Caspian pipeline knots tighten By Robert M Cutler MONTREAL – Two events coincided this week to point towards further complications in Euro-Caspian energy geo-economics. Azerbaijan has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Georgia and Romania to promote liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation across the Black Sea, and has separately announced the possibility of postponing a decision on the start-up of production from the offshore Shah Deniz Two natural gas field until 2017 (press reports cite various years from 2016 to 2018). The LNG MoU results directly from an energy conference held earlier this year in Batumi, Georgia, where there … Continue reading Caspian pipeline knots tighten

Vietnam’s guarded US embrace By The Hanoist Fifteen years after normalizing diplomatic relations, military cooperation between the United States and Vietnam is evolving bit by bit. Both sides would like to counter China’s military buildup and historic desire to dominate the region – including the strategic South China Sea where a quarter of the world’s trade transits and where Vietnam, China and other countries contest two island chains believed to contain rich mineral deposits. While US motives are relatively clear – to deepen contacts with the Vietnamese military and establish areas of cooperation – the Hanoi side is often tied … Continue reading Vietnam’s guarded US embrace

The ‘Ugly American’ in Kabul By M K Bhadrakumar A war in which the general doesn’t know his enemy is a war lost. The manner in which the Barack Obama administration is handling its equations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggests Karzai is the US president’s enemy number one in the Hindu Kush, not the insurgents. The number of dogfights between US special representative Richard Holbrooke and the Afghan government is now legion. The tussles are watched in regional capitals with amusement as Holbrooke tirelessly wages his war with Karzai’s leadership. While it is unclear whether this is part of … Continue reading Karzai – The ‘Ugly American’ in Kabul

Confessions of a Pakistani spy By Syed Saleem Shahzad ISLAMABAD – Retired squadron leader Khalid Khawaja, a former Inter-Services Intelligence official and a close friend of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during the resistance in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s, has explained in videos sent to Asia Times Online how he was on a mission to broker a deal between militants and the army when he was captured by militants, and how he played a double game by deceiving a radical cleric into being arrested. Khawaja was dismissed from the air force in the late 1980s and subsequently … Continue reading Confessions of Khalid Khawaja ex-ISI AQ Buddy!

Over the top Down the drain thenews.com.pk Masood Hasan At Mr Jaswant Singh’s book launch the other day, during the Q&A session, a gentleman at the back stood up and said, ‘Mr Singh you have been here a few days and you can see how we are suffering from load-shedding – even here a generator is working. Can you please give us our water back so that we can produce some electricity?’ The question was greeted with clapping and laughter and although Mr Singh could not help us, the questioner had made his point. For a nation that has more … Continue reading Over the top

Farewell to Facebook thenews.com.pk Aakar Patel I failed to do social networking. It isn’t that I did not try. I befriended 250 people on Facebook, I signed up to broadcast tweets into the ether, I put my life up on display on MySpace, I was open for business on Linkedin. The problem was not knowing what to do after I had done all this. There were benefits to being found and to finding others on Facebook, and I got in touch with friends from school again. But there wasn’t much to say after the memories had been revisited with exaggerated … Continue reading Farewell to Facebook

Stephen Hawking: Earth could be at risk of an invasion by aliens living in ‘massive ships’ By Fay Schlesinger New series: Stephen Hawking revealed he believes in life on other planets Stephen Hawking has revealed a strong belief in aliens and warned the Earth could be at risk from an invasion. In a new documentary series, the renowned astrophysicist argued that it is ‘perfectly rational’ to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. And in an extraordinary series of assertions, he said Earth might be at risk from what he imagines to be ‘massive ships’ which could try to … Continue reading Earth at risk of an invasion by aliens – Stephen Hawking