The Londoner

The next technology boom may well be based on alternative energy, says Geoffrey Carr (interviewed here). But which sort to back? EVERYONE loves a booming market, and most booms happen on the back of technological change. The world’s venture capitalists, having fed on the computing boom of the 1980s, the internet boom of the 1990s and the biotech and nanotech boomlets of the early 2000s, are now looking around for the next one. They think they have found it: energy. Many past booms have been energy-fed: coal-fired steam power, oil-fired internal-combustion engines, the rise of electricity, even the mass tourism of the jet era. But the past few decades have been quiet on that front. Coal has been cheap. Natural gas has been cheap. The 1970s aside, oil has been cheap. The one real novelty, nuclear power, went spectacularly off the rails. The pressure to innovate has been minimal. In the space of a couple of years, all that has changed. Oil is no longer cheap; indeed, it has never been ...

By Simon Robinson/Southern Chhattisgarh The news came crackling over the radio, the voice fading in and out as the sound waves bounced through the wooded hills and valleys of central India to the camp where the militants — and a TIME photographer and myself — lay down to sleep. Earlier that day in May, a raiding gang of some 300 Maoist insurgents had attacked a plant belonging to Indian steel giant Essar, the radio news program declared. More than 50 trucks and pieces of heavy machinery had been destroyed. The commander of the unit in the camp that night, Deva, a boyish-looking man of just 24 or 25 (he wasn't quite sure), allowed a smile to spread across his face for a moment. His comrades-in-arms against the government of India and the companies that drive its booming economy had struck again. That, he said, should answer my question about whether the Maoist insurgents went easy on some mining companies in the area so as to force them to pay protection money and bribes instead. ...

Dear Mr Khan, This email refers to your article in Daily Times about the implications of Karzai’s statement of hot pursuit into Pakistani territory. I believe that until there is a government in Pakistan, which is coherent in its response to the outside threats we have no chance of convincing either the Western media or the Western governments to listen to our concerns. Pakistan is in a difficult situation at the moment where its policy makers are concerned about not confronting USA due to its inability to rid Balochistan of its insurgency. I see a scenario where USA does the same to Balochistan what it has done to Iraqi Kurdistan. That is the reason that Pakistan is trying to become Turkey (whose action against Kurds is tolerated due to its strategic relationship with Europe & USA) and not Iraq (which was crushed due to its resistance to West and it lost the Kurdish region). Pakistani people must be told the truth about the situation by their politicians and its media because a lo...

By Aryn Baker/Islamabad In recent weeks, Pakistan has been further shaken by, of all people, a bus driver, a ski-lift operator and a gym rat. On June 28 Pakistani paramilitary forces chased militants led by Mangal Bagh, who used to drive a bus, from the fringes of Peshawar, a key transit point for supplies for U.S. and NATO forces fighting the Taliban insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan. While the operation was nominally successful — Bagh and his men were driven from the area and his compound was blown up — the militant leader was back on his pirate radio station a few hours later, vowing to continue his fight for an Islamic state. In Swat, once a tourist haven 100 miles (160 km) from the national capital Islamabad, militants burned down the country's only ski resort and torched 21 girls' schools. A spokesman for Mullah Fazlullah, the local Taliban leader who used to work the resort's chairlift, said their group was forced to act because government security forces were us...

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will fly twice a week to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, from July 2. Flights to Pakistan from Leeds were launched earlier this year by Pakistan's second national carrier, Shaheen Air International, but thADVERTISEMENTey were dropped in May after just four months. The airline blamed "lack of aircraft availability" for its decision. Tony Hallwood, commercial director at Leeds Bradford International Airport, said: "We are extremely pleased. A direct flight to Islamabad by PIA, one the leading international airlines, is a major achievement for the airport. "It is excellent news for Yorkshire, confirming that Leeds Bradford is Yorkshire's premier international gateway," he added. Mr Hallwood said he was particularly pleased with the speed with which a new operator had been found. PIA managing director, Mohammad Aijaz Haroon, said: "PIA's flight operation meets the demand of our customers in the Bradford and...

DUBLIN, June 16 (APP): All time reliable right winger Rehan Butt scored a penalty corner goal two minutes before the close to set up Pakistan’s title 3-2 win over Olympic qualifiers Canada in the final of a four nation tournament here on Sunday night. Infact the green shirts came from behind to equaliser at 2-2 before being 1-0 at break as Canada caused much panic for a much fancied former masters of the game by challenging their authority making it 1-1 and then established the edge at 2-1. Rehan, declared best players of the tournament scored twice to live up to the reputations of one of world’s finest right winger. With this victory Pak team ended a title dead lock. Their last win was in July last year in a 4-nation tournament in Moscow. Pak team maintained its style of striking victories in the event by bouncing back after conceding goals,the way they did against host and defending champions of the tournament, Ireland whom they beat 4-2 and then played a 3-3 draw against ...