Asia

BBC | – “Dozens of people are thought to have died after an attack by gunmen on a bus in Karachi. They surrounded the bus, which was carrying Ismaili Shia Muslims, and opened fire. It is believed that there were up to 60 people on board the bus, including women and children.” Dozens killed in […]

Afghanistan

Farkhunda is Our Sister: A “Martyr” to women and the Making of a New Afghanistan?

contributors

By Ann Jones | (Tomdispatch.com) | — I went to Kabul, Afghanistan, in March to see old friends. By chance, I arrived the day after a woman had been beaten to death and burned by a mob of young men. The world would soon come to know her name: Farkhunda. The name means “auspicious” or […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Endless War: Between the US, Taliban and ISIL

contributors

By Brian M. Downing | (Informed Comment) | – War is largely a seasonal activity in Afghanistan. Winters are harsh and fighters need to work fields and tend herds. With spring, another fighting season is underway. This year will be different from its many predecessors. US ground troops are no longer engaged in large numbers; […]

Buddhism

Rohingya Muslim Minority Migrants targeted by Buddhists found in Mass Grave

contributors

Wochit News / IRIN | – “Dozens of police and volunteers exhumed six more bodies on Saturday in the second day of digging out a mass grave near a suspected human trafficking camp on a hillside deep in a southern Thai jungle. The digging site, in Sadao district in Songkhla province, on Friday yielded four […]

Education

Pakistan – Court jails 10 for life over attack on Malala and on Women’s Education

contributors

France24 English | – An anti-terror court in Pakistan has sentenced 10 men for their roles in the 2012 attack on Malala Yousafzai. France24 English: “PAKISTAN – Court jails 10 for life over Malala attack”

China

The China-Pakistan trade corridor and its implications for regional security

contributors

By Brian M. Downing | (Informed Comment) | – China and Pakistan announced, with considerable fanfare in Islamabad, a $46 billion dollar investment program to build a transportation corridor from the western Pakistani port of Gwadar to Xinjiang region in northwestern China. In time, the route will link with Chinese railways bringing Afghanistan’s wealth to […]

Africa

Global Connections: World History as Social History – a New Synthesis

Juan Cole

I and colleagues have just brought out a world history. Because of the fine and exciting writing of my co-authors, it is more than just a textbook. My readers often ask me about history books – here’s one I can recommend. By John Coatsworth, Juan Cole, Michael Hanagan, Peter C. Perdue, Charles Tilly, and Louise […]

Afghanistan

The Middle East Policy of President Bernie Sanders

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Bernie Sanders opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation of that country. Sanders wanted to get out of Afghanistan from 2011 much faster than the timetable announced by President Obama. Obama has now more or less extended a US military presence in Afghanistan, advertised as […]

Health

Nepal shows its vulnerability after devastating earthquake

contributors

By Simon Redfern | (The Conversation) | – For some time scientists have realised that the Kathmandu valley is one of the most dangerous places in the world, in terms of earthquake risk. And now a combination of high seismic activity at the front of the Tibetan plateau, poor building standards, and haphazard urbanisation have […]