Word: local
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...also peace. The tsunami helped extinguish a decades-old conflict between Indonesian government troops and separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (known as GAM by its initials in Bahasa Indonesian), who laid down their weapons in 2005. Despite sporadic political violence, Aceh's war is over. One enterprising local travel agent even offers "guerrilla tours" to GAM's former jungle strongholds...
...last five days alone, Taliban militants have killed more than 100 people in near-daily bombings across the country in Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore and now Multan. Foreign archaeological teams are being told not to come, warnings issued by their own governments or their institutions because of fear for safety. Local diggers can't get out to crumbling sites for security reasons as well...
...vandals to close in. Kashmir Smast, about 70 miles northwest of Islamabad, is a Hindu site, not Buddhist, and thus unusual for the area. "But there's no preservation, no one to look after the site," says Dr. Nasim Khan, professor of archaeology at the University of Peshawar. "The local people are damaging the site because of illegal diggings." In Swat, the Taliban have long attempted to destroy the Buddhist heritage of the region. In October 2007, as militants cemented their hold on the former tourist area, the Taliban dynamited the face of the Jehanabad Buddha into oblivion...
...Fazal Dad Kakar, the director general of the Department of Archaeology and Museums, played down the damage done to the carving as the work of local villagers, not Taliban. Regardless, it shows that even without a direct threat from Islamic militants, the lack of security means important sites are unprotected and ill-preserved and can fall prey to vandalism and looting...
...controlled Mexico City since 1997, and passed a wave of other reforms, making the capital into what advocates say is a beacon of social progressiveness. The changes have been possible because of Mexico's federal system, which gives the capital's assembly the power to pass local laws. In 2007, the assembly approved same-sex civil unions as well as allowing abortion in the first 12 weeks of any pregnancy. The following year, it approved a limited form of euthanasia. The gay marriage law may have been a surprise in much of the world, but to Mexico City residents...