Asia

    We are so oblivious of what is happening in Pakistan that we are just reacting to the simple impulse of hatred, says Indian filmmaker Hemal Trivedi. Among the Believers is a powerful new documentary that sheds light on Pakistan’s global image problem. The story of its making begins with raw emotion — the hatred some Indians felt toward Pakistan after November 26, 2008—“26/11.” The coordinated shooting and bombing attacks carried out in Mumbai by 10 members of a Pakistan-based terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, left 164 victims dead and more than 300 wounded at the landmark Taj Mahal hotel and in or near other strategically chosen locations in the city a hospital, a college, a cinema, a historic Jewish enclave. Hemal Trivedi, the co-producer, director and editor of th...

    PM Modi has called a meeting on MFN status today. Business has always been hostage to India-Pak politics. If it isn’t mere noora kushti — the popular expression in both India and Pakistan for scripted wrestling matches with predetermined outcomes — it would seem odd that New Delhi should threaten to withdraw the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status it granted to Pakistan back in 1996 — might as well go the whole hog and block all trade? But don’t rush to conclude that withdrawing MFN status will be a very potent — or even smart — pressure tactic. Not only does such a step seem hasty and unbecoming of a G20 country which, along with China, contributes the most to global economic growth, it also doesn’t make much economic sense. Pakistani imports are a minuscule 0.1% ($ 441 mil...

    Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has come out in support of Pakistani actors and also praised the Indian Army for conducting the surgical strikes. Salman Khan seems to be backing Pakistani actors who have been facing severe criticism and a possible ban after the Uri attack on an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir leading to the death of 19 security forces. On boycott of Pakistani actors like Fawad Khan in Bollywood, Salman said,”They are artistes not terrorists. It’s the government who gives them permits and visas.” Ever since the September 18 attacks on the Army camp in Uri by Pakistani terrorists, there have been calls from all over India for a ban on Pakistani artistes working here. Mumbai-based Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) on Friday had even passed a ...

    Pakistan-administered Kashmir Indian forces launched multiple surgical strikes. Indian authorities say the extremists suffered significant casualties and terror launch pads were destroyed. Indian forces entered the Pakistan-administered Kashmir region and carried out multiple surgical strikes on extremist positions on Wednesday (28 September) night. Indian authorities say the terrorists suffered "significant" casualties even as specifics of the operation are yet to emerge. At a quickly convened press conference, the Indian army's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) revealed that at least eight strikes were successfully conducted. Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh told reporters that the counter-terror operations inflicted "heavy damage" on positions used as a lau...

    The 19th SAARC Summit to be hosted by Pakistan in November is likely to be postponed with India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan - four of the eight members of the South Asian grouping - deciding to pull out, citing incitement of terrorism in the region. The 19th SAARC Summit to be hosted by Pakistan in November is likely to be postponed with India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan – four of the eight members of the South Asian grouping – deciding to pull out, citing incitement of terrorism in the region. Sources in Nepal, the current Chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, confirmed having received messages from the four countries conveying their inability to attend the summit due in Islamabad on November 9-10. The sources said that the Himalay...

    We must not let ourselves be baited into a fight that can only damage us, we must not allow ourselves to blindly hate an entire people. In a masterstroke of political judo, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out in his thumping speech on Saturday, that Pakistan has failed its people. He laid down the gauntlet for India to fight Pakistan on a front where everyone wins by challenging them to a race against poverty and unemployment. He also made the critical and important distinction between the mostly innocent people of Pakistan and its monster of an army and state. If we wish to do justice to the martyrs at Uri, and to the thousands of brave young soldiers that have given their lives for the nation, we must first understand what they died for. Our soldiers did not die def...

    Pakistan's reaction came after Prime Minister Modi launched a blistering attack on it in his first public address after last Sunday's deadly Uri terror attack. Pakistan on Sunday rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that it was exporting terror, saying the remarks were part of a well thought out vilification campaign to distract attention from Kashmir. Pakistan Foreign Office, in a statement, said Prime Minister Modi in a public meeting in Kerala tried to malign Pakistan. “It is unfortunate that Indian leadership continues to indulge in a well thought out vilification campaign against Pakistan by making provocative statements and baseless accusations. Such irresponsible display of behaviour at the highest political level is regrettable,” the Foreign Office sai...

    The Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Indian government has vowed to respond. And this time too, the macroeconomic indicators are good. Soon after the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government decided to mobilise troops on the border and along the LoC in the face of strident demands to carry out a strike against Pakistan. The movement of troops and armaments was known as Operation Parakaram (Strength or Prowess). A political decision had been taken to respond to the attack militarily and diplomatically, and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had to issue instructions to release funds at a difficult time — there was a deceleration in the global economy, India was facing one of its worst droughts ever, and the 9/11 attacks had plunged ...

    A man watches file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a missile launch, at Incheon airport in South Korea, on August 24. Flooding has killed more than 130 people in the northeast of North Korea. Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not represent the views of MSN or Microsoft. This article was originally published in The Conversation. North Korea essentially has two international images: the bellicose nuclear provocateur run by a mad dictator, and the impoverished country in dire need of humanitarian aid. At the moment, both faces are on depressing display. North Korea recently conducted its fifth nuclear test. As on previous occasions, talk of how to resolve the nuclear crisis ensued, with deba...

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). We were under no illusion that the people of North Korea spend their days scrolling through Reddit and Twitter. But now a major slip up has revealed the true extent of their internet access. On 19 September techies at GitHub noticed that North Korea’s top level nameservers had been accidentally configured to allow global DNS zone transfers, meaning the rest of us could finally see what internet in the secretive country is really like. The screenshots shown below have been retrieved using Google Translate (so they are displayed in English) through HN [Hacker News] and publicly posted to threads on Imgur and Reddit. 1. Air Koryo A flight ticket website for domes...