Caught in the honey-trap: By day she’s a student. By night she’s paid to seduce enemies of the Kremlin. So is she Putin’s latest secret weapon? Model attraction: Fun-loving Katya Gerasimova She calls herself Mumu, and she’s a 21-year-old part-time model with green eyes and brown hair. But while she’s a pretty student and model by day, she spends her nights seducing critics of the Russian government. On offer in Mumu’s apartment – according to men she has entertained – are illicit encounters with Mumu herself, menages a trois with her friends, dope-smoking and copious amounts of cocaine. Unfortunately for … Continue reading By day she’s a student. By night she’s paid to seduce enemies of the Kremlin.

Spot the difference: The leopard and the golden retriever who are the best of friends It’s a role reversal not commonly seen, but then the cat chasing this dog is a little larger than most. Salati, a ten-month-old leopard, and her best friend, golden retriever Tommy, like nothing more than to run amok before settling down for a friendly cuddle. The odd couple were reared together at Glen Afric Country Lodge near Pretoria in South Africa. Close: Salati, a ten-month-old leopard, leans in for a cuddle with her best friend, Golden Retriever Tommy Animal wrangler Richard Brooker, 23, raised Salati … Continue reading The leopard and the golden retriever who are the best of friends

Misguided individuals like Faisal Shahzad have obscured our rich heritage and reduced Pakistan to a ‘terror central’ stereotype Mustafa Qadri guardian.co.uk An image of terror suspect Faisal Shahzad is seen on a TV screen as a briefing on the Times Square bomb is held. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images The well-worn maxim that all publicity is good publicity does not immediately spring to mind in Pakistan. But given the country’s frontline position in the fight against global terrorism, the involvement of yet another Pakistani in a plot to bomb a major international city will be a boon for everyone in favour … Continue reading Terrorists overshadow the real Pakistan

VIEW: Facts and fiction —Gulmina Bilal Ahmad The man himself certainly does not fit the textbook, conventional profile of a bomber. His looks and persona, as reflected in the pictures, is more of a model than an alleged bomber Another week and another challenge for Pakistan. The week has been filled with reports about the New York City suspect bomber, Faisal Shahzad. Faisal has perplexed political analysts and psychologists alike. Faisal is what is termed to be a member of the social-political elite of Pakistan. He is a member of, in the words of Mohsin Hamid, the writer of Moth … Continue reading Faisal Shahzad – Facts and fiction

HUM HINDUSTANI: Authoring another debate —J Sri Raman The state’s war on the Maoists, in fact, has served to focus attention on the subject. It has even made the elite media send out reporters to discover the mysterious eating habits of people in tribal terrain without discernible sources of normal food The proposition has held true for 13 long years now: come to India anytime, and you will find the country engaged in a furious debate over a female writer. This column is not about to take sides in the polemics raging currently over Arundhati Roy, but only to look … Continue reading Authoring another debate

VIEW: Silence or conditional condemnation —Dr Mahjabeen Islam Ours is a nation with many Joseph Goebbels. We rattle on in convoluted, minute details and in the effort to convince others, delude only ourselves, unfortunately so deeply that we lose the beginning of lies and the death of the truth Unstinted condemnation with no ifs, ands, or buts. That really is what live consciences do, but stretched by money, pulled by power, crushed for survival or encased in apathy, as a nation and an ummah, we are either mute or babbling. As though life and world politics were not tough enough, … Continue reading Mullahs silence over Time Square means consent

By Jawed Naqvi The gramophone record not only revolutionised but also crafted new social norms. –Online In the muggy heat of Delhi in April, I took a break from a high-profile people’s tribunal that was recording the harrowing stories of uprooted Adivasis, the native forest dwellers of Chhattisgarh, affected by a state-backed onslaught on the tribespeople’s lives and sources of livelihood. I found myself instead in the middle of a very rare exhibition about the rise and fall of a musical culture that was annihilated and deleted from our midst in the hurly-burly of India’s political independence. ‘Women on Record’, … Continue reading Caste and music

Former ISI official Colonel Imam. — File photo Pakistan Suspected US strike kills four in North Waziristan Suspected US strike kills four in North Waziristan ISLAMABAD: Former ISI official Colonel Imam and a British journalist of Pakistani origin Asad Qureshi were released on Thursday in North Waziristan by a militant group calling itself the Asian Tigers. The group belongs is believed to be operating in North Waziristan and kidnapped the two on March 26, 2010. Among the people abducted was former ISI official Khalid Khwaja, who was recently killed by the group. Khwaja’s body was found near a stream in … Continue reading Kidnappers free Colonel Imam, Asad Qureshi

by Nadeem F. Paracha On April 19, a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) rally in Peshawar was attacked by a suicide bomber. The gruesome attack was allegedly engineered and undertaken by members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The irony is that the JI are one of the few mainstream political parties in the country that actually sympathise with the TTP, claiming that the terror group is fighting a war against “American imperialism” and against the Pakistani state’s “aggression” in the north-west of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. But the irony in this respect wasn’t a one-off. In early April, former ISI sleuth, Khalid Khawaja, was … Continue reading Of friends and fire – time for mullahism to die

dawn.com Pakistan TTP denies training Faisal Shahzad TTP denies training Faisal Shahzad SILVER SPRING, Maryland: Across from a counter serving up heaping plates of kabobs and curries, Zahid Hussain scrolled through his phone for messages from fellow Pakistani-Americans. The topic was hardly a surprise. “Pakistanis are afraid. When they see on television, ‘Pakistani terrorist in Times Square,’ they just want to hide their face,” Hussain said at a brightly lit Pakistani restaurant in suburban Washington. Hussain, who publishes a local Urdu-language newspaper, said he spoke with his school-age children after hearing that a Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, was arrested in Saturday’s … Continue reading Faisal, an embarrassment for Pakistani-Americans