Norway’s Premier Vows to Keep an Open Society

Mourners visited a temporary memorial on the shore near Utoya Island, where scores young people were killed last Friday.

OSLO — The prime minister of Norway acknowledged on Wednesday that his country had fundamentally changed as a result of the attacks on a youth camp and government complex last week,

Dissecting the double standard

  After five tumultuous months, which included the   aftermath of the bin Laden raid and a few rounds of Indo-Pak diplomacy, last week Hina Rabbani Khar was sworn-in as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. To many, Khar seemed an obvious choice, serving as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs without a Foreign Minister for the last five months and previously serving as Minister of State for Economic Affairs under both the Musharraf and Zardari governments. While hardly surprising, Khar’s appointment was historic as she became Pakistan’s first female Foreign Minister and currently, the youngest serving Foreign Minister in the world. Suffice to say, the reaction to Khar’s appointment, both at home and abroad have been mixed, with some hailing the new FM as an example for Pakistani women everywhere and others decrying Ms. Khar as ‘just another feudal’.

Stuck in the middle

In 2008 director Kim Bartley constructed an up-close and personal documentary called ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.’ In it he suggested that the right-wing military coup that toppled Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez in 2002, was both advocated and then celeberated by a string of private television channels owned by that country’s elite

“Roti, kapra makan and sex! Yes sex!

  ‘These are the basic human needs of today to motivate a person   to do something. Our politicians have failed to promise people of this basic human need which is one of the greatest motivational factor just like hunger, food and shelter. Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs ignores the sex aspect’ and the debate goes on in the classroom.

Process of 3G licence auction begins today

The 3G is a category of next generation mobile networks that operates at a higher frequency and larger channel bandwidth.

ISLAMABAD: The government is all set to begin the open auction process of the much delayed third generation (3G) telecom licences on Wednesday with the approval of the bidding plan. The auction is estimated to yield around $1 billion in revenue. 

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is to preside over a meeting of the federal cabinet, which is expected to also approve a Rs65 billion capital injection into the power sector to minimise loadshedding in Ramazan and

From Oxford to Lyari

You try not to be a cynic but how can you not? You try to believe in heroes but there exist none. You try to think beyond political dynasties but that’s the only kind of trend Pakistan has ever really known. You try to make sense of the statements your leaders make but there’s nothing sensible about them. You try to think of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari representing Lyari but

آندرے کا منشور ..... حقیقت یا افسانہ

ناروے میں قتل و غارت گری کا بازار گرم کرنے والے اسلام دشمن انتہا پسند آندرے بیرنگ بریوک نے پندرہ سو صفحات پر مشتمل اپنے منشور میں یوروپ میں مسلمانوں کی بڑھتی ہوئی موجودگی پر تشویش کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے لکھا ہے کہ بہت جلد یورپ میں کئی منی پاکستان بن جائیں گے۔اس نے اپنی اس تحریر کو یورپین آزادی کا منشور کہا ہے اور خدشہ ظاہر کیا ہے کہ

France’s National Front suspends member for defending Breivik

A flower and a candle are seen in front of a hotel where relatives and survivors of a rampage on nearby Utoeya island gather after a memorial service in Sundvollen, July 24, 2011.

PARIS: A member of France’s far-right National Front (FN) party was suspended after penning a defence of Norway attacker Anders Behring Breivik on his blog, the party said Tuesday.
Jacques Coutela, who stood as an FN candidate in local elections in March, “was suspended today pending a party disciplinary committee”, FN general secretary Steeve Briois said, describing Coutela as a low-level party member.

Who gets to define terrorism?

My column last week on drone attacks so clearly struck a nerve that I intended to write a follow-up this week, addressing some of the many comments and responses. I did publish an interim statement on my own website, where

Breakthrough unlikely in Pak-India talks tomorrow

Pakistani foreign secretary Salman Bashir (C) salutes border guards as he is escorted by an Indian official as they cross over to India at the International India-Pakistan Wagah Border on July 25, 2011. 

ISLAMABAD: The meeting between foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on Wednesday is expected to be a mere countersigning ritual for the modest progress achieved at the preceding series of meetings of the officials, but with little value-addition by political heads of diplomatic services of the two countries.
Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, whose elevation was speeded up before this interaction, will travel to New Delhi on Tuesday. By the time she lands in the Indian capital, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, along with his Indian counterpart, Nirupama Rao, would have done most of the preparatory work for the ministerial engagement, reconciling whatever headway could be achieved so far. The process, which started in March, has seen a number of official-level meetings alternating between Delhi and Islamabad.
“It is good to be here, back in Delhi, for me personally and for my team. We are here a day ahead to prepare for the foreign ministers’ meeting.