LOCAL NEWS

The annual Thimphu Tshechu sees thousands of spectators dressed in their best formal clothing. The bright patterned and newly tailored kiras and ghos add to the festive colours. Tshechu is the time when tailoring shops do brisk business. Almost all tailoring shops in the city are busy cutting and sewing …

Kana gewog reelected Lhawang Dorji, 46, giving the veteran local leader his fifth consecutive term as gup and making him perhaps the longest serving local leader in recent times. Standing from Khagochen chiwog he secured 994 votes of the 1450 cast on September 27, poll day, to beat contender Chador, …

The Dzongkhag Election Dispute Settlement Bodies and Central Election Dispute Body saw 16 disputes related to the final round of the second local government election. Of the 16, seven were on corruption charges, five complaints were related to the Chiwog Zomdu, four on eligibility of candidates and four on violation …

Farmers of Shemagangkha Chiwog in Chapcha, Chukha, lost close to two third of their potato crop, their main source of income, to heavy rains. “The chiwog sells about 1200 metric tonnes (MT) of potato in a year but this year it came down to 800 MT,” said Rinzin Dorji, former …

Forest officials and Wildlife Rescue and Animal Health Section under the Wildlife Conservation Division  have rescued a Himalayan bear found trapped in a snare set near an apple orchard in Wang Simo under Thimphu Dzonghag. The animal which was believed to have attempted to enter into the apple orchard was …

Radhi gewog in Trashigang dzongkhag chose new faces over incumbent ones in the recent chiwog zomdu to nominate candidates to contest for Gup. Former Gup Jigme Namgyal secured fewer votes than the other two aspiring gup candidates in the Chiwog Zomdu. Former Gup Jigme Namgyal contested against Pema Tenzin, a …

Thimphu police are investigating two knifing cases involving two different couples, which occurred on August 27 and 28. In the first case the wife was arrested after she knifed her husband while in the second case the husband was arrested after knifing his wife several times. On the evening of …

With 2016 being a special year for Bhutan, the seventh edition of Mountain Echoes Literary Festival started out on a special note. For the first time, the Bhutanese authors outnumber the Indian panelists, as festival director Tshering Tashi noted. Following the traditional lighting of the lamp,  Ambassador Jaideep Sarkar thanked …

Renowned author Amitav Ghosh kicked off the seventh edition of Mountain Echoes Literary Festival with a hard-hitting session on climate change, in The Great Derangement: Politics of the Carbon Economy. Amitav pulled no punches; when asked if he saw himself as part of the solution to climate change, he said that …

Two former mangmis(deputy gups) will take on each other to become gup of Phangkhar gewog in the central district of Zhemgang in the forthcoming second local government elections. They were chosen from four contestants during the recently held Chiwog Zomdu (village cluster meeting) where the primary round election was held …