By Jens Kastner TAIPEI – Unlike their grandparents, who in the 1950s tried to set foot on the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen with the help of bombing and artillery campaigns by Chairman Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), mainland Chinese youngsters today are being welcomed with scholarships and tuition waivers. A loophole in laws that restrict to 2,000 the annual number of enrollments of mainland students on Taiwan proper allows Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen to become an offshore university center for mainland Chinese students. The archipelago, also known as Quemoy, is just 10 kilometers from the mainland China coast. More than 20 … Continue reading Chinese students to invade Taiwanese islands

By Sudha Ramachandran BANGALORE – India’s Maoist conflict could escalate with the government granting permission to the Indian Air Force (IAF) to fire in self-defense if its choppers come under attack from Maoists. “We were told a couple of months ago that we can fire to defend ourselves,” a senior IAF official said in New Delhi on Thursday. IAF helicopters are currently used for logistics; mainly the evacuation of injured police and paramilitary personnel engaged in anti-Maoist operations. Over the past two years, its choppers have come under fire twice. In November 2008, a Mi-8 helicopter carrying election officials and … Continue reading Chopper ruling raises Maoist tensions

Pakistan has a man for a crisis By Abubakar Siddique As the people of Pakistan struggle to overcome a calamity of massive proportions, one man has emerged to inspire confidence in the country’s flood-recovery efforts: top military commander General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani. Kiani has taken the lead since unrelenting monsoon rains brought on a natural disaster that has so far left 1,600 dead, many millions homeless, and disrupted the lives of up to 18 million more. Images of Kiani helicoptering around Pakistan taking stock of the tragedy provided a stark contrast to those of President Asif Ali Zardari helicoptering to his … Continue reading General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani – Pakistanis have more confidence in him than the politicians

Trapped at Ground Zero By Ramzy Baroud The controversy over the right of Muslim Americans to build community center and mosque a short distance from the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is both strange and outright inappropriate. It should never be necessary for law-abiding Americans to justify exercising their right to freely practice their own religion. This right is in accordance to the First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights that has constituted the foundation of American freedom for over 200 years. But in the age of Guantanamo-like gulags filled with bearded Muslim men, such principles … Continue reading Trapped at Ground Zero by Fanatic Baptists?

The road to terror training camps sometimes begins in the U.S. Omar Hammami is living proof that there is no one road to terrorism. U.S. officials believe the journey for Hammami – one of 14 U.S.-born and naturalized citizens to be indicted last week on charges of conspiring with a Somali terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda – took him from a small town in Alabama to a radical command role in Somalia. Hammami was a late convert to Islam, becoming passionate about his father’s faith during high school in Alabama. He was born in Daphne, a small town nestled … Continue reading Omar Hammami – terror training began in the U.S.?

COMMENT: Interminable struggle —Dr Ali Madeeh Hashmi Colonised, oppressed nations have always struggled with a collective sense of fatal resignation, also called ‘learned helplessness’ in psychology. A core feature of this is apathy and a desire for ‘rescue’ from outside. Realising that if Pakistan is to change for the better, the people of Pakistan taking the lead in transforming it would be a good start “Bay mojzaa duniyaa main ubhartee nahin qaumain” (Nations do not arise without miracles) — Allama Iqbal. Pakistan’s 63rd birthday brings with it the usual litany of bad news: floods, power outages, crime, ‘terrorism’, the list … Continue reading Nations do not arise without miracles