Posts published in “Day: January 29, 2016”

The third round of quadrilateral meeting on Afghan peace process will be held on 6th February in the capital city of Pakistan, the officials said Thursday. A spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry Qazi Khalilullah told reporters that representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, United States and China will meet next to discuss the Afghan peace process. Khalilullah further added that the meeting would focus on ongoing efforts to lay out a roadmap to peace for the war-shattered…

The general chosen by Barack Obama to command the Afghanistan war through the end of his presidency has signaled an intention to intensify counter-terrorism efforts and re-evaluate the schedule for troop reductions. Army Lieutenant General John Nicholson told the Senate armed services committee on Thursday that stopping the growth of the Islamic State and the re-emergence of al-Qaida in the theater of America’s longest war will be his “first and foremost” priority. “We need to…

John Kerry was in Beijing Wednesday to beseech Chinese leaders to help punish North Korea for its escalating nuclear misbehavior. To see why the Secretary of State’s efforts are unlikely to bear fruit, consider the recent war of words between Beijing and a Kerry lieutenant who dared utter an inconvenient truth about China’s role in illicit weapons proliferation. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman told reporters last week that “when North Korea and Iran seek…

BEIJING — A Canadian man who ran a cafe near China’s border with North Korea will be tried on charges of spying and stealing state secrets, prosecutors announced on Friday, nearly a year and a half after he and his wife were detained by the police. The man, Kevin Garratt, will be tried in Dandong, a city in Liaoning Province, Xinhua, the official news agency, said on Thursday. It gave no date for the trial.…

The writer is a veteran journalist and founding member as well as executive editor of The Nation. The peace mission of Pakistani Prime Minster Mian Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia and Iran reflected more the panic in Islamabad than the weight of Pakistan. Now that it seems to have been succeeded by a lowering of the tensions, he and his government are doing their best to take credit. However, the killing of 24 people at…

MUZAFFARABAD – A Saudi official has expressed concern over the delay in the completion of development projects funded by the Kingdom for earthquake-affected areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Abdullah Alshauhabi, chief engineer Saudi Development Fund, expressed displeasure over the non-completion of district headquarters complex at Rawalakot. During his visit to the site along with Deputy Chairman ERRA Brigadier Abu Bakar Ameen Bajwa, and other government officials, he took serious notice of the delay in…

Residents, members of the provincial council and a number of Afghan lawmakers on Thursday lashed out at government for failing to shut down a radio station reportedly run by Daesh in Nangarhar province.   They claim the radio station now broadcasts anti-government propaganda in Pashto, Dari and English in a bid to recruit young Afghans. The Voice of Caliphate broadcasts in Pashto, Dari and English languages in Nangarhar province and was launched a few weeks…

The loyalists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is locally known by its Arabic name Daesh launched a radio in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan about three months before . They would broadcast Pashto language programs through the radio named ‘Khilafat Ghag Radio’ or ‘Voice of the Caliphate’. But the group has now begun its programs in Dari language as well. The ‘Voice of the Caliphate’ has two hours of broadcasting…