Feature / Analysis

Lessons from my talks with the Taliban

To judge by discussions I had with figures close to the Afghan Taliban in Dubai last week, on certain key issues the Taliban leadership and the US administration are far closer than most analysts believe. The chief obstacle to a peace settlement is likely to come not from Taliban links to al-Qaeda b...

Marine general expects 'rolling transition' in Afghanistan

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan: The surge of U.S. Marines and other forces in southwestern Afghanistan has broken the Taliban's grip on a former stronghold, allowing coalition forces to begin turning over security to Afghans, commanders said. "It will be a rolling transition to more training and ad...

Coal Power Loses Its Luster in India as Costs Rise

Along India's narrow coastal belt of Mundra in Gujarat State, 500 miles (805 kilometers) northwest of Mumbai, several coal-fired power plants generate electricity so cheaply that authorities for the most part have overlooked damage to fishing and grazing, and harm to the vulnerable mangrove ecosyste...

China-Europe Relations Tested in Solar Dispute

BEIJING: Chinese solar panel manufacturers Thursday called on Beijing to begin talks with the European Union to prevent what they said would be the largest trade dispute in the history of China-Europe relations.Yingli Green Energy Holdings Co., Suntech Power Holdings Co., STP +0.64% Trina Solar Ltd....

In India's Farming Heartland, Barely a Raindrop Falls

THAKURKI, India: Late last year, Ramdas Dadaso Shinde planted 2,000 pomegranate saplings, nurtured them with water from a tanker and waited for the monsoon to arrive in June, as it does almost every year in the western state of Maharashtra.Until then, he spent 150,000 rupees ($2,700) of his savings ...

A Flood of Anger Follows Deadly Rains in Beijing

HONG KONG: Government officials are sticking with their official death toll of 37 after rainstorms pounded Beijing over the weekend, but many in the capital are expecting the actual number of deaths to be much higher, perhaps in the hundreds.Online anger continued to rage Wednesday over the woeful s...

U.S. Builds Afghan Air Base, But Where Are the Planes?

SHINDAND, Afghanistan: Shindand Air Base has an 8,000-foot runway, a gleaming new headquarters complex and a cadre of motivated Afghan pilot candidates. Because of the way Washington operates, however, it lacks warplanes. The budding Afghan air force was supposed to receive $355 million worth of...

Al-Qaida-linked insurgent killed in eastern Afghan operation

KABUL: An al-Qaida-linked insurgent was killed in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan, the coalition forces said Wednesday. "Afghan and coalition forces conducted a security operation in Waygal district, Nu...

Changed standards benefit Afghan force report: watchdog

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon's decision to change the standards used to grade the success of Afghan police and soldiers, who are a centerpiece of U.S. strategy for smoothly exiting the war in Afghanistan, helped it present a positive picture of those forces' abilities, a U.S. government watchdog reporte...

Campus crisis in Sindh

WHAT are the qualities — in terms of scholarship and character — that one should seek in the head of a university if it is to be run competently and produce excellence in education?Inarguably he must, above all, inspire his students so that he can lead them with his moral strength and knowledge. Con...

Tales of Hope from Modern Young Muslims

Two writers who experienced racial violence in Britain as children have challenged a still fearful status quoIs opposition to reaction, reactionary? Or a loathing of religious bigotry, bigoted? To slam "Islam as oppressive of gay and women's rights", said a Guardian columnist last week, is to manife...

Gender Justice Jihad in Ramadan

On a recent communal breaking of the fast event I witnessed several events that made me think about the real difficulties behind the changing of people’s behavior in relation to gender justice in Islam.Before I do the purpose of what I will write below is NOT meant to be an exercise in self-praise a...

Wonderful Sufi Tradition in Kashmir

The ecology of religion with special reference to Sufi Saint-Mulla Shah Badakhshi, in KashmirBriefly and purposefully, this article has been written to fulfil the task of bringing some new points in light. It will show a tendency of bringing an attention of scholars working on Sufism that much of th...

Pakistan Is a Victim of Self-Created Frankenstein's Monsters

Senator Farhatullah Babar has proposed a new law to tame the ISI. But his party will not own itCritics slam the People's Party government for bad governance and corruption, but some ‘rogue elements’ in its ranks is still following the vision of its great leaders.A recent bid to tame the power Inter-...

A Lesson on the White Man's Justice

Denmark’s decision not to extradite Purulia arms-drop architect Kim Davy illustrates European double standards on human rightsEarly on the morning of December 18, 1995, residents of Khatanga, a small West Bengal hamlet, finally summoned the courage to step out of their homes and examine the strange ...

Arab Spring: The Season Has Turned

With no leadership and lots of guns, there is nothing romantic about the ‘revolution’ in SyriaWissam Hassan would never commit murder in private life; he had no aspiration of taking a weapon either. Fourteen months ago, the discontented and frightened youth crossed over from Syria into Turkey traver...

Dangerous Casualty

Taliban take Pakistan’s anti-polio campaign hostage in bid to make U.S. call off drone attacksPakistan’s polio eradication campaign, which managed to come to grips with deep-seated prejudices regarding the polio vaccine, has again fallen victim. This time, it’s the country’s on-off relationship with...

After 30 years, Pakistan rolls up welcome mat for Afghan refugees

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to cancel refugee status at the end of this year for the 3 million Afghans who are living in the country, officials have told McClatchy, leaving the refugees facing possible forced resettlement in their homeland, a war-torn country that many of them barely know. Pushing t...

Karzai Asks Berlin for Help with Taliban Talks

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has asked Germany to act as a discreet go-between with the Taliban in the hopes of paving the way for eventual peace talks. It is a role that Germany has played before -- in an effort that was ultimately torpedoed by Karzai himself. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai ...

U.S. commander accused of stalling Afghan hospital abuse probe

WASHINGTON: A top U.S. general in Afghanistan sought to stall an investigation into waste and abuse at a U.S.-funded hospital in Kabul, possibly for political reasons, current and former U.S. military officials told Congress on Tuesday. Retired Colonel Gerald Carozza, who served as an adviser to t...

«Previous