Feature / Analysis

NATO: Pakistan may be unwelcome at Afghan War summit

When President Barack Obama welcomes NATO leaders to Chicago in ten days for a high-stakes summit on the war in Afghanistan, there could be a big gap in the alliance's talks on strategy — a hole the size and shape of Pakistan. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen strongly suggested at his ...

Obama, Rasmussen Agree Summit To Focus On Afghan Transition

U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen have met at the White House for talks ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago later this month. A statement from the White House said Obama and Rasmussen agreed the summit would "reaffirm allied commitment" to a plan for the tr...

Afghanistan "faces tougher times" in next security handover

KABUL: Afghanistan faces tougher security challenges in the next phase of a transition from foreign to Afghan forces as insurgents step up their attacks, Afghan officials said on Thursday. President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce on Sunday the transfer of 230 districts and the centers of all...

Afghan Refugee Children Perish in Harsh Winter

KABUL, Afghanistan: After a harsh winter killed children in refugee camps around the Afghan capital and brought attention to poor conditions there, a new study by a French aid agency said the disaster was more extensive than originally thought, with at least 100 young children claimed by the cold. ...

British military under pressure over Afghan prisoners

Concern mounts over rising number of detainees and legality of transferring prisoners to Afghan intelligence service British military detention operations in Afghanistan are coming under increasing scrutiny in the UK courts, as the number of prisoners continues to grow and concern mounts that men h...

Afghan swimmer dreams of London Paralympics

Afghan teenager Malek Mohammad balances on his hands, readies his stumps, then dives perilously into the water. The 18-year-old, whose legs were blown off by a Soviet landmine, dreams of swimming for Afghanistan in the London Paralympics. "I hope they select me to participate in the London Games. ...

Special Report: Afghan surprise in Ghazni province

At a meeting to celebrate the Taliban's 'retreat', what could possibly go wrong? Zana Khan, Ghazni, Afghanistan :The mortar rounds came in from the hills, spraying shrapnel as they sank into the red earth; long bursts of machine-gun and Kalashnikov fire followed, all aimed at the helicopter landing...

Obama Camp Adds Coal to ‘All of the Above’ Energy Strategy

President Barack Obama‘s re-election campaign has decided after all to add coal to its “all of the above” energy strategy.A page on Obama’s campaign website now lists “clean coal” among the energy sources the president has supported during his first term, an indication that the campaign is sensitive...

Memories Of The Pakistani Film Industry

I grew up in the 1980s during the regime of General Ziaul Haq, under which several basic freedoms were curtailed, society was polarized along sectarian and ethnic lines, the law and order situation was bad, and people were generally unhappy with life in Pakistan. Amidst these depressing realities, t...

Saadat Hasan Manto: Curator Of a Hollowed Conscience

If there is a birthday present Pakistanis and Indians can jointly give Manto, it is to admit the reality of the problems he spelt out in his writings on partition Saadat Hasan Manto, whose birth centenary is being celebrated in Pakistan and India today, once remarked that any attempt to fathom the ...

For Afghan Soldiers, A Battle For Respect

Last month, the Taliban carried out their largest coordinated attack across Afghanistan, including three sites inside the capital Kabul. It took an 18-hour gunfight to end the assault. But even as they took cover, Kabul residents saw something new: their own soldiers taking the lead, with limited ...

As The Clock Ticks, Americans Train Afghan Troops

Just outside Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military is starting a new program it hopes will wean Afghan troops off American assistance. A dozen or so American soldiers make up one of the Security Force Assistance Teams, and the goal is to help the Afghan army plan for o...

Bruce Hoffman: What Osama Was Thinking at the End

Bin Laden was more fearful that his men might be affected by the weather than by any effort of the Pakistani government to apprehend them. By releasing 17 documents seized last year from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the U.S. government has supplied a needed corrective to t...

Tortured Afghan teen on attackers: 'The same should be done to them'

Last year, people around the world were outraged when they heard the story of Sahar Gul. The Afghan teen was married off at 13. She said her husband, a member of the Afghan Army, raped her. Enraged because she didn't immediately get pregnant, her in-laws locked her in a basement for months, tortur...

Different Ways to Pray

Times are changing when the faithful gather to worship. Across the Southern Tier and northeast Pennsylvania, worship opportunities have morphed from traditional Saturday nights or Sunday mornings for Christians and sundown Friday for those of the Jewish faith.Now, jazz musicians connect secular with...

Polluting Kashmir: Saudi Arabia Exports Salafism to the Region

The Saudi-trained preacher Abdul Lateef Al Kindi is sowing the seeds of fundamentalism in Kashmir. / Photo by Tariq MirA squat and priggish man of 46, Abdul Lateef Al Kindi has a thick salt-and-pepper beard and a reputation for causing controversy. During a sermon last August at his mosque in Srinag...

India's god laws fail the test of reason

Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Constitution.Early in March, little drops of water began to drip from the feet of the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross on the church of Our Lady of Velankanni, down on to Mumbai's unlovely Irla Ro...

Sexuality in Contemporary Arab Women's Literature of Personal Experience and Artistic Freedom

When Arab women write about sexual encounters, are they recounting their own personal experiences or are their descriptions born of their literary fantasy? And whatever the answer is, should one measure literature using a moral yardstick or should criticism focus on the content of the work alone? Ri...

The Disgusting Attacks on Gunter Grass

The German writer Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum) had already predicted the response to his poem in SdZ. There is no reason to be surprised, but there is every reason to be disgusted. Within Germany both the elite and a layer of the population by their words and actions appear to have accepted the disgr...

Who Needs an Enemy, When We Have Friends Like Hafiz Saeed

We can sever our relations with one big country on account of national ego but it is tantamount to economic suicide to turn our back on the whole world He did make a fair point when he said he was not a fugitive from a court of law nor was he hiding in a cave. Making a mockery of the bounty announc...

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