Word: western
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...people seeking shelter in its borders. Nearly 87,000 Bhutanese are now living in UNHCR-run refugee camps in southeastern Nepal, having fled the tiny kingdom of Bhutan after government policy stripped them of Bhutanese citizenship. And more than 10,000 Tibetan refugees have been living in Pokhara, a western tourist town, and on the outskirts of Kathamndu since 1959 after the Chinese occupation of Tibet led to the eviction of several Tibetans, including their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. But apart from these two groups, the government of Nepal - which is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. convention...
...between members and non-members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is as divisive as it was when the organization was first formed in 1949. Beyond where NATO’s membership ends in Eastern Europe, a resurgent Russia now tries to assert its influence, with little interference from Western powers...
...recognition of the independence of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, was a retaliation against U.S. support of Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO membership bids. And Russian President Dmitri Medvedev apparently has no qualms about stating his displeasure about Ukraine’s overtures toward Western Europe...
...Ukraine is the only non-NATO country to be rated “free” in Freedom House’s most recent analysis of the former Soviet Socialist Republics, and even democratic Ukraine is the focus of Russian attempts to influence its presidential election in January. Although Western brand names are making inroads in many of these countries, opening stores and making goods available that would have been unheard of in communist days, democratic elections and free speech are often still lacking...
...yoke, and many went on to join NATO and the European Union. But as we celebrate the anniversary of the fall of communism in Central Europe, we should remember that not every country behind the Iron Curtain followed the path of those that have successfully entered the fold of Western Europe. Joyous Berliners broke down their wall 20 years ago today—but with Russia’s political influence and their own non-democratic governments to contend with, the countries east of NATO’s influence are still not completely free...