After the grisly execution of American journalist Steven Sotloff by an ISIS terroristearlier this month, a chilling message from inside ISIS-controlled territory reached tens of thousands globally via social media: “I wish I did it.” It came from Umm Ubaydah, a Western woman who had converted to Islam, moved to Syria, married a jihadist fighter, and joined in the ISIS media campaign to drum up support for the movement among English-language Tweeters and bloggers everywhere. According to estimates by American and European centers for the study of radicalization, Umm Ubaydah is one of hundreds of Western women who have either joined the ranks of ISIS or been intercepted en route to the territory it now controls.
The 4th Baku International Humanitarian Forum
Waheed Hussain
The 4th Baku International Humanitarian Forum (BIHF) ended on 3rd of October, 2014 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The forum provided a platform to different intellectuals and humanitarian organizations to systematically hold conferences, discussions and round tables with the aim of holding a dialogue of cultures and creating an atmosphere of tolerance.
THE GLASS HALF-FULL
SYED FAQIR IJAZUDDIN
Dual nationality comes instinctively to Pakistanis: they are polygamous by nature. This explains why many of them found the referendum in Scotland superfluous. Why, they argued, couldn’t the Scots be allowed to hold Scottish passports as well as British ones?
The recent Scottish referendum is the latest of a number of attempts by Scots to assert their identity as a separate nation. Their irritation at being treated as an appendage to other countries has chafed for centuries. In 1543, for example, the English King Henry VIII formalised in the Treaty of Greenwich his ambition to unite the two kingdoms, by marrying the infant Mary Queen of Scots to his young heir Edward. The Scots spurned that takeover bid.
Carrying forward the Silk Road Spirit and Deepening Media Cooperation
Cui Yuying
Xinjiang is a place of breathtaking beauty, during this season of mellowing fruits and refreshing weather, for the 4th China-Eurasia Expo News Media Forum. Firstly, on behalf of the State Council Information Office of China, I’d like to extend warm congratulations to the convening of this forum and sincere greetings to the distinguished guests and friends from various countries who have come from afar. In 2011, we held the first China-Eurasia Expo Forum of Ministers Responsible for Information. Since then, we’ve held another two forums for ministers responsible for information and a news media forum. Heads of the information administrative departments from countries in Asia and Europe and directors of media gathered together and discussed media responsibilities, exchanged experiences of development, conferred on channels for cooperation. These were rare opportunities with great significance.
PM UNGA speech; Relations with India and Dharna politics
Editorial
While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speech at the UN General Assembly on Sept 26 won accolades at home for coming heavily on India for its injustices in Held Kashmir, it certainly created ripples within the Indian official as well as media circles. It was perhaps an unexpected posture that Nawaz Sharif resorted to keeping in view his past and present bonhomie with the respective Indian governments. In 2013 when Nawaz Sharif delivered his speech at the General Assembly, he hardly mentioned Kashmir for which he had to take heavy flak at home, especially from the establishment. This time however it seemed as if the speech was very well crafted and all stakeholder were taken on board in the process. Tariq Fatemi, of course appears to be the man behind it.
US should not have withdrawn forces from Iraq: Panetta
WASHINGTON: Former Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has denounced the White House in a new memoir, accusing President Barack Obama’s top aides of undercutting efforts to secure a deal in 2011 that could have kept US troops in Iraq. Retaining a small US force would have helped contain sectarian violence and prevented the conditions that helped open the door to the onslaught of the Islamic State group, which has seized a large area of Iraq in recent months, Panetta argues in a soon-to-be released book, “Worthy Fights”. “In the fall of 2011, it was clear to me — and many others — that withdrawing all our forces would endanger the fragile stability then barely holding Iraq together,” Panetta wrote in an adapted excerpt published in Time magazine Thursday.
Nato soldiers in Afghanistan have made the world a safer place: Ghani
KABUL: Newly-inaugurated Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday set a fresh tone in relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) countries that have fought in the country against the Taliban, paying a fulsome tribute to foreign soldiers who died in battle. Ghani, speaking alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron in Kabul, said the Nato soldiers in Afghanistan had made the world a safer place. “I want to say thank you to those families for the loss of their loved ones,” Ghani said. “They stood shoulder-to-shoulder (with Afghan forces) and we will remember them.”
Protesters throng streets, defy police in Hong Kong
HONG KONG: Hong Kong democracy protesters defied volleys of tear gas and police baton charges to stand firm in the centre of the global financial hub on Monday, one of the biggest political challenges for China since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 25 years ago. The Communist government in Beijing made clear it would not tolerate dissent, and warned against any foreign interference as thousands of protesters massed for a fourth night in the free-wheeling, capitalist city of more than 7 million people. “Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying defiantly told a news briefing in Beijing.
Comment: Mental toughness can be key to our players’ success in the game
Players’ mental development is paramount for their individual and collective success, both on and off the field. Given the rising importance of motivational (mental) training in modern day sports, we in recent history have witnessed several international outfits hiring the services of high-performance counsellors and motivational speakers for players and their coaches. Cricket no doubt is a sport that requires strategic thinking by the captain, coach and the entire team. Match pressure coupled with pessimism can break the best of players, captains as well as the teams. We all know what happened to England batsmen Jonathan Trott in the last Ashes and to Graham Thorpe and Marcus Trescothick before him. They were all very fine cricketers but could not handle pressure.
China’s President Xi to make first visit to India
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his first visit to India as head of state on a regional visit starting this week which will also take in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Tajikistan, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Xi will begin his trip in Tajikistan where he will attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on Thursday and Friday, the ministry said. China, Russia and four Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — formed the group in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighbouring Afghanistan.
