Afghanistan - Miscellaneous

Afghanistan: Rethinking Reconstruction - The Bush administration reportedly is considering major adjustments in its approach on Afghanistan’s reconstruction, a reflection of the surge in Islamic militant activity in the country , Richard Weitz - EurasiaNet

Winning in Afghanistan - A military analyst on what's wrong with U.S. strategy , by Dan Ephron - Newsweek

The ‘kid’ in Kabul - This is Amrullah Saleh, the thirty-six-year-old director of Karzai’s spy agency, known as NDS, who probably became the world’s youngest intelligence chief in 1994, at age 32. Mr Saleh is also a central figure in the undeclared, low-intensity war against Pakistan, although he is more of a good executioner than an original thinker. Since 2005, NDS has emerged as a major source of strategic instability in the region , by Ahmed Quraishi - The News

The Smart Money in Afghanistan - This is the chaos that is foreign aid in Afghanistan, a place where every mistake ever made in an underdeveloped economy is being repeated. This is a country in which all the best people are being hired away from the national government by the alphabet soup of aid agencies , by Anne Applebaum - WP

As Crime Increases in Kabul, So Does Nostalgia for Taliban - While Taliban insurgents stage increasing attacks in the Afghan countryside, equally fast-expanding violent crime -- kidnappings, carjackings, drug-related killings and highway robberies -- is plaguing the capital of 5 million and the vital truck and bus routes that connect the country's major cities. It is making some Afghans nostalgic for the low-crime days before 2001, when the Taliban sternly ruled most of the country , by Pamela Constable - WP

US told it must hold talks with Taliban's Mullah Omar - The US must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region, the Governor of Pakistan's lawless border areas has said , by Isambard Wilkinson - Telegraph

NATO Hopes to Undercut Taliban With 'Surge' of Projects - NATO alliance troops facing ever more aggressive Taliban insurgents are planning a winter "development surge" of civil works projects in eastern Afghanistan designed to win over tribes in regions near the Pakistan border and to prevent their sons from joining the Taliban's ranks , by Pamela Constable - WP

Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid - Saudis are sponsoring a peace dialogue involving a former senior member of the hardline group , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Why the West thinks it is time to talk to the Taliban - Negotiations have begun in secret with the enemy in Afghanistan. Jason Burke reveals the back channels of diplomacy that led to the controversial talks - Guardian

Interview with Hamid Karzai - With the security situation in his country steadily deteriorating and Taliban attacks on the rise, Afghan President Hamid Karzai sat down in New York last week with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth to discuss the future of Afghanistan - WP

Weak government allows Taleban to prosper in Afghanistan - The collapse of security in Helmand owes as much to government failings as to any military action , by Tom Coghlan - The Times

Trio of warlords blamed for surge in Afghanistan violence - The three men, who sometimes cooperate with one another, work largely unhindered from bases in Pakistan. U.S. strikes against them have proved futile , by Greg Miller - LAT

Afghanistan's Very Careful Tour Guides - The lines between the Afghanistan at war and the Afghanistan at peace alter daily. Cities accessible by road today may only be reached by plane — or not at all — tomorrow. And so follow the boundaries of the nation's tiny tourism industry , by Don Duncan - TIME

A Karzai for Iraq or a Maliki for Afghanistan? - Until a couple of years ago, whenever I discussed Iraq in Washington, I always ended up being asked one question: how to find an Iraqi Karzai? The reference, of course, was to Hamid Karzai who has led the Afghan government since the fall of the Taliban in 2002. More recently, however, that question has been replaced by another. This time, I am asked: How to find a Maliki for Afghanistan? , by Amir Taheri - Asharq Alawsat

British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed, according to leaked memo - Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan has stoked opposition to the allied operation there by reportedly saying that the campaign against the Taleban insurgents would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul , by Charles Bremner and Michael Evans - The Times

Afghan ‘Dictator’ Proposed in Leaked Cable - A coded French diplomatic cable leaked to a French newspaper quotes the British ambassador in Afghanistan as predicting that the NATO-led military campaign against the Taliban will fail. That was not all. The best solution for the country, the ambassador said, would be installing an “acceptable dictator” , Elaine Sciolino - NYT

Pakistan - Miscellaneous

A Pakistani Response to the Marriott Attack - It is an unintended irony but many of the news stories of the horrific bomb blast at Islamabad's Marriott were followed by another headline: "foreign troops must stay out of Pakistan, says government" , by Stephen P. Cohen - Brookings

Casualties of another war - The Marriott bombing is terrible revenge for the Afghan campaign that has gone so badly wrong , by Tariq Ali - Guardian

High stakes in Islamabad and Washington - As Pakistan's situation worsens, Zardari faces paying for the Bush administration's desperation to leave a lasting legacy , by Simon Tisdall - Guardian

A question of trust in Pakistan, the land of the conspiracy theory - But Mr Zardari faces an even greater challenge at home, where many Pakistanis see the rising tide of Islamist violence as part of a foreign conspiracy or, even, something to be supported if it harms America , by Isambard Wilkinson - Telegraph

Pakistan: a country on fire - The rubble of the Islamabad hotel bombing leaves Pakistan with only one option: to escape from the Washington-Taliban vice that traps it , by Ayesha Siddiqa - Open Democracy

Pakistan will prevail against terrorism - There are moments in history that define nations, and also define men. For Pakistan, we have reached a critical crossroad that will determine the nature of our future, or if we will have one , by Asif Ali Zardari - Boston Globe

Pakistan’s Faith in Its New Leader Is Shaken - A week after the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel here, Pakistan is struggling to deal with a financial meltdown and a terrorism threat that has moved to the nation’s heart and badly shaken confidence in the new government among Pakistanis, diplomats and investors alike , by Jane Parlez - NYT

The Long Road to Chaos in Pakistan - “All roads lead to FATA,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. If the past is any guide, Mr. Malik’s statement is almost certainly correct. But what Mr. Malik did not say was that those same roads, if he chose to follow them, would very likely loop back to Islamabad itself , by Dexter Filkins - NYT

Bush's third war - U.S. attacks inside Pakistan mark an escalation that may bedevil the next president , by Andrew J. Bacevich - LAT

Support to Pakistan distorts Asia's balance of power - Giving Pakistan artificially inflated military capabilities that it could not afford on its own poisons US relations with New Delhi. It emboldens Pakistani hawks to support anti-Indian militants in Kashmir, tribal insurgents in northeast India, and jihadi leaders who orchestrate terrorist attacks in India from bases in Bangladesh as well as Pakistan , Selig S. Harrison - Boston Globe

Tribes in Pakistan turn against the Taliban - Intensive Pakistani military action in the border areas has emboldened several tribes to turn against Taliban militants , by Isambard Wilkinson - The National

Terrorist attacks in Pakistan stir anger at U.S. - Nineteen percent of Pakistanis have 'positive' views toward Al Qaeda, according to a BBC poll released Sunday , by Issam Ahmed - CSM

Heeding the lessons of another war - Forty years ago, the United States began to mount raids into Cambodia and to undermine the government of King Sihanouk in order to cut Vietcong supply lines....The U.S. is now making the same mistake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If continued, ground incursions by U.S. troops across the border into Pakistan in search of the Taliban and Al Qaeda risk drastically undermining the Pakistani state, society and army , by Maleeha Lodhi and Anatol Lieven

Next U.S. leader must revamp Pakistan policy-study - Pakistan Policy Working Group, a bipartisan group of a about a dozen experts on U.S.-Pakistan relations, said the nuclear-armed Muslim country of 160 million people could pose the "single greatest challenge" for the next U.S. president , by Paul Eckert - Reuters

Is the U.S-Pakistan Alliance Against Terrorism Coming to an End? - Recent events in Pakistan have raised critical issues concerning the continuation of Pakistan’s support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Commencing with the enormous backlash in Pakistan in the aftermath of the raid by U.S. Special Forces on Angoori Ada in the tribal area of South Waziristan on September 3. , by Tariq Mahmud Ashraf - Jamestown

Marriott bombing: a missed opportunity - The new government has spoken several times of the importance of building a national consensus on Pakistan’s need to battle terrorism for its own survival. The aftermath of the devastating bombing, some observers are saying, was the right time to build such a consensus , by Nirupama Subramanian - The Hindu

Confronting Taliban, Pakistan Finds Itself at War - War has come to Pakistan, not just as terrorist bombings, but as full-scale battles, leaving Pakistanis angry and dismayed as the dead, wounded and displaced turn up right on their doorstep , by Jane Parlez - NYT

The Most Difficult Job in the World - Asif Ali Zardari used to sport a full moustache, jet black and rakish in the style of the avid polo player he once was. But sometime in the past year he trimmed it short and let its salt-and-pepper colors show. It befits the sober role he has now assumed, at 53, as the president of Pakistan, probably the world's most difficult -- and dangerous -- political job , interview by Bret Stephens - WSJ

Is it our war or not? - It is being said that the war Pakistan is fighting is actually America's war and has been thrust on us. Secondly, it is also said that if Pakistan was not advancing US interests there would be peace. This is an absurd type of reasoning based on a partial reading of history. The real cause of instability is the absence of an analysis of the process of identity formation in Pakistani since 1947 , by by Khalid Aziz - The News

From the Council of Foreign Relations

Pakistan Policy Working Group: The Next Chapter: The United States and Pakistan - Pakistan may be the single greatest challenge facing the next American President. The sixth most populous country in the world is suffering its greatest internal crises since partition, with security, economic, and political interests in the balance - CFR

Pakistan's All Weather Ally - As the controversial nuclear deal between India and the United States moves toward a final review in the U.S. Congress, Pakistan appears to be pushing for a similar deal (IANS) with China , by Jayshree Bajoria - CFR

U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation - ....But U.S. covert military operations inside Pakistan along the Afghan border (including revelations of possible ground raids by U.S. Special Operations Forces), Pakistan's political instability, and Islamabad's questionable record on terrorism have thrown one of America's most important military alliances into disarray , by Greg Bruno and Jayshree Bajoria - CFR

India - Miscellaneous

Opium, Art, Eroticism, Radio, Travel

Inside the world's largest opium factory - It remains the world's biggest legal opium factory, dating back nearly two centuries , by Amarnath Tewary - BBC

Indian Modernism via an Eclectic and Elusive Artist - “Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966)” - Word is that contemporary Indian art is the next sensation on the international market. So now’s the time to learn something about where it came from , by Holland Cotter - NYT

Cyber Sutra: India's online eroticism - Now known for strict conservatism, India was the birthplace of erotica, famed for its sensual literature and carvings. Andrew Buncombe looks at a modern expression of an ancient urge - Independent

India Set to Lose Voice of America - After 53 Years, Radio Service Will End , by Rama Lakshmi - WP

Assam: India's little-known land - It’s a part of India not at all well-known, so that travellers here can enjoy a feeling of pioneering. I flew from Calcutta to the tea town of Dibrugarh and stayed nearby at Mancotta, a handsome tea estate house dating from the 1840s when the British were annexing Assam in pursuit of a tea bonanza , by Trevor Fishlock - Telegraph

Floods, Dams

Flooding stirs bad blood in South Asia - Politics, corruption and high water trigger a crisis in India and Nepal leaving over 3 million homeless and dozens dead , by Sudeshna Sarkar - ISN

An Environmental Mistake in India - If ever there was a lesson in the unintended effects of damming rivers, the Farakka Barrage is probably it. A 4.5-kilometer irrigation dam constructed on a tributary of the River Ganges in 1974-75, it is threatening to wreak havoc on a series of downstream villages and ultimately silt up the Kolkata harbor, the condition it was partly designed to fix , by Sankar Ray - Asia Sentinel

Kashmir, Naxals, Terror, Human Rights

Will Kashmir Protests and Terrorism Thwart India’s Global Ambitions? - Politicians and extremists exploiting grievances to instigate violence could drive away foreign investors , by Harsh V. Pant - Yale Global

War in the Heart of India - We were somewhere in the wilds of Chhattisgarh state's Bastar region, the remotest heart of tribal India where Maoist insurgents prowl the mountain jungle. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called them the country's biggest long-term threat , by Jason Motlagh - Digital Journalist

India faced with home-grown terrorism - Police have arrested the head of Indian Mujahideen, which claims responsibility for recent bombings , by Mark Sappenfield - CSM

Warriors against the State - The story of two men charged with the grave crime of treachery , by Harsh Mander - The Hindu

Getting Away With Murder - 50 Years of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act - HRW

Fake Encounter ?

Error tactics - The scourge of terror India is facing is compounded by what seems to have become a persistent policy of error on the part of the law enforcement agencies, from the home ministry down to the policeman on the beat , by Jug Suraiya - TOI

Delhi 'encounter' raises questions - As the Indian government comes in for increasingly neurotic and hysterical attacks by the Bharatiya Janata Party for its "weak-kneed" attitude towards terrorism, it's tempted to display machismo by taking ever-stronger measures against Muslims--to the point of staging fake "encounters" in which suspects are simply bumped off by the police , by Praful Bidwai - The News

Is it really Muslims whose credibility is at stake? - There is nothing more subversive than the alternative narrative. A parallel version of the Godhra incident and riots sabotaged the re-election of the NDA government four years ago. A subaltern variation of the police operation at Batla House, near the Jamia Milia Islamia University on 19 September, is undermining the credibility of the Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi government today , by M J Akbar - TOI

Scandal shrouds police in Delhi - India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the Delhi police to provide details of last week’s encounter in the city in which police claimed to have killed two Indian Mujahideen militants , by Shaikh Azizur Rahman - The National

Death in the neighbourhood - Maintaining that they had reliable evidence implicating the young men, police officials called the Jamia Nagar raid a triumph over the shadowy Indian Mujahideen – even if the crowds gathered outside the apartment at the time were already calling the encounter a fake , by Christian Cotroneo - The National

Indians Question Police Response to Recent Bombings - In the last several weeks, under intense popular pressure to show results, the police across India have made about two dozen arrests, killed a man they described as the “mastermind” of several recent blasts in a dramatic shootout in the capital and presented to the public a rare and swiftly assembled portrait of a spectacularly well-oiled, homegrown Islamist terrorism network , by Somini Sengupta - NYT

Christians, Hindutva

Hinduvatna violence threatens India's constitution - P.V. Thomas, one of India's most senior journalists, says that Hinduvatna radical groups' violence emerges from hatred of Christian charitable efforts. Constitutional order is threatened is no action is taken against extremists - UCA News

Bajrang bomb ticking - The ongoing anti-Christian attacks are not isolated. The Bajrang Dal is slowly but surely growing into a deadly, bomb-making radical group - DNA

Anti-Christian attacks flare in India - Some see a government hand in the fanatical Hindu anger against a minority and its converts , by Mian Ridge - CSM

Bishop says the "worm has turned" after Indian Christians attack Hindu - Beleaguered Christians in India have "run out of cheeks to be struck" a senior Anglican bishop declared yesterday, on hearing reports that a Christian mob had hacked a Hindu to death in the troubled state of Orissa , by Bess Twiston Davies - The Times

India's remote faith battleground - Anti-Christian riots have rocked several parts of India over the past month. Soutik Biswas travelled to a remote region in the eastern state of Orissa, where the recent violence broke out, to investigate the complex roots of the conflict - BBC

India's vengeful Christians turn to murder as Hindus step up their killing campaign - In the remote Indian state of Orissa your religion can cost you your life. Now a Christian mob has resorted to murder. Wielding knives and axes they have stabbed a Hindu man to death , by Rhys Blakely - The Times

Hindu fundamentals are under attack - As a believing Hindu, I am ashamed of what is being done by people claiming to be acting in the name of my faith. I have always prided myself on belonging to a religion of astonishing breadth and range of belief; a religion that acknowledges all ways of worshipping God as equally valid - indeed, the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. Hindu fundamentalism is a contradiction in terms, since Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals; there is no such thing as a Hindu heresy , by Shashi Tharoor - TOI

‘We are victims of a political conspiracy’ - BJP Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa completed four months at the helm in Karnataka on September 24. A few days earlier, to mark the completion of 100 days, he released a progress report titled, Bhavya Bhavishyakke Bhadra Bunadi (A strong foundation for a glorious future). But now, Yeddyurappa faces criticism for failing to contain communal violence in Karnataka , interview by Sanjana - Tehelka

Military Power, Strategic Stability

Land of Gandhi Asserts Itself as Global Military Power - In recent years, while world attention has focused on China’s military, India has begun to refashion itself as an armed power with global reach: a power willing and able to dispatch troops thousands of miles from the subcontinent to protect its oil shipments and trade routes, to defend its large expatriate population in the Middle East and to shoulder international peacekeeping duties , by Anand Giridharadas - NYT

U.S. Should Pay Greater Attention to Pakistani-Indian Rift Over Kashmir - Howard B. Schaffer, a former top State Department official on South Asia, says Washington should seek to prevent tensions in Kashmir from complicating U.S. security interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan , interview by Bernard Gwertzman - CFR

Crisis in Kashmir - The ensuing violence, a rise in communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims, and the heavy-handed response of the Indian government have prompted questions about the future stability of the region , by Jayshree Bajoria - CFR

India’s Strategic Challenge in Pakistan’s Afghan Hinterland - “Why did such an attack take so long to happen?” To ask that question would have been to recognize that the United States and NATO have allowed their Kabul surrogate, President Hamid Karzai, and the Indian government to use the supposedly selfless project of Afghan reconstruction as a tool with which to destroy one of the historic tenets of Pakistan’s national security policy , by Michael Scheuer - Jamestown

Burma - an anniversary

Scottish Connection

The Scot who gave hope and help to thousands - Scotsman

Strong and ancient links with Burma - Scotsman

A pioneering Scot who has dedicated his life to Burma - Scotsman

Saffron Revolution - one year after

Burma: sources of political change
What is the prospect for an end to Burma's long dictatorship? Twenty years after the suppression of the democratic movement in 1988, Joakim Kreutz looks at the faultlines and pressure-points of a complex political order - Open Democracy

Burma: Building upon success - Three months after Cyclone Nargis, the world has an outdated image of the situation inside Burma. Although aid agencies delivered assistance within days after the storm and continue to do so, the story of a recalcitrant government that rejects aid from the generous nations of the world has not been updated , by Dawn Calabia and Megan Fowler - UPI Asia

Monks with guns? Burma's younger activists get bolder - Last year's crackdown on Burma's biggest protests in 19 years spurred them to try new tactics, from teaching human rights to stockpiling arms , by Anand Gopal - CSM

Activists put Burma's grim jails on display - A simple museum tucked away on the Thai-Burmese border re-creates the infamous prisons , by Anand Gopal - CSM

Penguins and golf in Burma's hidden capital - Welcome to Naypyidaw, a bizarre, white-elephant place populated only by government employees forced to relocate. Building began after the personal astrologer of Than Shwe, the head of the notorious Burmese junta, prophesied unrest in 2005 , by Helen Beaton - Independent

The Generals Go Cyber? - Burma's military junta has so successfully suppressed the media that Internet sites based outside the country are one of the few remaining sources of reliable news for Burmese people. Now it appears not even those sites are safe , by Aung Zaw - WSJ

Dissident websites crippled by Burma on anniversary of revolt - A year after e-mailed images of its brutal crackdown against democracy demonstrations were transmitted across the world, Burma has launched a ferocious “cyber-war” against dissidents who use the internet , by Kenneth Denby - Times

Burma's secret schools of dissent - Monks teach children critical thinking and human rights, to groom the next generation of activists , by Anand Gopal - CSM

Myanmar junta rules roost 1 year after crackdown - As the crowd marching through the streets of Myanmar's biggest city swelled to 100,000, the question wasn't what did they want, but when would the government crack down - AP

The U.N. Has Failed Burma - The 20-year nonviolent struggle for human rights and democracy in Burma has learned much since 1988. The military regime that rules our country is destroying virtually the entire country, with the exception of the expansive military itself , by Aung Din - FEER

Burma: The revolution that didn't happen - It was dubbed the Saffron Revolution. Last September thousands of monks marched down the streets of Rangoon to call for democratic change , by Kate McGeown - BBC

Tradition and technology - The Saffron Revolution was the first peaceful uprising to be powered by the digital camera. While democracy activists and Buddhist monks marched in their hundreds of thousands against Burma’s military regime, it was the country’s internet enthusiasts who brought images of the movement to the outside world , by Kenneth Denby - Times

In tiny acts of defiance, a revolution still fickers - A bomb exploded in Rangoon yesterday morning, but like most acts of defiance in Burma it was more of a symbol than a serious act of rebellion. It happened in the mid-morning by a bus stop close to the golden spire of the Sule pagoda — a loud bang, a rattling of windows and an immediate influx of police carrying rifles , by Kenneth Denby - Times

Aid and water dry up in Burma's cyclone zone - A gale blew through the village of Ahgnu — and the effect it had was devastating. Not the physical damage, for the winds were no stronger than 40mph and even the feeblest of the palm and bamboo shelters remained intact. The chaos was in the minds of the villagers , by Kenneth Denby - Times

Slow recovery for Burma's cyclone victims - Aid trickles in, but locals struggle to find food before winter's harvest , by Anand Gopal - CSM

China’s Grip on Burma ‘Cause for Concern’ - Having a compliant neighbor rich in gas, oil, minerals and timber is a big plus for China, but Burma’s position on the edge of the Indian Ocean also makes it a “particularly desirable partner in China’s pursuit of energy security” , by William Boot - Irrawaddy

Dissidents reflect on Burma uprising - This week two Burmese dissidents spoke to the BBC about their country and how things have developed since events one year ago, when monks took to the streets to protest against their government - BBC

The Strange World of Burma’s Home Affairs Minister - Is Burma’s Home Affairs Minister Maj Gen Maung Oo paranoid, does he really believe the tall stories he tells to his staff—or is he just making them up to scare nervous officials? , by Aung Zaw - Irrawaddy

Where Would Burma Be without Suu Kyi? - Let's imagine a situation: Burma without Aung San Suu Kyi. Undoubtedly, the ruling generals would see this as a dream come true. But for the majority of Burmese, it would come as a great disappointment to lose the leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement , by Kyaw Zwa Moe - Irrawaddy

In Myanmar crisis, an old dissident sees hope - 'I trust the power of the people,' says Ludu Sein Win, who spent 13 years in jail, but is heartened by the outpouring of help to cyclone victims by young people in defiance of the military regime - LAT

Don't Forget About Burma's Democrats - A year after the Saffron Revolution, world focus has faded , by U Pyinar Zawta - WSJ

Afghanistan - miscellaneous

General Conditions

Afghanistan Is in Its Worst Shape Since 2001, European Diplomat Says - One of the most experienced Western envoys in Afghanistan said Sunday that conditions there had become the worst since 2001. He urged a concerted American and foreign response, even before a new American administration took office, to avoid “a very hot winter for all of us.” , by Alison Smale - NYT

War and Drought Threaten Afghan Food Supply - A pitiable harvest this year has left small farmers all over central and northern Afghanistan facing hunger, and aid officials are warning of an acute food shortage this winter for nine million Afghans, more than a quarter of the population , by Carlotta Gall - NYT

Afghanistan's Communications Revolution - Today, Afghanistan bears little resemblance to the nation it was long forced to be. Working together after the Taliban was removed from power, the U.S. and Afghan governments recognized the importance of dramatically increasing access to communications networks and establishing access to the Web. Experts from around the world helped Afghanistan establish a modern ministry of communications , by David A. Gross and Amir Zai Sangin - WP

Refugees and Returnees

Remembering Afghan Refugees - ...But there still are over 3 million Afghan in Pakistan, and over 1 million in Iran, and these remaining refugees are now reluctant to return home. Deteriorating security, widespread poverty and unemployment, and a severe lack of social facilities such as access to education and healthcare constitute major obstacles to voluntary repatriation of most Afghan refugees , by M. Ashraf Haidari - EurasiaNet

Shadow of Guantanamo follows freed inmates back to their homes - After years in detention, Afghan returnees have bitter memories as they face new hardships....They call them the Bandi Guantánamo, the Guantánamo returnees, and their welcome home is far from warm. All across Afghanistan in recent months, scores of men have been coming back from a long journey halfway around the world , by Jason Burke - Guardian

History - Archeology

Soldiers in Helmand unearth British rifles lost in 1880 massacre - British soldiers serving in Afghanistan have recovered weapons looted from the bodies of their Victorian forebears.
Rare Martini-Henry rifles lost in the bloody defeat at Maiwand in July 1880 have been retrieved 128 years later by troops fighting the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in Helmand province , by Keith Howitt - Independent

In Afghanistan, French archaeologists uncover ancient city - Poor villagers who once looted the site now help excavate walls and artifacts at what they call the City of Infidels....For years, villagers have dug in the baked earth on the heights of Cheshm-e-Shafa for pottery and coins to sell to antiques smugglers , by Matthew Pennington - AP

Archaeologists Find Giant 'Sleeping' Buddha In Afghanistan - More than seven years after the Taliban destroyed the two giant Buddha statues at Bamiyan, an Afghan-led archaeological team has uncovered the remains of a third giant Buddha nearby , by Ron Synovitz - RFE/RL

Afghanistan - plans, tactics, strategies...and problems

Descent Into Chaos - An Interview with Ahmed Rashid on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban , by Wajahat Ali - Counterpunch

Afghanistan's Descent - New Book Explains the U.S.'s Nation Building Failure , review by Spencer Ackerman - Washington Independent

Distracted and weakened, Nato is lost - The alliance, influenced by the US, is chasing phantom enemies. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the real ones prevail....So concerned is Nato about its image that this month it has hired a senior executive of Coca-Cola to help do something about it...."Nato is not a washing powder and it doesn't need rebranding", a defensive Nato spokesman told journalists... , by Richard Norton-Taylor - Guardian

The Afghan fire looks set to spread, but there is a way out - Far from being a noble cause, the occupation of Afghanistan is poisoning the region and will never bring peace or security....Far from reducing the threat of terrorism, this crucible of the war on terror has simply spread it around the region, bringing forth an increasingly potent campaign of resistance and giving a new lease of life to a revamped Taliban as a champion of Pashtun nationalism , by Seumas Milne - Guardian

All Counterinsurgency Is Local - Politically and strategically, the most important level of governance in Afghanistan is neither national nor regional nor provincial. Afghan identity is rooted in the woleswali: the districts within each province that are typically home to a single clan or tribe. Historically, unrest has always bubbled up from this stratum — whether against Alexander, the Victorian British, or the Soviet Union , by Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason - Atlantic Monthly

The guests at Kabul's garden parties - Summer in Afghanistan is the fighting season, and the time for Kabul garden parties. At diplomatic, military, and donor agency receptions it is always interesting to count the number of known and rumored drug lords and human rights abusers in attendance , by Nick Grono and Joanna Nathan - Boston Globe

Germany Discovers a War in Afghanistan - For years, Germans have preferred to see their country's presence in Afghanistan as armed development assistance. That myth is now becoming more difficult to maintain as the violence spreads to the north where the Germans are based - Spiegel

The US strategy for Afghanistan won't work - Covert operations only succeed when they have strong local allies who want outside support....Bush has not adopted a new policy, but is resorting to covert operations, the political disadvantages of which are obvious, and military benefits dubious , by Patrick Cockburn - Independent

Ashdown: What I told Gordon Brown about Afghanistan - We do not have enough troops, aid or international will to make Afghanistan much different from what it has been for the last 1000 years – a society in which the gun drugs and tribalism have always played a part....On the military side we also need to understand that we probably cannot defeat the Taliban – only the Afghan people can do this - Spectator Coffee House

A Man, A Plan, Afghanistan - If Obama really wants to smite Al Qaeda, this is what he should do....To defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the United States must start dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan as one region, not as separate entities , by Peter Bergen - TNR

Insurgents in Afghanistan show strength, sophistication - A summer of heavy fighting during which Western military leaders had hoped to seize the initiative from Islamic militants has instead revealed an insurgency capable of employing complex new tactics and fighting across a broad swath of Afghanistan , by Laura King - LAT

Time to Rethink Tactics Against Taleban - Afghanistan has gone from “Good War” to “Losing Battle” almost overnight....the world has finally woken up to the fact that Afghanistan is spinning out of control , by Jean MacKenzie - IWPR

Afghanistan's tipping point? - This is a critical time for the region, with US and Nato forces facing stalemate and the Taliban resurgent....What western intelligence and military officials call the most dangerous part of the world has reached a critical juncture , by Richard Norton-Taylor - Guardian

The secret NATO report

French soldiers unprepared for Taliban ambush: report - A secret NATO review obtained by The Globe and Mail shows that the French who were killed in August did not have enough bullets, radios and other equipment. By contrast, the insurgents were dangerously well prepared , by Graeme Smith - Globe and Mail

France defends military's might in Afghanistan - NATO report saying ambushed troops lacked sufficient ammunition, communication equipment threatens to broaden debate , by Susan Sachs - Globe and Mail

NATO denies ambushed French troops were ill-equipped - NATO on Sunday sought to downplay "leaked email correspondence" that suggested French soldiers had been ambushed by better-armed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan last month - AFP

Afghanistan - hearts and minds, spin and propaganda

The civilian victims of airstrikes

“Troops in Contact” - Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan - Human Rights Watch

Afghanistan: Civilian Deaths From Airstrikes - Airstrikes Cause Public Backlash, Undermine Protection Efforts - Human Rights Watch

Evidence Points to Civilian Toll in Afghan Raid - To the villagers here, there is no doubt what happened in an American airstrike on Aug. 22: more than 90 civilians, the majority of them women and children, were killed , by Carlotta Gall - NYT

Precision, what precision? - They call it 'precision' bombing, but it is killing so many civilians that the US and Nato risk losing the battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan , by Richard Norton-Taylor - Guardian

Does killing Afghan civilians keep us safe? - Western airstrikes target terrorists, but innocents are caught in the crossfire , by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann - LAT

Slaughter, Lies, and Video in Afghanistan - The Value of One, the Value of None. An Anatomy of Collateral Damage in the Bush Era , by Tom Engelhardt - Tomdispatch.com

Afghanistan blames vendetta for civilian deaths - An American military operation that killed up to 90 civilians was based on false information provided by a rival tribe and did not kill "a single Taliban" , by Jason Straziuso - AP

Taking sides

Taliban win over locals at the gates of Kabul - While clashes in remote Helmand dominate the headlines, another battle is being waged by the insurgents on Kabul's doorstep. There, the Taliban are winning support by building a parallel administration, which is more effective, more popular and more brutal than the government's , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Lost War in Afghanistan - ...There are thousands of others who are routinely killed as Taliban, without so much as meriting a passing mention in the Western media; let alone raising questions if they were really militants or innocents caught in the crossfire , by Aijaz Zaka Syed - Middle East Times

Selling the Taliban - ...However, an insurgency is at its heart a battle of wills and staying power, not of military might. Insurgents in Afghanistan appreciate this and have created a sophisticated propaganda operation that both targets what is seen as weakening support back in foreign capitals and seeks to mold perceptions among the Afghan population , by Joanna Nathan - WSJ

Afghan Insurgency Diversifies As Taliban Forges Alliances With Other Factions - "There has been a growing body of people who are opposed to the central government and are opposed to the presence of foreign forces here. Some are ready to make alliances among themselves, at least in the short term. That does not mean that they are all Taliban." , by Ron Synovitz - RFE/RL

Mistakes By Afghan Translators Endanger Lives, Hamper Antiterrorism Effort - ...And what is lost in translation can hurt efforts by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. In the worst cases, innocent civilians can be arrested or wrongly targeted as Taliban fighters , by Ron Synovitz - RFE/RL

Afghans fed up with government, US - The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country , by Kathy Gannon - AP IMPACT

Helmandis Fear Taleban Noose Tightening - They suspect insurgents are close to taking full control of province, despite official claims that they are being pushed back. The Helmand authorities and international officials appear to be struggling to keep a lid on mounting local panic over a recent Taleban offensive which is said to have taken them to the very outskirts of the provincial capital - IWPR

Britain pays for surge of spin doctors in Kabul to counter Taliban propaganda - A former Downing Street spokesman who once worked alongside Alastair Campbell has helped mastermind a revamp of the Kabul government's notoriously slow public relations operation. Some 15 new spokesmen are now being hired, with the chief of a newly built media centre starting work this week , by Nick Meo - Telegraph

Afghan villagers flee from Taliban - Refugees set up tent camps as fighting rises in the south. Heavy fighting across southern Afghanistan over the past two years has forced thousands of families to flee backcountry villages caught between the firepower of coalition forces and a resurgent Taliban , by Jason Motlagh - Washington Times

The Afghan-Pakistan War ???

Power cuts fuel Pakistan's power struggle - The assassination attempt on the Prime Minister is the latest twist in a complex battle for influence , by Anatol Lieven - Times

Playing with firepower - President Bush is taking a big gamble in launching overt attacks on Pakistani territory , by Christina Lamb - Times

Pakistan Is the Problem - and Barack Obama seems to be the only candidate willing to face it.
At a recent dinner party in the British embassy in Kabul, one of the guests referred to "the Afghan-Pakistan war." The rest of the table fell silent. This is the truth that dare not speak its name. Even mentioning it in private in the Afghan capital's green zone is enough to solicit murmurs of disapproval , by Christopher Hitchens - Slate

Pakistan’s Dangerous Double Game - Unsure of Islamabad's loyalties, U.S. forces open up a more aggressive, controversial strategy in the tribal areas , by Ron Moreau and Mark Hosenball - Newsweek

The American War Moves to Pakistan - Bush's War Widens Dangerously - ...Its effects on Pakistan could be catastrophic, creating a severe crisis within the army and in the country at large. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the U.S. presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace , by Tariq Ali - Tomdispatch.com

Facing Islamist chaos and America's Rambo, Pakistan is turning to No 10 - Asif Ali Zardari will discuss his radical new vision in Downing Street today, knowing Washington can derail everything , by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark - Guardian

Washington Is Risking War with Pakistan - As Wall Street collapsed with a bang, almost no one noticed that we're on the brink of war with Pakistan. And, unfortunately, that's not too much of an exaggeration , by Robert Baer - TIME

Losing the Afghan-Pakistan War? The Rising Threat - The situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating for nearly half a decade, and is now reaching a crisis level....the next President will face a critical challenge in dealing with a war that is probably being lost at the political and strategic level, and is not being won at the tactical level , by Anthony Cordesman - CSIS Report

Anthony Cordesman has called it the Afghan-Pakistan War since at least October 2007, although in December 2007 he called it the Afghan-Pakistani Conflict. Back in May 2007 he called it the Afghan (Pakistan) Conflict. CSIS Archived Reports.

Pakistan's 'bleakest moment' - ...Proverbially listed as a failing state, this precariously poised country could now be in a downward spiral towards becoming a failed state , by Ahmed Rashid - BBC

Pakistan on the Brink - Mismanaged “war on terror” has stirred extremism, threatening to rip Pakistan apart , by Ahmed Rashid - Yale Global

US fishing in Pakistan - The United States has just invaded Cambodia. The name of Cambodia this time is Pakistan, but otherwise it’s the same story as in Indochina in 1970 , by William Pfaff - Khaleej Times

U.S. military advisors may soon head to Pakistan - The U.S. and Pakistan have cleared remaining obstacles, so the long-delayed team may arrive within weeks , by Peter Spiegel - LAT

Some comments from Pakistan

Is there War On Terror yet? - The search for Osama bin Laden is a hoax. The US has been in occupation of Afghanistan for seven years, and not one Allied soldier is involved in this search. Thousands of Afghans have been killed, but not one has lost his life defending Osama. NATO is here only to crush the resistance to illegitimate US occupation of Afghanistan. And Pakistan was slowly coerced to join, as an abettor in the crime , by Shahid Aziz - The Nation

Land of conspiracies - In a recent email exchange, one of the ideological founders of the country's largest left-oriented parties said that he believed that the "core strategic objective of the US" was to "establish its control over the Pakistan Army – to weaken it when it is strong and strengthen it when it is weak but maintain total control over it." , by Ahmed Quraishi - The News

Timidity abroad, feudal ferocity at home - It would appear that the wimpish political leadership, in the wake of the no-nonsense statements of the army and air chiefs, has finally reconciled to the fact that the nation could not continue to accept the expanding US military intrusions into Pakistan , by Shireen M Mazari - The News

The Marriott Attack

Strike at 'den of Western decadence' - On the day Pakistan's President condemned terrorism, militants gave a deadly response , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Taliban message to India too - This was coming for a while; most people could see it approaching almost inevitably. To my mind, the horrendous suicide assault on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad is a direct fallout of recent US military strikes inside Pakistani territory along the Afghan border, of the Pakistani Army’s own operations in the Waziristan region and probably also of President Asif Ali Zardari’s strong appeal this very afternoon against terror. This is the Taliban telling all of us: Here we are, let us see what you do to us.

Ahmed Rashid, Lahore-based journalist, scholar and author of the acclaimed The Taliban, spoke to Sankarshan Thakur a few hours after the Marriott attack - The Telegraph, Calcutta

Bloodshed of desperation becomes the real threat to Pakistan - ...This is the real threat in Pakistan: not imminent “Islamic revolution”, state failure or loss of control of nuclear weapons, but a spread of terror, with sooner or later – as in Algeria and elsewhere – the State in desperation resorting to counter-terror in response. The State will survive but the bloodshed could dwarf anything seen since the loss of East Pakistan , by Anatol Lieven - Times

Pakistan braced for new wave of violence - Pakistan's intelligence and security officials yesterday warned that the weekend suicide bombing at Islamabad's Marriott hotel, which killed at least 53 people, could be the start of a wave of attacks targeting the country's largest cities , by Farhan Bokhari - FT

Pakistan - FATA, NWFP

The Raj in Waziristan

A warning on terror from Frontier Frank - Waziristan is America’s new front line in the war against the Taliban. The last British officer to have served there, now 81, tells it cannot be tamed by force alone , by Christina Lamb - The Times

Waziristan 1936-37 : The Problems of NWFP and their solutions - "The world is very old; we must profit by its experience. It teaches that old practices are often worth more than new theories." - Media Monitors Network

Waziristan 1936-1937 : The Problems of North-West Frontiers of India and their Solutions - by Lieut.-Colonel C. E. Bruce (book, 92 pages, pdf)

Tribal Areas

Pashtuns Say They Are Caught In Someone Else's War - But the Pashtun intelligentsia -- on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border -- say they want peace and are asking for a better understanding of the dynamics of their homeland , by Abubakar Siddique - RFE/RL

Pakistan’s tribal areas - A wild frontier - It will take more than American missiles to bring order to Pakistan’s north-western border region - Economist

How to Catch Osama - Get Some Intelligence - Seven years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden remains as elusive as ever. Most analysts believe the al Qaeda leader is hiding out in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. So, FP asked five Pakistani experts to tell us how to catch him , by Shuja Nawaz - Foreign Policy

Taliban opens new front in Pakistan - The Taliban has laid down the gauntlet to Pakistan's overstretched security forces by opening up a new front in the north of the country , by Isambard Wilkinson - Telegraph

Council Report Calls for New U.S.-Pakistan Partnership to Confront Militants in Tribal Areas -
The United States will need an adjusted, long-term commitment to Pakistan's tribal regions in order to bolster U.S. security and eliminate national and international terrorist networks - CFR

Securing Pakistan's Tribal Belt - Pakistan constitutes one of the most important and difficult challenges facing U.S. foreign policy , by Daniel Markey - CFR, Council Special Report

Pakistan’s Tribal Challenge - Antiquated laws and maladministration contribute to the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda , by Ziad Haider - Asia Sentinel

Pashtunistan

The Pashtun Question and Pakistan's Fears - It is believed that Pakistan’s Afghan policy is still guided by its fears about the Pashtun Question. But if it is so, using terrorism will hardly do. The two countries need to resolve the issue through negotiations , by Shahid Ilyas Khan - Media Monitors Network (September 2008)

‘Pashtunistan’: The Challenge to Pakistan and Afghanistan - The increasing co-operation between Pashtun nationalist and Islamist forces against Punjabi domination could lead to the break-up of Pakistan and Afghanistan and the emergence of a new national entity: an ‘Islamic Pashtunistan’ , by Selig S. Harrison - ARI (February 2008)

Beware Pashtunistan - ...All this has raised the specter that a breakaway "Pashtunistan" will emerge under Islamist leadership. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, retired Maj. Gen. Mahmud Ali Durrani—himself a Pashtun—warned of this last spring: "I hope the Taliban and Pashtun nationalism don't merge. If that happens, we've had it, and we're on the verge of that." ,
by Selig S. Harrison - Newsweek (November 2007)

The Pashtun time bomb - ...But another, more ominous reason also explains their success: their symbiotic relationship with a simmering Pashtun separatist movement that could lead to the unification of the estimated 41 million Pashtuns on both sides of the border, the breakup of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the emergence of a new national entity, "Pashtunistan," under radical Islamist leadership , by Selig S. Harrison - IHT (August 2007)

India - communal violence against Christians

Foreign papers

Christians in India face prospect of more attacks by extremists - Attacks on nuns, churches and Christian refugees across India are stoking fears that Hindu extremists are planning to target minority communities as the country prepares for a general election , by Rhys Blakely - Times


Christians Face Hindus' Wrath - Violence in Indian State Tied to Conversions, Economic Strains , by Emily Wax - WP


As India's Election Nears, Anti-Christian Violence Picks Up - Anti-Christian violence that started in a remote corner of eastern India last month is breaking out in other states and is expected to spread further ahead of nationwide elections to be held in the next few months , by Paul Beckett and Krishna Pokharel - WSJ

Orissa, the drama of the refugees: forced conversion to Hinduism or more violence - According to the government, the situation is "under control", but it has delayed the elections, and has barred entry to the district of Kandhamal. A Christian activist denounces new violence against the refugees, while Hindu fundamentalists have drawn up a list of 140 Christians "guilty" of the murder of the Swami , by Nirmala Carvalho - AsiaNews.it

Karnataka: 20 churches attacked, Christians accuse police of inaction - Young Hindu fundamentalists attack an enclosed convent. Police knew in advance that attacks would take place. Hindu radicals pledge more violence in other states of the Union , by Nirmala Carvalho - AsiaNews.it

Arrests over India church attacks - Police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka have arrested over 60 people in connection with attacks on churches and clergymen over the weekend - BBC

Hindu leader arrested in Indian church attacks - Police in southern India have arrested a senior leader of a right-wing Hindu group in connection with attacks on Christian churches and prayer halls last weekend, an official said Saturday , by Muneeza Naqvi - AP

Churches attacked in India amid religious tension - Suspected Hindu radicals in India ransacked three churches near the city of Bangalore on Sunday despite a crackdown after anti-Christian attacks in the region - AFP

Indian papers

Communal rage: New face of violence - The communal violence and retaliation by security forces claiming two more lives in Kandhmal in Orissa on Saturday, and Bajrang Dal-led attacks on Christians in Davanagere and Chikmagalur in Karnataka, no longer appear to be isolated incidents , by Gautam Siddharth - Times of India

How Bajrang Dal built its muscle - In just 12 years since its birth in Karnataka, the state unit of the Bajrang Dal has gained ground to make its forceful presence felt, particularly in the coastal and Malnad regions , by Rishikesh Bahadur Desai - Times og India

Is caste bias the reason? - Attacks on churches have exhumed two long standing debates: is untouchability the root cause of conversion and whether lowcaste Hindus convert to escape caste-based discrimination , by Rishikesh Bahadur Desai - Times of India

Rights groups question govt inaction on attacks - India’s inability to stop attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka could snowball into a major international embarrassment. The question international rights groups are asking is whether these attacks are organised and, if so, what is the government doing to stop them , by Seema Guha - DNA

Are Parivar & BJP returning to Hindutva? - As the BJP zeroes in on “save the nation” as its poll plank, its sangh parivar brethren have begun their own kind of campaign for their own notion of nationalism rooted in Hindutva , by Rajesh Sinha - DNA

Bajrang Dal is under terror watch - The government is beginning to take a hard look at the Bajrang Dal, not just for its involvement in the anti-Christian violence across Orissa and southern India, but also for its exhibited capabilities to make bombs , by Rajesh Sinha - DNA

Violence fuels ‘Christian jihad’ fears - The anti-Christian violence ongoing in several states allegedly by the Bajrang Dal and other affiliates of the Sangh Pariwar may spur a Christian jihadi group, fear church leaders, Congressmen from Karnataka, the CPI(M) and even union finance minister P Chidambaram , by Kay Benedict - DNA

Playing the communal card - The attacks on Christians and their places of worship in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and now Kerala, underscore the brute anti-minorityism of Hindutva outfits, and the concomitant polarised polity on which the BJP thrives - Economic Times

Are minorities safe in BJP-ruled states? - They are treated as second class citizens
The unleashing of anti-Christian violence on the pretext that Christians have murdered Swami Lakshamananand is a replay of the anti-Muslim pogrom launched in Gujarat on the pretext that Muslims have burnt the Ramsevaks in Godhra. As Gujarat pogrom was well planned, the anti-Christian violence in Orissa and Karnataka is also well planned and has been built up over a period of years , by Ram Puniyani - Economic Times

'Vested interests are hitting back at Christians' - The attacks on the Christian community are not restricted only to Mangalore or Orissa, but have spread to other states like Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and even the national capital - Rediff

'State must ensure reconversion is not forced' - They said there is no way they can return to their villages. There is this threat that you can't return if you don't convert to Hinduism. One lady even showed me a letter personally addressed to her with her name on it. It said if she wanted to return to her village she had to reconvert to Hinduism - Rediff

Police incited attacks on Christians: Probe - A fact-finding team assessing attacks against Christians in Karnataka has held the state government “directly responsible for allowing violence to spread” , by Nagendar Sharma - Hindustan Times

In cold blood - ‘There is a limit to religious freedom’ - Karnataka Home Minister Dr VS Acharya makes a poor defence to SANJANA, arguing that the violence was anti-conversion - Tehelka

For god's sake - Every evening Abhimanyu Diggal, 45, leaves the Tikabali relief camp, walks into a church, looks at the destruction, bows before the Cross engraved on the broken walls, and prays: "O Lord, restore sanity and forgive those who destroyed your house, our dwellings and killed my relatives." , by Farzand Ahmed - India Today

Attacks on Christians planned by BJP: Congress - The Congress on Wednesday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for communal violence against Christians in Karnataka saying the opposition party was playing vote bank politics ahead of assembly and Lok Sabha elections - Indo-Asian News Service

Death threats keep Orissa Archbishop in Delhi - Orissa's Archbishop Raphael Cheenath has been camping in the national capital since violence erupted in the state targeting the Christian community and says he is unable to return home because of death threats from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - Indo-Asian News Service

Modi, Patnaik flay govt advisory on Karnataka, Orissa - Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi have said that the Centre's move to issue an advisory to Orissa and Karnataka over attacks on churches is political motivated - Press Trust of India

Preying Hard - Borders blur between the state and the anti-Christian aggressors - In hindsight, it would seem that the attacks on Christians in Karnataka were waiting to happen. A fortnight before 17 Christian prayer halls were targeted on September 14, the Sangh parivar and the BJP government had been sending ominous signals , by Sugata Srinivasaraju - Outlook

India - the relationship with China

Nuclear Distraction - ...the deal will make it easier for Washington to call on India as a counterweight to China's influence.

...the deal will bring India into the U.S. camp as a regional counterweight to China's growing influence. But it appears unlikely that India would allow itself to be used as a foil against an increasingly assertive China, lest Beijing step up military pressure along the long disputed Himalayan frontier and surrogate threats via Pakistan, Burma and Bangladesh , by Brahma Chellaney - WSJ

Nuclear India must end its China-bashing - India’s success last week at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Vienna unleashed a wave of nationalist chest-beating , by Joe Leahy - FT

Tibet tops agenda in India-China talks - Border meeting to focus on region where Indian nationalists are staking an increasingly loud claim , by Randeep Ramesh - Guardian

New Delhi looks to Asia for energy - India is slowly joining a host of other nations jockeying for power in the resource-rich and strategically important Central Asian region, leading some observers to call it the “New Great Game” , by Rahul Bedi - The National

India looks to Central Asia for energy - How will India secure its energy supplies? The question is relevant to China as well. China’s energy needs are three times those of India , by Hari Sud - UPI Asia

India targeting China's oil supplies - Military planners in India are eyeing a crucial junction of the world which serves as the conduit for 80 per cent of China's imported oil , by David Blair - Telegraph

China's military ambition fuels Asian arms race - China's growing military ambition, matched only by its growing military spending, is fuelling a rapid Asian arms race , by Richard Spencer - Telegraph

China and India have been on opposite sides since the Cold War - The Cold War made for strange alliances - and these have quickly changed since its demise , by Richard Spencer - Telegraph

India 'must not show weakness to China' - India's defence ministry occupies the soaring colonnades of the Secretariat Building, an imposing legacy of the British Raj in the heart of New Delhi , by David Blair - Telegraph

India moves closer to US to balance China's rise - As India modernises its armed forces, the country is forging an increasingly close alliance with America in an effort to counterbalance the rise of China , by Rahul Bedi - Telegraph

US to court India to balance China - Whoever is voted in as the next US president in November, coping with the growing Chinese threat will remain a key area of defence policy , by Alex Spillius - Telegraph

India to spend more on defence than Britain within five years - India's military spending is set to overtake Britain's present defence budget within five years as the country transforms its armed forces to counter-balance China , by David Blair and Thomas Harding - Telegraph

European military budgets still far surpass China and India - The growth military might of China and India has undoubtedly been rapid in the last decade, but their defence budgets still fall short of the combined total of Europe's leading military powers , by Thomas Harding - Telegraph

Pakistan - miscellaneous

Cultural and political change

Right at the Edge - Déjà vu: The Vice and Virtue brigade has taken control of a large swath of Khyber agency near the Afghanistan border. At the commander’s compound in Takya, the author and photographer encountered a group of armed men and boys sitting in a Toyota pickup truck, reminding them of Kabul in the 1990s , by Dexter Filkins - NYT

Pakistan's westward drift - The drift is not geophysical, but cultural , by Pervez Hoodbhoy - Himal Southasian

Pakistan looks to life without the general -
Critical changes transforming the nuclear-armed state as the pro-US strongman's power ebbs away. And these changes may not be welcome to the West , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it - For 2008 to be recalled as a democratic watershed, America must learn to respect the Pakistani answer to extremism , by Mohsin Hamid - Guardian

Zardari

Pakistan's Next President Is a Category 5 Disaster - If there's a case to be made against democracy, few countries make it better than Pakistan , by Bret Stephens - WSJ

Asif Ali Zardari: the godfather as president - He may be a pliant partner for the west, but with his record of corruption, Zardari is the worst possible choice for Pakistan , by Tariq Ali - Guardian

Mad and bad – but the West will turn a blind eye - Dogged by allegations of crime and corruption, Pakistan's new president could lose power to his army if he fails his restive people , by Jemima Khan - Independent

From 1998
House of Graft: Tracing the Bhutto Millions - Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption - A special report , by John F. Burns - NYT

Two military dictators

A soiled past - Is resurrection possible for a dictator? Always possible. Time is a great restorative. All you have to do is await that moment when your successor has made an even bigger mess than you left behind. I should imagine that the currently-reviled ex-dictator of Pakistan should be back in some demand within a year or so, given the pace at which his tormentors, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, have begun to torment each other , by M J Akbar - Khaleej Times Online

As Pakistan comes full circle, a light is shone on Zia ul-Haq's death - The plane crash that killed President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan has spawned myriad conspiracy theories since his C-130 plunged into the Bahawalpur Desert with his top generals and the US Ambassador on board , by James Bone and Zahid Hussain - Times

The Kalash - New Statesman

Pakistan's ancient religion - Maureen Lines gives insight into the ancient religion of the Kalash people who live in the mountains of Northern Pakistan

Temples of the Kalasha religion - Most anthropologists believe that a good deal of the Kalasha religion may have been borrowed from Islam

Are the Kalash being converted to Islam? - Some Western journalists get disappointed when the truth they wanted doesn't turn out to be what they were looking for...