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Posts published in “Day: April 13, 2016

Quadrilateral Group struggling to hold meeting for Afghan reconciliation BAQIR SAJJAD SYED in Dawn, April 13th, 2016

ISLAMABAD: The failure of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) – the four-nation group working for reconciliation in Afghanistan – to initiate direct talks between Kabul and Afghan Taliban has weighed down the group and it is now struggling to hold its next meeting. A meeting of the QCG planned for the last weekend in Islamabad, according to a diplomatic source, had to be postponed at the eleventh hour because of Afghanistan expressing its unavailability for…

RAW involved in destabilising Pakistan, says General Raheel SYED ALI SHAH in Dawn, APr 13, 2016

GWADAR: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, speaking at the Peace and Prosperity seminar on Tuesday, said Indian intelligence agency RAW is actively involved in destabilising Pakistan. “Hostile intelligence agencies are averse to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” said the chief of army staff. Let me make it clear that we will not allow anyone to create impediments and turbulence in any part of Pakistan, added General Raheel Sharif. He urged those involved in such…

China Investment in U.S. Economy Set for Record, But Political Concerns Grow By WILLIAM MAULDIN IN THE WALL ST JOURNAL, APR 12, 2016 AYT 2.30PM ET

Chinese direct investment in the U.S. economy is set to reach a new high this year due to a wave of deals announced in early 2016. But experts say the pace is already slowing as politicians and regulators increase their scrutiny of Chinese details. Chinese companies are expected to invest $20 billion to $30 billion in the U.S. in 2016, mainly through mergers and acquisitions, compared with a record $15 billion last year and $11.9…

China’s New Security Challenge: Angry Mom-and-Pop Investors By CHUIN-WEI YAP IN THE WALL ST JOURNAL, APR 12, 2016 AT 11.03 AM ET

XINXIANG, China—One Monday last month, Yang Baoyu joined about 200 people in front of the city offices here for a familiar ritual, waving protest banners and demanding help from the government to recoup their lost investments. As with many of the other demonstrators, the engineer, 45 years old, had been coming to protest nearly every week since he lost his nest egg of about $37,000 to a company named Henan Tengfei Investment Wealth Management, which…

Threat of Daesh unites tribes on both sides of Durand Line BUREAU REPORT in Dawn, April 13th, 2016

PESHAWAR: The tribal elders of Kurram Agency and their Afghan cousins holding lands on both sides of the border have started negotiations to continue to force militants of Daesh and its affiliates out of their territory in Afghanistan’s Paktia province. A source privy to these developments told Dawn that the elders of Turi in Kurram Agency and Zazi (Jaji), their cousin tribe in Afghanistan, were holding talks to build confidence to take measures for averting…

No Early Termination Of NUG: Abdullah by Mir Abid Joenda in Tolo News, April 11, 2016 at 20:00hrs

CEO of the National Unity Government (NUG) Abdullah Abdullah said on Monday that speculation over an early termination of the NUG comes as a surprise. Speaking at the Council of Ministers Meeting on Monday morning, Abdullah said critics who think the NUG has only six months left are wrong and that they obviously do not know what the national unity government agreement, signed in 2014 between President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah, entails. “Some of our…

Govt Warns Taliban Against Rejecting Peace Process by Tamim Hamid in Tolo News, April 11, 2016 at 19:03

The Afghan government on Monday warned the Taliban against rejecting the peace process with the government, stressing that if the Taliban continues opting for war, the group will face well-measured military action by members of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) – comprising negotiators from Afghanistan, Pakistan, US and China. The (QCG) so far has convened four rounds of meetings in Kabul and Islamabad in an effort to outline a roadmap for peace and to convince…

Daesh Expands Activities In Afghanistan: Noor by Arif Musavi in Tolo News, April 11, 2016 at17:30

Acting Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor, who attended the opening ceremony of a high school in the province on Monday, said that Daesh militants are becoming stronger day-by-day and that they are being sent to destabilize Afghanistan. “Daesh is not only in Afghanistan but in other countries as well. The insurgent group is sent into Afghanistan to make it insecure [for its residents],” he said. He said it is not true that some people say…

Obama’s aide discusses Afghan peace with COAS: The Express Tribune, Apr 12th, 2016.

ISLAMABAD: US President Barack Obama’s pointman for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Olson met army chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday to discuss ongoing efforts for brokering direct talks between the Afghan Taliban and Kabul. The meeting held at the GHQ in Rawalpindi came against the backdrop of a lingering deadlock in a quartet-backed peace initiative in Afghanistan. The Quadrilateral Coordination Group made up of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States had announced that the…

Sharif-Modi contact revives hope for talks: by SHAFQAT ALI in The Nation, April 12, 2016

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is optimistic of foreign secretaries level talks with India soon after the telephonic contact between the two countries premiers last day, official sources said yesterday. These sources said the issue of dialogue was not discussed in detail between Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi – as PM Sharif meant to condole the temple tragedy in India – but the two agreed to work for better relations and talks to resolve the…

Pakistani under probe in Austria for possible links to Paris, Mumbai attacks AFP report in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2016.

VIENNA: Austrian prosecutors said on Monday they are probing a possible link between a Pakistani held in Salzburg in connection with last November’s terror assaults in Paris and the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai. “Leads pointing to this are being looked into,” prosecutors in Salzburg said, adding however that the identity of the Pakistani suspect, who has been in custody since December in the western Austrian city, has not been confirmed. “Wide-ranging…