The isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has reported its first case of the coronavirus after a US tourist tested positive, the prime minister said Friday.

Some 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled in Western countries from camps in Nepal where they have been living for two decades after being forced out of their homeland, the U.N. said Thursday.

The refugees have been offered new lives in the United States and other nations after the failure of years of negotiations to secure their return to Bhutan, which says they are illegal immigrants.

Police in eastern India said Wednesday they are investigating letters found at a Catholic school which threaten to burn it down, renewing fears about the safety of the Christian minority.

Police have stepped up security at St. Capitaneo School in West Bengal state after the discovery of the five letters, threatening arson unless it was closed and its 13 nuns removed from the area.

Kerry to Have Historic Talks with Bhutanese PM

In this story moved on Friday please read that Kerry will be the first secretary of state to meet with Bhutanese officials. He will not be the first U.S. cabinet official ever. State Department corrected the information they gave earlier.

Japan is to dispatch experts to Bhutan to help the tiny Himalayan kingdom boost the accuracy of the way it measures happiness, an official said Thursday.

Unlike other countries' focus on gross domestic product, Bhutan determines how well it is working by plotting "Gross National Happiness", or GNH.

Kencho Tshering, a red-robed Buddhist monk, takes a call from the King of Bhutan's office, then duly dashes off to start a ceremony praying for a break in the monsoon rains.

But while he may be on speed dial for royal requests, the clout of his fellow monks is on the wane in the remote kingdom as it absorbs the impact of technology and democracy as well as an abuse scandal.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, famed for seeking "happiness" for its citizens, is aiming to become the first nation in the world to turn its home-grown food and farmers 100-percent organic.

The tiny Buddhist-majority nation wedged between China and India has an unusual and some say enviable approach to economic development, centered on protecting the environment and focusing on mental well-being.

South Asia's love of literature festivals has spread to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which features in many an exotic travelogue but is pretty much a blank space on the global literary map.

The Mountain Echoes Festival held this week in the Bhutanese capital Thimpu is part of a growing South Asian circuit that currently comprises thriving literary festivals in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

In the insular Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the phallus is an ancient symbol commonly painted on houses to ward off evil spirits, but it is increasingly rare in the modernizing national capital.

The demise of this traditional motif, still seen all over in rural areas, points to profound changes underway in a country that has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield its unique local culture from outside influence.

In the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu, a street vendor offering snacks and drinks is secretly selling cigarettes to two customers -- a transaction that could put him in jail for five years.

In hushed tones, the young men ask for a packet of 10 and the contraband is handed over wrapped in paper and hastily shoved inside the large pouch at the front of their traditional tunics.