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A high-altitude tunnel is latest flashpoint in India-China border tensions
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A tunnel constructed high in the mountains of northeastern India has become the latest flashpoint in a simmering border dispute between New Delhi and Beijing.

The Sela Tunnel, inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month, has been hailed in India as a feat of engineering – blasted through the Himalayas at an elevation of some 13,000 feet (3,900 meters) – and a boon for the military, enabling faster, “all-weather” access to a tense de facto border with China.

That’s caught the attention of Beijing, whose long-running dispute with New Delhi over their contested 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) border has seen the two nuclear-armed powers clash in recent years.

That includes in 2020 when hand-to-hand fighting between the two sides resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in the western stretches of the border.

And, decades ago, the dispute led to war.

China also claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, where the tunnel was constructed, as its own, even as the area has long functioned as Indian territory.

Chinese officials in recent days have slammed the tunnel project and Modi’s visit to the state, accusing New Delhi of taking steps to undermine peace along the border.

“We require the Indian side to cease any action that may complicate the boundary question … the Chinese military remains highly vigilant and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a Defense Ministry spokesperson said last week, using the Chinese name “Zangnan” or South Tibet to refer to Arunachal Pradesh.

New resort at protected natural wonder stirs fierce debate on conservation in the Philippines
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Nestled among the lush rolling terrain of the Philippines’ famed Chocolate Hills, the Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort offered travelers scenery that few hotels could compete with.

But now the resort has been temporarily shuttered after public outcry over what one legislator has called a “blatant abuse of our natural resources,” with the national senate debating whether to investigate how it came to be built in the protected beauty spot.

And it has become a lightning rod for anger as the country once again grapples with how to balance a booming tourism industry with safeguarding its ecological wonders.

Near the middle of the central island province, the Chocolate Hills are more than 1,700 conical limestone peaks that stretch as far as the eye can see, the grass-covered karst mounds turning brown in the dry season to resemble pieces of chocolate.

Only one similar hill configuration – in Indonesia’s Java – is known of in the world, according to UNESCO, which has placed the Chocolate Hills on its tentative list for world heritage status.

The hills were declared a protected area by then Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos in 1997, meaning authorities are bound by law “to protect and maintain its natural beauty and to provide restraining mechanisms for inappropriate exploitation.”

But images of the new resort among the hills have stirred anger and ignited debate over whether the Southeast Asian country is doing enough to safeguard the environment.

The backlash began earlier this month when a local travel influencer posted a promotional video on social media for the Captain’s Peak Garden and Resort.