INDIA/PAKISTAN: Pleas For Sanity as Sabres Rattle Over Mumbai Mayhem

The pattern is all too familiar. Every time India and Pakistan head towards dialogue and detente, something explosive happens that pushes peace to the backburner and drags them back to the familiar old tense relationship, worsened by sabre-rattling war cries from both sides.

INDIA: Empathy, Grief in Pakistan at Mumbai Mayhem

The terrorist attacks unleashed in the Indian port city and financial hub of Mumbai continue to reverberate through Pakistan at a personal level and on the media.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Reporting From Tribal Areas Highly Risky

Reporting from Peshawar - hub of Pakistan’s tribal areas, currently the focus of a pincer movement between the Pakistan army and the United States-led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan - has become a highly risky affair.

POLITICS-INDIA: Separatists Battle Moderates in Kashmir Polls

India’s Jammu and Kashmir state votes Sunday for the second round of staggered, seven-phase, provincial elections that have pitted separatists against mainstream political parties.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Helpless Against Honour Killings

By appointing as cabinet ministers two politicians known for their anti-women views, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has stirred up a storm of protests from rights activists and prominent personalities who believed that an elected government would help their country emerge from feudalism.

CULTURE: Int'l Performing Arts Fest Spotlights Liberal Pakistan

Some 370 foreign actors, musicians, dancers and puppeteers have defied the warnings of their friends, families and governments to participate in an international performing arts festival in Lahore, cultural capital of the world’s ‘most dangerous country’.

US-PAKISTAN: Obama-Tied Think Tank Calls for “Dramatic” Shift

A think tank closely tied to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama is calling for a "dramatic strategic shift" in Washington's policy towards Pakistan, one designed to both strengthen civilian institutions and promote an effective counter-insurgency against al Qaeda and indigenous Islamist extremists in the tribal areas along the Afghan border who increasingly threaten the country's stability.

HEALTH: Haj Pilgrims Get Polio Drops in Int'l Eradication Plan

As the first batches of Haj pilgrims from Pakistan arrived at Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah airport for the current pilgrimage season they were, regardless of age, administered oral polio vaccine (OPV).

PAKISTAN/US: ‘Obama’s Muslim Heritage Will Help’

The most watched polls ever in the world had their share of attention in Pakistan, complete with news updates, TV talk shows, call-ins from Pakistanis living in the United States and speeches by President-elect Barack Hussein Obama.

POLITICS: ‘New US President Must Review Pakistan Policy’

Tensions between the United States and Pakistan - on the eve of the keenly-watched U.S. Presidential elections - accompanying a visit by U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus over unabated air strikes into Pakistani territory bode ill for peace in the region say analysts.

AFGHANISTAN: ‘If Talks With Taliban Bring Peace, I’ll Support It’

Western officials are increasingly turning to new strategies in an effort to stabilise Afghanistan and defeat the insurgency here, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. The various initiatives - from negotiating with the Taliban to arming tribal militias - have differing degrees of support from Afghans.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Condemned Pin Hopes on Amnesty

Zulfiqar Ali, 38, has been snatched from the gallows once again after Pakistan's president agreed to give his relatives more time to negotiate clemency from the families of two persons shot dead during a violent dispute.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Trade Through Kashmir Can Heal Rift

After decades of confrontation and rigidity over Kashmir, India and Pakistan seem to be looking at trade through the disputed territory as a path to peace.

Q&A: “Musharraf Should Be Tried for High Treason”

Sahibzada Anwar Hamid is the former vice president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan. One of three imprisoned leaders of the Pakistan Lawyers' Movement, the group whose advocacy for an independent judiciary against the interference of former Gen. Pervez Musharraf helped to oust the former military dictator from power.

US/AFGHANISTAN: Moving Towards a 'Grand Bargain'

Increasingly frustrated by the "downward spiral" that the U.S. intelligence community sees in Afghanistan, the Pentagon appears to be moving in support of engaging leaders of the resurgent Taliban who are prepared to disassociate themselves from al-Qaeda.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Picking Up The Peace Threads

India and Pakistan are trying to revitalise their mutual dialogue and pick up the threads of the peace process they launched in early 2004. This may be the last such effort before the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demits office by May next, if not sooner.

WORLD FOOD-DAY-PAKISTAN: Hunger, Poverty Initiatives Suspect

As Pakistan’s food crisis deepens, with an estimated 60 million people facing food insecurity, the GCAP (Global Call to Action Against Poverty) plans to hold rallies through the weekend demanding ‘’public accountability’’ even for hunger and poverty alleviation initiatives.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Indus Water Treaty Agitates Kashmiris

As Pakistan and India wrangle over the waters of the Chenab, Kashmiris - through whose homeland the river and four other tributaries of the mighty Indus flow - have reason to be agitated.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Sexual Harassment – Routine for Women Journos

Pakistan’s mushrooming electronic media has transformed the political landscape in this South Asian nation where illiteracy bars some 60 percent of the people from reading newspapers. It has also thrown up new challenges for young people entering media, particularly women.

DEATH PENALTY-PAKISTAN: Reason For Hope on World Day

As rights groups mark the Sixth World Day Against the Death Penalty with an appeal for an end to executions in Asia, Pakistan pulled one man back from the gallows and hinted that it will soon honour pledges to commute the sentences of over 7,000 death row inmates.

U.S.: Pakistan "Greatest Single Challenge" to Next President

Calling Pakistan the "greatest single challenge" to the next U.S. administration, a bipartisan group of South Asia experts recommends cutting aid to the Pakistani army unless it commits itself to the counter-insurgency struggle against the Taliban and al Qaeda.