Posts published in “Day: December 20, 2016”

A question at a press conference three months before the Communist Party’s 18th national congress in 2012 caught a spokesman for the party’s Organisation Department off guard. “How many people are there in the next Politburo Standing Committee?” an American journalist asked. The spokesman for the department, which oversees the party’s apparatchiks, could only reply: “I don’t know.” Why becoming the ‘core’ matters for China’s communist leaders In fact, before the members of the new…

China’s theft of a U.S. Navy underwater drone in full view of the USNS Bowditch on Thursday is a telling episode. While Beijing agreed to return the drone over the weekend, along with bluster that the U.S. had “hyped” the heist, the Chinese navy’s actions were a deliberate provocation. China is testing U.S. resolve to maintain freedom of navigation in international waters that Beijing illegally claims as its own. Some think the theft is a…

BEIJING — Only a day before a small Chinese boat sidled up to a United States Navy research vessel in waters off the Philippines and audaciously seized an underwater drone from American sailors, the commander of United States military operations in the region told an audience in Australia that America had a winning military formula. “Capability times resolve times signaling equals deterrence,” Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. told a blue-chip crowd of diplomats and analysts…

ISLAMABAD/RIYADH – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Sunday agreed to continue fighting terrorism and reinforce the mechanism to roll back extremism with even greater vigour. According to a statement issued by the military’s media wing, the ISPR, in Islamabad, this understanding was reached between Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud during a meeting in Riyadh on Sunday. The statement said that the Saudi…

GWADAR: A man was killed and two others were injured in a rocket attack by Iranian forces in the Prom border area of Panjgur district on Sunday. According official sources, Iranian border security forces fired at least nine rockets that exploded in the Prom area. One of the rockets hit a pick-up truck. “The vehicle was destroyed,” an official of the local administration said. “A Pakistani national was killed and two others were severely injured,”…

The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has increasingly turned against Pakistan after having started on a positive note when he assumed charge on September 29, 2014, once he was declared the winner of a disputed election against his rival, Dr Abdullah. Gone are the days when President Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Army’s just retired chief General Raheel Sharif used to describe enemies…

Kabul: Michael McKinley, United States (U.S) ambassador to Afghanistan, on Saturday said allegations lodged by Ahmad Eschi, against First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum should be investigated transparently. McKinley said he was shocked to hear of the allegations by Eshchi that Dostum had allegedly ordered his men to beat him up and sexually assault him. Eshchi is the former Jawzjan governor. “Investigations and transparency is important to send the right signal to the Afghan…

Kabul: Eighty percent of the old 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes in circulation in Afghanistan have been swapped for the new notes with the help of Hindu money exchangers. Money exchangers at the Shahzada market have however criticized the Central Bank for not helping them with the process. They said that it was only with the help of Hindu and Afghan money exchangers in Khost and Paktia provinces that they were able to transfer the…

The US forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A) marked the second anniversary of a deadly attack on Peshawar school that left over 130 children dead. “Dec. 16 marked the second anniversary of the horrendous attack on the Peshawar Army Public School, which killed more than 130 children,” USFOR-A said in a statement. The statement further added “In July, a U.S. strike killed the mastermind of the attack, Umar Khalifa. Although his death will not bring back the…