By Anwaar Hussain Everybody loves Raymond, the double slayer. The Pakistani Government ‘loves’ him to the extent that they are willing to bend the rules to grant him diplomatic immunity from prosecution for the twin killings that he committed in Lahore. They ‘love’ him for the large one-time dose of Manna, over and above the [...]

By Bill Noxid It’s an all but unfathomable situation President Obama has placed the American people in.  In a mere two years he has managed to squander the momentum and enthusiasm of the clear majority of this country, systematically discredit and disregard the voluminous grievances of the American People, continuously cede the moral and factual [...]

By Anwaar Hussain Despite incessant interludes of chaos, Afghanistan was not always this rough, blood splattered land of wild hordes charging their steeds in its desolate stretches. When Europe was backwards, impoverished and irrelevant territory, the region today called Central Asia, with Afghanistan at its southern tip and ancient trade routes interweaving it, was a [...]

By Anwaar Hussain After crawling out of the woodwork where they hibernated for decades, the ex-spooks of Inter Services Intelligence are singing like canaries on the national media. In a blizzard of accusations and counter-accusations, ranging from secret funds used to prop up political alliances to brazen smear campaigns against political leaders, they are revealing [...]

By Syed Irfan Ashraf Talibanisation is a carefully designed package comprising an assortment of soft and hard parts. Both are used as it is against the rules of the deadly game to nurture one category while ignoring the other. No one understands this better than journalists working in the north-western conflict zones of the country. [...]

The Bin Ladens: The Story of a Family and Its Fortune by Steve Coll   By Robert Vitalis* Steve Coll’s book tells two stories: a big one about how the bin Laden family cashed in on the oil bonanza in Saudi Arabia, and a smaller one about Osama’s role in the family business before he [...]

How Should we Honour the War Dead? by Alan Morrison The 11th of November is a date which impinges as a dichotomy on our already seared consciousness. Remembrance Day. Remember our war dead – especially from the First World War. Remember the heroes. Poppies. Wreaths. Solemn-faced politicians making a show of care about life and [...]