HONG KONG — China for the first time acknowledged on Friday that the brother of a disgraced former Communist Party official was living in the United States. Ling Wancheng — the youngest brother of the former official, Ling Jihua, who for years held a post equivalent to that of the White House chief of staff — is in the United States, and China is in communication with American officials over the case, the head of…
Posts published in “Day: January 16, 2016”
The writer is a consultant based in New York and is a graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy If he were asked to list the top three foreign policy challenges faced by Pakistan after being elected prime minister in 2013, Nawaz Sharif would not even have thought of mentioning relations with Saudi Arabia. Almost halfway through his term, however, relations with that country have managed to make headlines yet again. In 2015,…
The writer is a retired air-vice marshal, former ambassador and a security and political analyst. Imagine for a moment that both Late King Abdullah and Late Prince Saud al-Faisal were still alive in their respective positions as the monarch and the foreign minister: would Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf as a whole, come to the point where it stands today? Surely not. To begin with, the mass executions would not have taken place. And if…
The author holds an MPhil in Public Administration and has taught Politics and Public Policy at the University of Karachi. When we were younger and played with matchsticks, our parents used to say ‘don’t play with fire, or your hands will get burned’. The January 12, 2016, suicide bombing in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district has certainly highlighted this predicament. The attack took the lives of 10 people, all of them German citizens and was swiftly, or…
ISLAMABAD: The lower house of parliament was informed on Friday that the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz gave an incomplete briefing to a parliamentary panel on Islamabad’s stance regarding the 34-nation alliance formed by Saudi Arabia. Clarifying Pakistan’s role in the military coalition that Riyadh announced on December 15 to fight terrorism, the prime minister’s foreign policy aide on Tuesday told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs that Pakistan will…
When terror visited Indonesia last week after a lull of seven years, a self-assured administration was badly shaken. The attack underscored the need for constant vigilance against the most blood-thirsty and at the same time most resilient and resourceful of all the terrorist networks. Despite being under constant hammering from Russian, American and French fighter planes, Da’ish continues to spread its tentacles across the globe. During the last few months it has launched attacks in…
ISLAMABAD: Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed on Thursday has claimed that extremist outfit Daesh is threatening locals and demanding extortion money. The party chief claimed growing hold of the banned outfit in Rawalpindi while talking to the media outside the Parliament in the federal capital. The National Assembly (NA) member said that terrorists are present in the federal capital and have control over ‘all four doors.’ Earlier on January 4, Punjab Law Minister…
KARACHI: Caught in Iran while travelling illegally to Syria to join the militant Islamic State group before being repatriated to Pakistan, two youngsters have turned away from ‘armed struggle’ after being ‘rehabilitated’ with the support of their families and security administration, officials said on Friday. Although still under surveillance, the men in their early 20s have no more militant tendencies according to the psychiatrists who evaluated their condition, said official in charge of the Counter-Terrorism…
At least eleven fanatics of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in an airstrike in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, local officials said. The airstrike was carried out in Achin district of Nangarhar with the help of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The district administrative chief Ghaleeb Mujahid confirmed that eleven loyalists of the terror group including one of their key commanders were killed in the raid. He said…
Eight militants have been killed in newest clashes of militants loyal to the terrorist group of Daesh and Taliban in eastern Nangarhar province. Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, spokesperson for the police headquarters of Nangarhar said the clashes erupted in Chahar Darwazi and Chaghar areas of Haska Mina District on Thursday. According to Col. Mashriqiwal, six fighters of Daesh and two others from Taliban side were killed in these clashes. Two Taliban also sustained injuries in…
Charsadda: Security forces on Friday arrested 60 suspected supporters of the Islamic State (IS) militants group from various areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The arrests were made on the basis of information from suspected supporters of IS who were earlier arrested from Punjab and Islamabad, said security agencies. Ten suspected supporters were arrested from Peshawar, five from Karak, four from Lakki Marwat, four from DI Khan and three from Kohat. Further arrests were made from the…