Khurram Minhas

Once again a country has been under watch by an ally; this time it is France’s turn. The revelations were first reported in French daily Liberation and on news website Mediapart on June 22, 2015, which said the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) spied on presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande during the […]

A new flotilla, with pro-Palestinian activists on board, is headed for the Gaza Strip in a bid to break the Israeli-imposed blockade on the impoverished coastal enclave. One of the ships, named Marianne of Gothenburg, left the Italian city of Palermo on June 21, 2015. The flotilla set off from Sweden earlier this month and […]

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 for a two-day state visit. This first-ever visit by a Belarusian president to Pakistan carries great significance. During the visit, a number of important agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) are expected to be signed by the two countries, focusing on agricultural […]

Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, peace and trade in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have suffered. The influx of more than three million Afghan refugees changed the socio-economic dynamics of the region. Scarcity of social services and virtually no job opportunities created resentment among the inhabitants of FATA against the federation. As a […]

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to Pakistan has undoubtedly given a new dimension to bilateral relations between the two countries in view of the fact that they have agreed to enhance cooperation in disaster management, sports, shipping, socio-economic development, education and narcotics control. Bilateral trade between Pakistan and Sri Lanka has increased to the […]

The war in Afghanistan is now the longest war in living memory. It has been a 36-year war for the Afghan people and a 14-year war for the west. The US spends about $ 115 billion a year in Afghanistan. The training of the Afghan army and police costs one billion dollars a month, 90 […]

Yemen, a deeply tribal country awash with weapons, has been riven by crisis since veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power in 2012 following a bloody yearlong uprising against his rule. On January 20, 2015, Shia Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace in the capital. The movement officially took control of the Yemeni […]

India has asked Iran to help in trade expansion with the Central Asian Republics (CARs) and Russia. Indian Ambassador to Tehran Shri Niraj Srivastava, the secretary general of Indian commerce, chief consulate of the Indian foreign ministry and a number of representatives of Indian commercial and transportation companies are visiting Iran’s Golestan province to inspect […]

Oil prices collapsed on January 5, 2015, with New York crude breaching the $ 50 mark for the first time since spring 2009. Falls in the international oil market during 2014 pushed prices from $ 115 a barrel to under $ 50 at the beginning of 2015. On January 5, 2015,, the oil selloff resumed […]

Tunisians voted on Sunday, December 21, 2014 in a presidential run-off election. Voting was largely pronounced free and fair with a turnout rate of 60.11 percent. For the first time in the country’s modern history, Tunisians did not know in advance who would be the winners and who would be given a mandate to decide […]