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Posts published in “Day: March 7, 2017

Afghan Taliban’s political negotiators visit China

By Tahir Khan in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2017 ISLAMABAD: The Afghan Taliban’s senior political negotiators recently visited China on the invitation of the Chinese government, which has been making efforts to encourage the insurgent group to join the peace process, two Taliban officials have said. The Taliban Qatar office chief Sher Abbas Stanikazai led a five-member delegation for talks with the Chinese officials. The delegation comprised Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, Jan Muhammad Madani, Salam…

Death by a thousand job cuts: the human cost of China’s zombie firms

by Wendy Wu in South China Morning Post, Mar 7, 2017 Mr and Mrs Chen, both in their late 50s, opened a small bakery three years ago after they quit the nearby state-owned steel plant where they had worked for three decades. There may be a future in running a bun shop, but not at a dying state-run behemoth. The Tonghua Iron & Steel plant opened in 1958 during China’s experiment with industrialisation, a period…

China’s top graft-buster seeks tighter party grip on government

by Shi Jiangtao in South China Morning Post, Mar 6, 2017 at 11.22pm Top graft-buster Wang Qishan has called on the Communist Party to tighten its oversight of all branches of power, saying there is “no such thing as the separation of powers between the party and the government”. On the sidelines of the National People’s Congress on Sunday, Wang said the party should exercise oversight of all public bodies, including the NPC, the top…

Menon claims BNP-Jamaat created New JMB for assassinations

By Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique in Dhaka Tribune, Mar 7, 2017 Worker’s Party President Rashed Khan Menon claimed on Monday that the BNP-Jamaat alliance had created terrorist outfit New JMB, a new faction of banned group JMB affiliated with Islamic State, for carrying out secret assassinations across Bangladesh. “Neo JMB [also known as New JMB] proved its existence through the Holey Artisan Bakery attack at Gulshan in Dhaka,” he said while taking part in the…

Deportations from Saudi Arabia: Editorial in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2017.

Almost 40,000 Pakistanis have been deported from Saudi Arabia during the past four months. The official reasoning is the supposed involvement of Pakistani nationals in perpetrating various terrorist incidents in Saudi Arabia. Also, Pakistanis have been accused of involvement in the drug trade and petty crime. Saudi officials have demanded that Pakistani nationals be put through greater scrutiny before being granted work visas. It is interesting to note here that the scrutiny demanded involves checking…

Dalai Lama says Chinese hardliners have parts of brain missing

BEIJING: Chinese hardliners have parts of their brains missing, exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said in an interview aired this week, comments likely to infuriate Beijing, which views the Nobel Peacelaureate as a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, denies espousing violence and says he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet.The animosity between the two sides, and their rivalry…

Xinjiang to recruit 3,000 policemen,offers 5,000 yuan a month

By Shan Jie in Global Times, Mar 6, 2017 at 21:48:39 Police in the city of Kashgar, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region plan to offer an attractive package to thousands of new recruits. An online recruitment site of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau in Kashgar, Kashgar prefecture shows that the police in the city of Kashgar will recruit 3,000 men aged between 18 and 35, according to a notice posted on the…