Asia Times Online has several great articles out this week on Southeast Asia: – Vietnam could be facing another currency crisis. The Vietnamese Dong may crash due to the governments unsustainable trade and spending deficits. Apparently, things got out of hand as early as late 2007, when Vietnam started printing Dong based off of the […]
United States General McChrystal explains that Iran’s Quds Force and Pakistan’s ISI are aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, undermining US efforts and interests in the War on Terror. His remarks are useful in drawing out history of extremist groups in the region and the ISI’s dealings with Afghanistan during and after the Soviet Afghan War. That history shows that Pakistan has no significant links to Al Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11 and links with the Taliban were dictated by our interests in funding Mujahideen forces to counter Soviets int he 1980’s.
The Arroyo Administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have signed an agreement to form an “International Contact Group” to help negotiate a peace agreement between the two sides in the predominately Muslim island of Mindanao. Got all that? The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. For more background go here. – […]
A few months ago India seemed to have scored over China when it secured a $2.6 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). China had aggressively objected to the loan because a significant part ($60 million) was allotted for watershed management projects in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, a “disputed territory” according to […]
I have noticed strange things in Pakistan during my recent stay there, but two things stand out for me. One, it is the unbelievably weird ability of Pakistanis to connect every bad thing to American and how America with Israel and India is relentlessly trying to destroy Pakistan, but Pakistan is surviving against all odds. […]
–UPDATE (9-20-2009) – DNA test results confirm Top’s death. Indonesian authorities have officially declared Noordin Muhammed Top, suspected terror mastermind of the July Jakarta Hotel Bombings, dead. He was killed in last month’s Indonesian police raid of a house in the central Java town of Solo. The identification was based on fingerprints stored on the […]
The Indian Military has increased its presence along the Line of Actual Control with China. According to media reports 50 percent of the troops along the border have been moved to forward posts as part of ‘Operation Alert.’ The Indian military has downplayed the deployment of troops and claims that it is part of an […]
India’s Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, announced during his speech at IAEA’s 53rd General Conference that India had designed an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor-Low Enriched Uranium (AHWR-LEU) that uses thorium along with low enriched uranium as fuel. He said that “the reactor has a significantly lower requirement of mined uranium per unit energy […]
CNN reports on Pakistan’s female fighter pilots and the Air Force’s work in counterinsurgency and the War on Terror. It’s a very good article and reminds us that Pakistan is a moderate country paying their own costs in trying to uproot fundamentalism, militancy and terrorism from their country.
Tragedy stuck Karachi Pakistan the other day when about 20 women died from suffocation while attempting to collect wheat flour that was distributed by a charity. It isn’t the only time that poor Pakistanis have died tragically, but this one is especially awful because it started with very good intentions. Because the price of flour […]
Shawn W Crispin has an interesting article in Asian Times concerning the Vietnamese government’s latest freedom of speech crackdown that has specifically targeted bloggers who had publicly expressed anti-Chinese sentiment. Hanoi fears it cannot control the more than two million Vietnamese based blogs, a common source of uncensored news. While a general fear of the […]
India and Mongolia signed a civilian nuclear agreement on Monday during Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj’s four day visit to India. The memorandum of understanding between the two countries pertains to development in the field of “peaceful uses of radioactive minerals and nuclear energy” and would allow India to look for uranium in the central Asian […]
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