Posts published in “Day: January 7, 2017”

WASHINGTON: The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of the late global jihadist leader Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist on Thursday. Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an Al Qaeda propagandist since his father’s death at the hands of US special forces on May 2, 2011. According to letters found during the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Hamza wrote to…

QUETTA – Averting a major drug smuggling attempt, the Pakistan Coast Guards (PCG) seized 590 kilogram Hashish during a search operation from a house in Pasni on Thursday. According to a PCG press release, the Pakistan Coast Guards had received a tip-off about the smuggling bid of cache of arms and drugs through coastal areas of Pasni and Gwadar. Keeping in view the information, Director General Pakistan Coast Guards Brigadier Attiqur Rehman directed commandos of…

The writer is a member of staff. THE latest quarterly report from the State Bank of Pakistan may sound like a dry affair, but read it a little closely and you’ll notice some startling revelations. For the past three years now we have grown accustomed to a steady drumbeat of positive news and statements about the economy — the reserves are rising, the circular debt has been contained for almost two years now, growth is…

The author is director of Eurasian Studies Center and a professor at the School of Government, Beijing Normal University. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as a flagship project of the One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative, has drawn a great deal of investments. Apart from the fact that Pakistan has approved a Russian request for using the Gwadar Port, located in Balochistan Province, for its exports, media reports were swirling that Russia planned to…

China is opting for strong words and subtle trading tactics to gamble against the market over the yuan’s value in the first days of 2017, displaying a strong desire to avoid any sharp yuan weakening. The offshore yuan exchange rate gained 1,600 basis points against the dollar on Wednesday and Thursday, as liquidity in the Hong Kong yuan market dried up, pushing the overnight yuan borrowing rate to 110 per cent on Thursday, the highest…

China’s Communist Party, one of the world’s largest political organizations, is inching closer to President Xi Jinping’s goal of becoming a more selective, elite group. Recent membership data show that the admission process for the 89-million-strong party has become more stringent over recent years, as fewer applicants get shortlisted to undertake the yearslong effort of becoming a full-fledged member, according to an essay by a senior party academic. The annual tally of shortlisted applicants—known as…

Dismissing a Buddhist ritual held by the Dalai Lama as a political tool, Chinese officials denied that thousands of Tibetan pilgrims were pressured to return to China. “Taking advantage of the presence of the Dalai Lama, the Kalachakra (wheel of time) teachings have inveigled Tibetans into illegally going abroad over the last decade,” Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, told the Global Times on Thursday.…

NEW DELHI: Beijing has blocked thousands of Tibetans from attending a Buddhist event in Bodh Gaya which is being attended by Dalai Lama, according to reports from Nepal and China. China’s state-run Global Times reported earlier this week that the “renewed” travel restrictions were imposed to battle terrorism and separatism. However, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile, such travel restrictions have never been imposed by China at least in the recent past. Chinese government has reportedly…

At least 58 militants including 10 loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed during the counter-terrorism operations, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed Tuesday. According to an operational update by MoD, the militants were killed in the past 24 hours in various parts of the country during the counter-terrorism operations supported by the Afghan Air Force and artillery units of the Afghan army. MoD further added that the…

Residents in the southern province of Kandahar on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the sale of Taliban and Daesh propaganda in the city, saying this could easily influence the youth in a negative way. “These videos cause ethical harm as well, because they can mislead our youths,” another resident Matin said. “These issues raise questions about our identity, it is very unfortunate that shopkeepers sell this material. In these videos Taliban and Daesh burn people…