Rumors of 10% drop in March exports International Business Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper, cited an unidentified official who is expecting a decline in exports in March of at least 10 percent from a year earlier. Although double-digit, the decline is lower than the drop in exports in February of more than 25 percent. World Bank […]
WASHINGTON — Even as the Obama administration launches new drone attacks into Pakistan’s remote tribal areas, concerns are growing among U.S. intelligence and military officials that the strikes are bolstering the Islamic insurgency by prompting Islamist radicals to disperse into the country’s heartland. Al Qaida , Taliban and other militants who’ve been relocating to Pakistan’s […]
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected on Tuesday a US proposal for joint operations in the tribal areas against terrorism and militancy, as differences of opinion between the two countries over various aspects of the war on terror came out into the open for the first time. Highly-informed sources said the move followed a collective decision reached between […]
April 5, 2009 Can Pakistan Be Governed? (NYT) By JAMES TRAUB TO ENTER the office where Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan, conducts his business, you head down a long corridor toward two wax statues of exceptionally tall soldiers, each in a long, white tunic with a glittering column of buttons. On closer inspection, […]
One day after China’s top climate official, Li Gao, requested that his country’s export sector be exempt from greenhouse gas emissions reductions, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the possibility of levying a carbon tariff on countries that do not match US greenhouse gas emissions restrictions. Chu told a House science panel that such border […]
MANSEHRA: Three female workers and a driver of a USAID-funded Project Rise International were killed by unidentified gunmen here at Kund Bangla area on Monday. Local people suspect the involvement of militants in the occurrence which took place in the jurisdiction of Shinkiari police station. The incident took place at around 4.30 p.m near a […]
ISLAMABAD: The government decided on Monday to formulate an integrated national security policy to curb terrorism and extremism. The decision was taken at a meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, after a thorough review the security situation, the increase in incidents of terrorism, especially suicide attacks in Punjab. The meeting was […]
She is not the first victim of the Taliban’s barbarity nor is she likely to be the last. But the grainy footage of a 17-year-old girl being publicly flogged in Swat has brought home for many the reality of the living hell that is today’s Pakistan. Pinned to the ground and encircled by onlookers, the […]
Signs of recovery in China’s manufacturing sector China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for March rose to 52.4, up from 49.0 in February. A reading over 50 in the PMI marks an expansion of activity in the manufacturing sector and indicates economic recovery. Output and new orders surged in the manufacturing sector, marking the first improvement […]
LAHORE: Nawaz Sharif has criticised the new US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, telling the FT that it was only slightly different from the disastrous one pursued by George W Bush. “Mr Obama has now come up with a new policy with little changes, very minor changes as compared to the last policy,” said Nawaz. […]
A US drone attack in Orakzai agency has killed 12 recruits of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of Baitullah Mehsud, including one local leader. An Arab too has been killed while the family of the man providing them haven, Maulana Gul Nazir, was the only “collateral damage”. The press links the US attack to Baitullah […]
BEIJING: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help assist Pakistan in eliminating the tuberculosis disease, Secretary Health Khushnood Lashari said here Thursday, APP reports. The Secretary participated in an International Conference on Tuberculosis organized by World Health Organization in conjunction with Chinese Health Ministry and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The international software tycoon […]
NEW YORK: The top US military officer said Thursday he is ‘reasonably comfortable’ Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are secure amid a rising tide of insurgent violence aimed at the government. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a lunchtime audience at the Hudson Union Society, said the US has invested in […]
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration plans to seek as much as $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan’s military, and is considering sending 10,000 more troops to battle the Taliban in Afghanistan, defense officials said Wednesday. The money would include $500 million in an additional war budget request for the […]
I was not as bemused as some who stumbled across Treehugger‘s April 1st story on China’s plans to build a green city, by veteran contributor and colleague of mine, Alex Pasternack. Knowing well that wit is Pasternack’s forte, today is April Fool’s Day, and the Center for Urban Misuse does not exist, I drank in […]
