India and Pakistan won freedom from the British colonial rule in August 1947. Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day anniversary today (on August 14), while India marks it a day later. Let’s look at the media reports of celebrations in Pakistan. Pakistani leaders called for peaceful relations with India and announced new rights for tribesmen (in the militant-infested area) along the border with Afghanistan, reports Voice of America. “In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Yusuf...

Keeping in mind the horrors of the two world wars, a clutch of conventions were adopted six decades ago this month in Geneva, and these agreements still form a bedrock for the laws of war and the protection of non-combatants. The Economist raises important points about these in the present context. “Do the old rules really apply in such conflicts? And if they still do, how can they be enforced more effectively, since all the evidence suggests they are not only not honoured but dishonoured...

Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, Burma’s popular leader under detention for years, once said that “it is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it…” Now, the Myanmar or Burmese military junta has further extended her house arrest by 18 months. Ms Suu Kyi’s 18-month sentence will prevent her from taking any direct part in the next year’s scheduled general election and the introduction of a new constitution, says The Times. “Ms Suu Kyi’s...

Is Michelle Obama the power behind the White House throne in Washington? Or is it the American Vice-President Joe Biden? Or, Chief of White House staff Rahm Emanuel? Could it be State Department chief Hillary Clinton? Or, Barack Obama’s mother-in-law, Marian Robinson? “You may not recognise her face, or her name. Yet Valerie Jarrett is arguably the most powerful person in the White House apart from the President, ” says Robert Draper of The Independent. “Valerie Jarrett...

Baitullah Mehsud, 35, chief of Pakistan’s Taliban umbrella group, Tehrik-i-Taliban, was killed in a CIA missile strike inside Pakistan. Pakistan’s foreign minister says intelligence sources have confirmed Mehsud’s death, reports Voice of America. Pakistani intelligence officers said that the militant commander, blamed for dozens of suicide bombings, including the fatal attack against the former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, had been seriously ill with a kidney ailment, reports...

The arrival of the “People’s Car” (equivalent US$2,421) — Nano – on Indian roads “is a symbol of the coming-of-age of mass consumerism in the developing world,” says Andrew Buncombe of The Independent. “India’s roads are broken and inadequate, the country is overcrowded and there is a middle class of anywhere up to 300 million people who might be tempted to buy a Nano. The equation simply does not add up; the result would be chaos. “Yet...

In Chinese astrology 2009 is the “Year of the Ox”. Only that person or a nation, it is said, would remain unscathed if it works its backside off this year. US president Barack Obama was born in the “Year of the Ox”, and his nose is tied to the grindstone. But he might just work out some miracles…provided his countrymen share his burden instead of nitpicking. Among various alternatives for economic stimulus and stabilization in the financial crisis-ridden USA, the Obama...

Rajmata (or Queen Mother) Gayatri Devi, of the erstwhile princely state of Jaipur in India, passed away at age 90. In her youth, when she was a Queen, the Vogue magazine described her as one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world. She was cremated with full state honors…See here… Gayatri Devi was one of the few people remaining who could vividly describe the life of fabulous wealth of the old feudal Indian royalty (that ruled over nearly 40% of the Indian subcontinent at the time...

Let me share my random thoughts…When lust takes center stage, the thinking and rational behaviour flies out of the window. We live in a promiscuous age/world where America provides, apart from huge arms and war material, 80 per cent of pornography world-wide. Now a question: Why is the USA pumping so much money in Afghanistan? It looks more like a case where a love-lorn or lust-stricken person puts at stake everything in life. How? For almost 60 years the USA had a steady wife in Pakistan...

While the Pakistan’s former president/military dictator Pervez Musharraf is now in a virtual exile in London, the country’s Supreme Court has asked Musharraf to return and “explain his action of imposing Emergency in 2007 and sacking of 60 judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhary,” who has now been reinstated. (See here…) Meanwhile a British Muslim politician, Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, has announced that he will move a London court against Musharraf...

America has attracted adventurers in droves in the past two centuries. It’s a country that has challenged human limitations of thoughts and actions. At a time when the mainstream media (MSM), by and large, prostrated itself in front of the altar of profit and greed, several alternatives to provide “real” news to the public appeared on the scene. One fascinating example is The Huffington Post , often referred to as HuffPost or HuffPo, that has emerged as “a top destination...

This week’s solar eclipse grabbed major headlines in Asia and the world (pics here). “Solar eclipses are indeed a marvel of Nature, and the media’s excitement was justified,” says Sri Lankan journalist Nalaka Gunawardene, our Guest Columnist. “For once, it was good to see them devoting a great deal of airtime and print/web space for something that was not violent, depressing or life-threatening. “How I wish Asia’s media took as much interest in another kind of...

To those following the health care reform debate raging in the United States of America from outside the borders of the “world’s only hyperpower”, are amused how most of the discussion on public issues gets narrowed down to “good versus evil”, “socialism versus capitalism”, “liberalism versus conservatism”, and so on…Let public good/interest be dammed. In the current US debate, allegations are flowing thick and fast about media manipulation...

Who is the insect world’s greatest traveler? …And the prize goes to Pantala flavescens, a species of dragonfly. A British naturalist has claimed that this 5cm-long dragonfly may hold the record for the longest migration, from southern India to Africa and then back — a distance of 12,000 miles. Andrew Buncombe of The Independent reports: ” ‘It’s an amazing story,’ said the naturalist, Charles Anderson, speaking by telephone from his home in Male, capital...

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 22, a Pakistani terrorist (the only one to be captured alive during the Mumbai’s deadly 26/11 siege last year) today pleaded guilty to 86 charges, including murder and waging war on India, in a Mumbai court. Admitting his role in the carnage which left more than 160 people dead, Kasab said Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba had been involved in plotting the attacks, reports the CNN. “Kasab is one of 10 Pakistani nationals who...

“Secular” India and “Islamic” Pakistan try to suppress prostitution but ignore the plight of thousands of people involved in this highly risky but widely practised profession. Some NGOs have done commendable work, such as a recent drive in Karachi to promote health awareness among sex workers. Lahore, Karachi, Calcutta, Bombay and Lucknow were among the traditional urban centers in undivided India that had special streets earmarked for music, dance and “adult activities”....

There is some speculation why the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, now visiting India for five days, is not visiting neighbouring US-ally Pakistan as her predecessors have always done. On the other hand, Hillary declared that Pakistan houses a ‘syndicate of terrorism’. The Indian Express reports that Hillary stated that “her country is watching the actions being taken by Islamabad against the scourge and expected that perpetrators of Mumbai attacks meet their ‘day of reckoning’....

US defense secretary Robert M. Gates has stated an obvious fact: The troops in Afghanistan “are tired…and the American people are pretty tired.” So, what next (or new)? In an ominous use of the word “unwinnable”, once used by the legendary media person the late Walter Cronkite to turn public opinion against the Vietnam war, defense secretary Gates (photo above) says that “after eight years, U.S.-led forces must show progress in Afghanistan by next summer to avoid...

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s visit to the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Saturday was more than a symbolic gesture. She interacted with the staff of the Taj, and the adjoining Trident-Oberoi hotel, who survived last year’s 26/11 terrorist attack. Taj’s general manager, who lost his wife and two children in the attack, introduced the staff, and then arranged breakfast for the visiting dignitary. See here… Now on a five-day India trip, why Clinton won’t stop in Pakistan?...

America’s legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, who passed away at age 92, would be long remembered among the journalist fraternity in the world for the basic things he upheld/promoted as a professional all his life: Excellence, Integrity, Accuracy, Fairness, Objectivity. Really, the world would be a better place if journalists left aside the frills and returned to these basic values in journalism. He was a typical example of the saying that “journalists are born and not made”....

In his recent visit to Africa, US President Barack Obama said “all the right things about Africa—and left a few ticklish ones unsaid,” says The Economist. “The tone may shift a bit but the policy will be similar to George Bush’s.” While the former UN chief Kofi Annan maintains that the tragedy is “that when millions of Africans believed their countries and continent were finally on the right track, their hopes are being dashed by problems whose roots lie elsewhere....

In recent times, there have been clear indications that male of the human species is on a suicidal path. Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the macho rule of men? Here I am not talking about the mess created by myopic/desperate men (and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan), but the British scientists’ recent claim that they have created human sperm in the lab. If there’s no need for sperm, goes the thought, why do we need men? Imagine a world without all the testosterone, says...

Sri Lankan journalist Nalaka Gunawardene notes in his blog how the twin technologies of satellite television and the Internet transformed far-away Michael Jackson into a local icon across Asia. He also mentions about a 2001 documentary named Michael Jackson Comes to Manikganj that probed how far and wide satellite television was influencing and impacting culture, society and even politics of South Asia. See two earlier posts on the subject… Here… And here… While still alive, Michael...

One may hate Michael Jackson, or love him madly, or remain totally indifferent to him, but one just can’t ignore this musical phenomenon and his mass appeal. Jackson’s memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles is expected to be an even bigger global internet video-viewing event than the inauguration of US President Barack Obama, reports ANI. A Michael Jackson page at Facebook has already topped 6.5 million fans, unseating Obama’s “fan page” as the most popular...

In Renaissance Europe, and in the ancient and medieval Hindu and Mughal societies, the young courtesans were much in news and played a vital role. Even in this computer age the tradition continues as exemplified by a Romanian teenager who auctioned off her virginity for $20,000. Alina Percea, 18, has spoken for the first time about her night with the highest bidder, reports LiveNews. Percea (photo above) auctioned her virginity on a website in an effort to “pay for her computing degree.” “The...