Word: kala
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...Kala Dhaka, or Black Mountains, of northern Pakistan aren't really black. The color refers to the gruesome fate that awaits any outsider who strays into the Himalayan abode of the tribes that live up there. "The male population is strongly preoccupied with killing," wrote Adam Nayyar, a Pakistani anthropologist who in the 1980s ventured into these soaring, slate-green Himalayan valleys and made it out alive. "A disproportionate amount of energy and creativity ... is diverted to stalking the enemy and avoiding violent death...
...violent death came to Kala Dhaka, in spades. A 7.6-magnitude earthquake slammed into the Himalayas. Entire villages were devastated; in an instant, stone houses turned into burial mounds. The Indus river, flowing at the bottom of the valleys, recalls one tribal elder, Mohammed Said, "looked like water boiling inside a tea kettle...
...Kala Dhaka, the crisis is compounded by the suspicion local tribes have traditionally shown outsiders. Scores of villagers were killed and injured by the quake. Dozens, if not hundreds, of people lay dying, and for many residents, the closest medical attention meant carrying the injured for nine hours along trails that thread down a rocky cliff face to the Indus, where they might hail a passing boat. The tribes also needed blankets and tents. With their plight desperate, tribal elders sent word that they badly needed help...
...hardly his first major summit, but former President Jimmy Carter found trekking through the Himalayas in northern Nepal to be a challenge nonetheless. The goal of his two-week expedition was the pinnacle of 18,192-ft.-high Mount Kala Pattar, one of the scenic peaks in the valley surrounded by the loftier Lhotse and Everest. Accompanied by Rosalynn, Carter quickly outpaced four of his Secret Service men, who had to return to camp because of altitude sickness. When the group reached a rarefied 15,000 ft., his wife was flown out by helicopter while he proceeded...
...DIED. VIJAY ("GOLDIE") ANAND, 71, prominent Bollywood director and brother of durable cinema star Dev Anand, who together made several 1960s and '70s Hindi-language classics; in Bombay. Anand's credits included Guide, Kala Bazaar and Jewel Thief. He also served as chairman of India's film-censorship board, a post he resigned in 2002 after clashing with the government over his suggestion to allow the screening of adult movies in some theaters...