News: On Monday, 14th of October 2013, the US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, James F. Dobbins, visited Pakistan. The US Embassy in Islamabad said in a press release that "Dobbins discussed US-Pakistani relations, regional security, and Afghanistan with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani". Comment: The American special…

News: This week, world leaders have been gathering at the APEC 2013 Economic Summit in Bali, Indonesia. This year, the APEC Women and the Economy Forum has adopted the idea of "Women as Economic Drivers" as its key theme and called for government and private sector measures and programs to encourage more women into employment and business, as well as to aid the growth of enterprises owned by women. It…

News: Workers in the Bangladesh readymade garment sector started violent protests from 21st September, 2013, demanding increase in their monthly minimum wages from existing BDT 3,000 (USD 38.5) to BDT 8,100 (USD 104.0). Hundreds of workers were injured from police attack on the protestors, properties vandalised and looted, and work has been stopped in hundreds of factories in the industrial belt surrounding Dhaka for more than a week. Government had…

News: The fallout from the Westgate Mall attack has been immense with some situations bordering on the comical. Straight from the intelligence briefings before the attack to the actual handling of the siege, it has been a case of pure incompetence by a so-called efficient security apparatus in cahoots with the political mandarins that run it. As reported by the Nation Newspaper of 28th September 2013, counter-terrorism reports seen by…