ambitions.

In a predominantly Buddhist country of 50 million people, where there is much animosity toward the 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims, Suu Kyi has chosen to remain silent, even as the world watched in horror while more than 3,000 hungry, dehydrated Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants washed ashore in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand this month, according to the UN refugee agency.

The international gathering at the Nobel Institute in Oslo was opened Tuesday by former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. His country pledged $1.3 million to help Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state by improving living conditions, preventing people from fleeing by sea, and curbing tensions between ethnic groups.

The meeting featured video statements from Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu, José Ramos-Horta, and Mairead Maguire, and others such as George Soros, who escaped Nazi-occupied Hungary.

Soros said that ‘‘the most immediate threat to Burma’s transition is the rising anti-Muslim sentiment.’’

‘‘As a Jew in Budapest, I too was a Rohingya,’’ he said in a video statement. ‘‘The parallels to the Nazi genocide are alarming. Fortunately, we have not reached a stage of mass killing.’’

OMG! Georgie Sorrows making that comparison! That is so over-the-top-hyperbole it reeks of a staged agenda, one recently cited in another part of the world..

The messages focused on ways to end the decades-long persecution of Rohingya and the need to speak out.

‘‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor,’’ Tutu, who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime, said in his video statement. ‘‘If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.’’

Myanmar’s transition from dictatorship to democracy has been a bumpy one.

The freedom of expression that accompanied early, now-stalled political reforms had a dark side, lifting the lid off deep-seated resentment toward the dark-skinned Rohingya minority.

The feeling here, while not minimizing the persecution, is that Myanmar is cozying up to China again. The Rohingya are a U.N. cudgel used to keep them in line. That in no way should be taken as an endorsement of the government; it is simply an acknowledgment of the Grand Chessboard of Geopolitics.

With hard-line Buddhist monks fanning the anger, machete-wielding mobs started taking to the streets in 2012, killing up to 280 people and forcing another 140,000 into crowded, dusty internment camps. They have little access to school and adequate health care, nor can they move around freely, having to pay hefty bribes to pass police barricades, even for emergencies.

The government insists they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship, adding to the desperation that sparked an exodus of an estimated 100,000 Rohingya in the last three years.

The website for the three-day Oslo conference says the popular daughter of Myanmar’s late independence hero, Aung San, shares the ‘‘anti-Rohingya’’ sentiment of much of the population, something she had denied, but with little vigor. Aase Sand, of the Norwegian Burma Committee, one of the event’s organizers, said there was never a plan to invite her or to ask for a videotaped statement.

Suu Kyi has in the last two years actively campaigned to change the constitution, which bars her from the presidency because she was married to a foreigner. With elections slated for the end of the year, the Oxford-educated opposition leader realizes she herself won’t be contesting the upcoming vote. Still, her National League for Democracy Party will be, and it’s expected to perform strongly.

The Rohingya to be sacrificed for political ambitions.

--more--"

Well, you know how women are in Myanmar.

"Asian migrant crisis appears to ebb; No refugee boats seen; some head back to Myanmar" by Michael Forsythe New York Times  May 27, 2015

Hmmmmm.

HONG KONG — No boats of Southeast Asian migrants have landed since the last one washed ashore in Indonesia a week ago. Search and rescue vessels from Malaysia and Indonesia have found no more migrants at sea. Some refugees appear to be returning to Myanmar.

And US reconnaissance flights over the Andaman Sea the last two days spotted just one boat with about 11 people visible on the main deck.

While no one is willing to say definitively that there are no more boats out there, or to rule out a future exodus, the evidence suggests that the worst of the migration crisis that swept across Southeast Asia this month may have passed.

Just two weeks ago, thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, abandoned by traffickers and turned away by several countries, faced the prospect of dying at sea for lack of food and water.

Aid groups estimated that from 6,000 to 20,000 migrants were stranded in the Andaman Sea or the Malacca Strait, trapped in decrepit boats after the Thai authorities closed the deadly jungle camps that traffickers had used to detain the migrants to extract further payments before taking them to Malaysia.

One prominent aid worker, Chris Lewa, whose reports first brought international attention to the crisis, now says the number of migrants trapped at sea may have been 7,000 to 8,000, at the low end of her initial estimate.

Please don't. That conjure up so many disputes regarding something mentioned above and disputed numbers (never mind methods).

“Maybe I was not that far off, and maybe there are no more boats left,” she said this week. “People are asking me, how many are left at sea? I have no clue.” 

Nor do I as to why I am continuing to read the new$paper at all.

About 3,500 migrants have arrived in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand in recent weeks, the International Organization for Migration says, with the last arriving last Wednesday.

Of those who did not reach those countries, many migrants from Myanmar — members of the Rohingya ethnic group who had been fleeing persecution — may have returned there.

Rohingya in Myanmar have told Lewa’s group that as many as 2,000 people who had been held in boats off the Myanmar coast have now gone back ashore, paying the smugglers as much as $300 to smuggle them back in so that they could avoid being arrested for illegally reentering Myanmar.

The Myanmar government does not consider them citizens, rendering them effectively stateless.

Like, you know, that other group. That's the imagery meant to be triggered in your mind on all this, along with the ulterior motive of my title for this post.

Lewa said her group had not received word of any departures from Myanmar since the beginning of May.

If the estimate of 7,000 to 8,000 was correct, that could still leave 2,000 or more migrants unaccounted for. But officials from the Malaysian and Indonesian offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stress that no one knows how many migrants, if any, remain at sea.

“I’m a bit surprised that those numbers haven’t actually been found,” Richard Towle, the refugee agency’s representative in Malaysia, said in a telephone interview Monday from Kuala Lumpur. “We estimate that there are still groups out there, but it’s difficult to hazard any guess on the numbers. That’s long hand for saying we don’t know.”

:-(

Joe Lowry, the Asia-Pacific spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said his organization tried to stay close to the estimates given by Lewa, though his group figured that the actual number who were at sea may have been closer to 8,000.

Even if the immediate crisis has subsided, the underlying problems that caused it have not. About 1 million Rohingya still live in Myanmar, where they face discrimination and marginalization. And the human traffickers who abandoned refugees at sea after Thailand cracked down on their operations are likely to return to their trade as long as there is demand, trafficking experts say.

Lewa, a native of Belgium who was speaking by telephone Monday from the Indonesian province of Aceh, joked that if she had known that the governments would base their estimates on her figures, she might have altered the numbers.

“If it’s really based on my figures, then perhaps I should have said a higher number so that both countries would have accepted more refugees from Myanmar,” she said.

(Blog editor dejected when he read that because it confirms his suspicions when this item came out of nowhere to make the agenda-pushing press. Even if you take it all at face value the joke at the end, honestly, is an offensive insult -- like most of what I'm reading these days)

--more--"

Maybe you want to take a look at one of the holds, although one does wonder if the photo is of what is claimed. That's how low the propaganda pre$$ has sunk these days.

I mean, from what I read it is just as easy to travel to(!!) Myanmar as it is to get out!

Therefore I am going to steam past some of the other boats making waves as I struggle to make it ashore:

"Another boat, this one crammed with 500 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis, was found off Malaysia, Wednesday, an activist and an official said, as the international community called on Southeast Asian governments to open their borders and increase search-and-rescue efforts. Thousands of migrants are believed to be stranded at sea. Malaysia has accepted more than a thousand refugees since Sunday. The latest boat would make it 1,500." 

Another side benefit to this project, the incremental globalism enforced through forced migrations. 

Btw, there already are patrols in the Indian Ocean. They are still looking for MH-370, remember?

Anyhow, the harrowing journeys take more than twice as long on the web as they did print, proving (imho) the huge agenda-pushing aspect at this point. That is when Indonesia and Malaysia surrendered in the face of strong U.S. and U.N. concern regarding the mass graves being found in the camps.

"In Southeast Asia last week, a regional conference called to address the swelling tide of boat people there ended with no major breakthroughs. Myanmar deflected blame for fueling the crisis and warned that “finger pointing” would not help. But delegates agreed about the need to keep talking."

That's strange because I was told one day earlier that the summit on the refugee crisis adjourned with headway made.

Why are others than the Rohingya fleeing?

"Who’s Driving the Rohingya into the Sea?

30.05.2015
by Tony Cartalucci

As the plight of the Rohingya, driven from Myanmar into the sea, gains increasing international attention, the same familiar voices across the West have begun climbing upon their soapboxes and pointing fingers at each and every nation refusing to accept them upon their shores. What is not mentioned, conveniently, is who drove them into the sea to begin with.


Who Are the Rohingya? 

The Rohingya are a predominately Muslim people living in Myanmar’s southwest state of Rakhine – and have lived there for generations. Many may be indigenous to Myanmar, having settled their centuries ago. Others may have come to Myanmar as a result of British rule during the 1800’s.
Despite the fact that they have lived in Myanmar for generations, they have suffered as a stateless people, with the political dynamics in Myanmar making it nearly impossible to grant them citizenship without considerable conflict and the threat of widespread violence.
However, this is not because of the government of Myanmar will not grant them their citizenship.They have tried. It is the groups that have opposed Rohingya citizenship that has perpetuated this problem, groups the Western media has intentionally failed to expose and condemn.

Democracy Icon’s “Saffron” Supporters  

The group that is in fact driving the Rohingya from their homes in Myanmar and into the sea – and why this is not reported as the center of the current crisis – are the followers and supporters of the West’s own “patron saint of democracy,” Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi herself, and many of the NGOs that support her and her political network are directly and substantially underwritten by the US and British governments.

These NGOs and faux-news agencies include the Irrawaddy, Era Journal, and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), all admitted by the Burma Campaign UK (page 15) to be funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) along with “Mizzima” also fully funded by NED and convicted financial criminal George Soros’ Open Society.

There is also the “Burma Partnership” which upon its “About Us” page is listed a myriad of associations and organizations directly linked to Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, including the Students and Youth Congress of Burma, the Forum for Democracy in Burma, and the Nationalities Youth Forum, which is directly funded by the Euro-Burma Office (in turn funded by the EU, and US National Endowment for Democracy), and Open Society.

The heavily US-British-backed Noble Peace Prize laureate’s followers have prosecuted a campaign of ultra-racist genocide aimed at eradicating Myanmar entirely of the Rohingya people, often with orgies of machete-wielding brutality and neighborhood-wide arson leaving scores of people dead, and hundreds, sometimes thousands homeless, destitute, and above all, desperate.

Leading the violence are Suu Kyi’s “saffron monks.” The so-called “Saffron Revolution” of 2007 seeking to oust the Myanmar government and put into power Aung San Suu Kyi and her “National League for Democracy” was named so after the saffron-colored robes of these supporters.

Underneath the “pro-democracy” narrative, however, is an ugly truth that if known more widely amongst the global public, would spell the end of both Suu Kyi and her foreign backers’ agenda in Myanmar.

While the Western media attempts to shift the blame on the Myanmar government itself for the current Rohingya crisis, it was the government that attempted to grant the Rohingya citizenship through incremental programs that included allowing them to vote in upcoming elections. The plan was, however, disrupted by violence spearheaded by Suu Kyi’s followers, as reported by Australia’s ABC News article, “Myanmar scraps temporary ID cards amid protests targeting ethnic minorities without citizenship.”

The irony of Suu Kyi’s supporters, supposedly representing a shining example of democracy worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, attempting to deny hundreds of thousands of people their right to vote in elections is immeasurable.

Suu Kyi, for her part, has remained utterly silent regarding the brutality and inhumanity of her most loyal and active supporters. While she is portrayed as a woman of courage and conviction, in reality these “virtues” were bought and paid for through millions of dollars of support for both her and her political network over the decades by the US and British governments. While her silence is shrugged off by the Western media as “pragmatic” and “calculated,” it is in reality merely her refusal to condemn the very supporters who have carved out a niche for her amid Myanmar’s political landscape.

This carving has left a trail of blood and tears, one the Nobel Peace Prize has been shamefully used to  distract the world’s attention away from for years now.


Suu Kyi’s Followers Have Brutalized the Rohingya for Years

Among Suu Kyi’s saffron butchers, there stands out one leader in particular, Wirathu. Wirathu has been involved in stirring up politically-motivated violence for over a decade. In particular, his group has carried out a bloody campaign against the Rohingya, even landing him in prison in 2003.

The International Business Times published an article titled, “Burmese Bin Laden: Is Buddhist Monk Wirathu Behind Violence in Myanmar?” explaining in further detail:
The shadow of controversial monk Wirathu, who has led numerous vocal campaigns against Muslims in Burma, looms large over the sectarian violence in Meikhtila.
Wirathu played an active role in stirring tensions in a Rangoon suburb in February, by spreading unfounded rumours that a local school was being developed into a mosque, according to the Democratic voice of Burma. An angry mob of about 300 Buddhists assaulted the school and other local businesses in Rangoon.

The monk, who describes himself as ‘the Burmese Bin Laden’ said that his militancy “is vital to counter aggressive expansion by Muslims”.

He was arrested in 2003 for distributing anti-Muslim leaflets and has often stirred controversy over his Islamophobic activities, which include a call for the Rhohingya and “kalar”, a pejorative term for Muslims of South Asian descent, to be expelled from Myanmar.

He has also been implicated in religious clashes in Mandalay, where a dozen people died, in several local reports.
By all accounts, Wirathu is a violent criminal leading mobs which have cost thousands of people their lives and has created a humanitarian crisis that is slowly engulfing all of Southeast Asia. Yet Wirathu is still counted among Suu Kyi’s most vocal supporters and frequently weighs in on high level decisions made by Suu Kyi’s political party. Furthermore, the West has failed to condemn him, place any sanctions upon him, and through their various media outlets, still grant him interviews, lending him continued credibility and influence.

Beyond Wirathu,  there are other “monks” who took to the streets in 2007’s “Saffron Revolution,”a series of bloody anti-government protests in support of Aung San Suu Kyi. Human Rights Watch in a report titled “Buddhism and activism in Burma” (.pdf), would specifically enumerate support provided to Aung San Suu Kyi’s movement by these organizations, including the Young Monks Union (Association), who are also now leading violence and calls for ethnic cleansing across Myanmar against the Rohingya people.

The UK Independent in their article, “Burma’s monks call for Muslim community to be shunned,” mentions the Young Monks Association by name as involved in distributing flyers recently, demanding people not to associate with ethnic Rohingya, and attempting to block humanitarian aid from reaching Rohingya camps set up after being driven by their homes by violence.The Independent also notes calls for ethnic cleansing made by leaders of the 88 Generation Students group (BBC profile here) – who also played a pivotal role in the pro-Suu Kyi 2007 protests. “Ashin” Htawara, another “monk activist” who considers Aung San Suu Kyi, his “special leader” and greeted her with flowers for her Oslo Noble Peace Prize address earlier this year, stated at an event in London that the Rohingya should be sent “back to their native land.”

Are Myanmar’s Neighbors to Blame? 

This systematic genocidal brutality is what has driven the Rohingya to the seas from their rightful homes in Myanmar, scattering them abroad and creating a humanitarian crisis for other nations to bear. In particular, Myanmar’s neighbor Thailand has been criticized vocally by the West as this crisis continues on, and more so now than ever since Thailand has ousted Washington and Wall Street’s political order of choice there in a military coup in 2014.

But it is clear that the source of the problem is in Myanmar, and in particular the violence being used to drive the Rohingya from their homes. Myanmar’s neighbors are but scapegoats for perpetrators not politically convenient for the Western media and the West’s many so-called “international” institutions and rights organizations to name and shame. If anything, the perpetrators have created a political and humanitarian crisis regionally, giving the West an opportunity to meddle even further.

Regardless of what Myanmar’s neighbors do to assist Rohingya being driven from their homes, if the violence driving them abroad to begin with is not stopped, the humanitarian crisis will only continue to grow. Such violence, however, cannot be stopped so long as the self-proclaimed arbiters of international order and human rights not only refuse to condemn those guilty of precipitating this crisis, but in fact actively defend and support them.

For Southeast Asia, and in particular, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia – all nations targeted by the US and British with perpetual political meddling – exposing the true perpetrators of this crisis, and in particular the political order under which these perpetrators are operating, can expose Aung San Suu Kyi and her party and disrupt other foreign backed political proxies across the region like her. By doing so, perhaps an end can be brought to this current crisis today, and the next one prevented from unfolding tomorrow.

The Ronhingya are not “stateless.” They are not “boat people.” They are not “without a home.” Their home is Myanmar. Ultra-racist genocidal criminals, apparently with the support and blessing of the West, have driven them from that home.

--MORE--"

Other refugees from the Boston Globe:

"The leader of Indonesia pardoned five political prisoners in Papua province Saturday as part of an effort to address human rights abuses in the country’s eastern region. Since taking office in October, President Joko Widodo has vowed to improve economic conditions and address decades of abuses by the military. He held a ceremony inside the Abepura prison near Jayapura, where the five men were serving sentences ranging from 19 years to life for a raid on a military arsenal in 2003 that killed two soldiers (New York Times)."

With that out of the way, it must be people looking for work:

Officials, owner face murder charges in Dhaka collapse,

And at least a dozen government officials in the collapse of Rana Plaza that led to an international outcry and to a commitment by Western retailers to widespread inspections of Bangladesh’s thousands of apparel factories.

When was the last time they looked?

Also in Bangladesh, the bloggers that are fleeing because "the leader of the Indian branch of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the deaths of Roy and Haider in a video posted on jihadi forums on May 2. The video was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online." 

I'm tired of SITEing propaganda pre$$ bull$hit, sorry.

Things are heating up in India, too -- even as the Globe tries to keep that in the shade.

"About 230 people have died since mid-April in a heat wave sweeping two southeast Indian states, officials said Saturday. More than 100 people have died in Andhra Pradesh state, and in neighboring Telangana state about 130 heat-related deaths have been reported since April 15. Daytime temperatures in Telangana’s Khammam district soared to more than 118 degrees on Saturday (AP)."

"750 dead in India amid sweltering temperatures" Associated Press  May 27, 2015

HYDERABAD, India — More than 750 people have died in southern India since the middle of April as soaring summer temperatures scorch the country, officials said Tuesday.

Blistering hot, dry winds have also swept across most parts of north and central India, wilting plants and forcing people to avoid the outdoors. In the cities, large crowds of office workers gather around stalls selling cold fruit drinks.

Weather officials say the sweltering temperatures are likely to continue in southern India for at least another week. Monsoon rains, expected to arrive in the southern state of Kerala in the first week of June, should bring some respite. The monsoon season runs through September as the rains gradually cover the entire country....

Hopefully it won't be like Texas.

--more--"

"Indians scramble for heat relief, but many still must work; Death toll tops 1,400 as workers face stark choices" by Omer Farooq Associated Press  May 29, 2015

HYDERABAD, India — Meteorological officials have said the heat would probably last several more days — scorching crops, killing wildlife, and endangering anyone laboring outdoors. Officials warned people to stay out of the sun, cover their heads, and drink plenty of water. Still, poverty forced many to work despite the risks.

It's either ‘‘work, putting lives under threat, or go without food.’’ 

I'm glad Gandhi is dead because such a thing would have killed him.

Most of the 1,412 heat-related deaths so far have occurred in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring Telangana, where temperatures have soared above 110 degrees, according to government figures.

‘‘The rains which have eluded us for the last couple of years have created serious drought conditions,’’ said state minister K. T. Rama Rao in Telangana, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh as a separate state last year.

The California coverage has dried up!

‘‘This is unprecedented . . . so there is a little bit of panic,’’ he said. ‘‘Hopefully the monsoon will be on time. Hopefully we will receive rain very, very soon.’’

Among the most vulnerable were the elderly and the poor, many of whom live in slums or farm huts with no access to air conditioners or sometimes even shade trees.

Those who were able avoided the outdoors, leaving many streets in normally busy cities nearly deserted.

‘‘With so many people dying due to the heat, we are locking the children inside,’’ teacher Satyamurthy said in Khammam, which registered its highest temperature in 67 years on Saturday when the thermometer hit more than 118.

Cooling monsoon rains were expected to arrive next week in the southern state of Kerala and gradually advance north.

--more--"

It is now next week as the agenda-pushing Globe made sure we knew about the heat wave that is proof of global warming. 

Meanwhile heat went on this morning (June 2) due to cold and rain!

I gotta cool down:

"A mother in India may be behind the country’s first gay matrimonial ad.... In a country where homosexuality was decriminalized in 2009, only to be recriminalized in 2013, the posting was celebrated on social media by many, suggesting growing support for gay rights. Although the matrimonial posting attracted fanfare on social media, one line did draw criticism: Iyer’s mother, who had an arranged marriage, said in the ad that she would prefer an ‘‘Iyer’’ groom for her son, referring to the family’s upper caste."

Sorry that this post withered and died, but....

Also see: 

World War III: Real Canadian Bacon

World War III: South American Sphere

NDU:

"Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state Water Resources Control Board. ‘‘The real challenge is, we really have to step it up for the summer months,’’ Marcus said. ‘‘If we miss the summer, we are toast.’’

Ask and ye shall receive! From that printed end flows a lot more for the web version. Pattern lately.

UPDATE:

"Migrants’ corpses wash ashore in Myanmar" by Robin McDowell Associated Press  June 04, 2015

YANGON, Myanmar — Dozens of corpses have washed ashore in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in the last month, an advocacy group and villagers said Wednesday. Some were believed to be Rohingya Muslims trying to escape trafficking ships, while others were Bangladeshi.

Ye Htut, the presidential spokesman, and other officials were in meetings and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rakhine State Minister Maung Maung Ohn had no word on the bodies but his office was checking into the report.

At least 47 bodies washed up on beaches and the mouths of rivers May 12-24, many so badly decomposed they were unrecognizable, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which has been monitoring activities in the isolated, northern tip of Rakhine for more than a decade.

Lewa — who provided a village-by-village breakdown and the dates each corpse was found — believes they drowned while trying to swim to shore.

Religious leader Ashu Dular and other residents in two villages contacted by phone gave similar accounts, together tallying at least 18 corpses in a much-less-complete survey.

Myanmar has denied blame for a humanitarian crisis that has gripped Southeast Asia since early May, with more than 4,600 desperate and hungry boat people rescued in five countries after a massive, regional crackdown on human trafficking prompted some captains to abandon their human cargo at sea.

The United Nations says about half those brought to land have been Rohingya, fleeing violence and discrimination in their predominantly Buddhist country; the remainder, it says, are Bangladeshis, escaping poverty.

Myanmar, which denies the existence of the Rohingya, insists all those who have fled by boat in recent months were Bangladeshi.

The government has gone to great lengths to make sure it is not disproven — at least not on its own soil.

--more--"

Also see:

"India and Bangladesh settled a decades-old border dispute Saturday, ratifying a deal to swap enclaves in each other’s territory. “We have resolved a question that has lingered since independence,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said at a briefing in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, according to a transcript on the Indian government’s website. “Our two nations have a settled boundary.” The 2,550-mile continuous land border has pockets held by one nation but surrounded by the other."

RelatedNestle noodles ordered off India’s shelves