The Londoner

Let there be no doubt, that battle lines stand drawn between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and there should be no surprises if even the fig leaf of institutional propriety is blown away by the fiery gusts of bellicose rhetoric in the coming days. Clearly, the military, which added a critical new dimension to the ongoing debate on Kerry-Lugar Bill by eschewing official decorum and going public with its serious apprehensions, has thought through the consequences and appears willing to go even further. The Presidency for its part, judging by the spate of statements from Mr Farhatullah Babar, appears to be digging its heels deeper for a standoff. And while even the US ambassador has conceded the wrongful insertion of clauses, pertaining to national security and military, the Presidency continues to advocate the inviolable correctness of the aid offer. Tension in the twin cities is thick enough to be cut with a knife. Two power centres are eyeballing one another each waiting for the other to

By Robert Mackey Updated | Thursday | 9:07 a.m. The propaganda battle continues four days after a deadly attack on two American military bases in the Afghan province of Nuristan left eight American and four Afghan soldiers dead. As my colleague Elisabeth Bumiller reported on Tuesday, NATO posted a statement on its Web site claiming a victory of sorts in the fighting around the mountainous village of Kamdesh, declaring that “a more detailed battlefield assessment following the Oct. 3 attack in Nuristan has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the well-coordinated defense — significantly higher losses than originally thought.” According to Reuters, the Taliban retaliated by claiming on their Web site that “they had raised their flag in Kamdesh District of Nuristan Province on Wednesday morning at a function attended by locals.” Col. Wayne Shanks, a senior press officer for American and NATO forces, told Reuters that no matter what the Taliban claimed, “I can gu

KABUL, Afghanistan — A car packed with explosives blew up beside the Indian Embassy on Thursday, leaving at least a dozen dead in what India’s foreign secretary said was an attack on the embassy compound, the second in two years. The blast killed 12 people and wounded 82, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry, whose own building is across the street from the blast site. Indian authorities said none of the embassy staff had been hurt, but three guards outside had been wounded. “The suicide bomber was directed against the embassy,” India’s foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao, told reporters in New Delhi. The blast appeared to be similar in pattern to one in July 2008, which American intelligence officials said Pakistan’s intelligence agency had helped to plan. Pakistan denied the charges but promised an investigation. Fifty-four people were killed in that attack, including an Indian defense attaché. The Associated Press cited a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, as saying that the Tal

ISLAMABAD, Former captain of Pakistan cricket team Imran Khan has said Indian lobby along with umpires could be involved in match-fixing in the semi-final against New Zealand. Talking to a private TV channel, former captain said the poor level of umpiring in the semi-final raised doubts. Though, over confident Pakistani team played badly but match-fixing allegations by the standing committee against team are baseless. The legendary bowler further said that there is no place of Younis Khan in the team and his role is not more then a captain. He said Muhammad Asif should have been included in the team in place of Umer Gul in the semi-final. Read the full story here.

The United Kingdom has decided to relocate its visa office from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan to address the issue of delays in the issuing of visas, British Home Affairs Secretary Alan Johnson said on Tuesday. He was talking to reporters with Interior Minister Rehman Malik after they held detailed talks on various issues, including the delay in visa issuance, illegal immigration, terrorism and extremism. “The visa section was transferred to UAE as the IT system in Pakistan was not updated, but we are working on it and by the next month (November), the visa section would start operating from here,” Johnson said. He also announced that the UK had decided to reduce the time period for issuing visas from 60 days to between 15 and 20 days. Earlier, Johnson and Malik agreed to increase cooperation in the war on terror, as both countries faced a common threat. The two also discussed the issue of Pakistani students who had been arrested by British authorities on charges of planning a t

The request for additional forces by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, poses cruel dilemmas for President Obama. If he refuses the recommendation and General McChrystal's argument that his forces are inadequate for the mission, Obama will be blamed for the dramatic consequences. If he accepts the recommendation, his opponents may come to describe it, at least in part, as Obama's war. If he compromises, he may fall between all stools—too little to make progress, too much to still controversy. And he must make the choice on the basis of assessments he cannot prove when he makes them. This is the inextricable anguish of the presidency, for which Obama is entitled to respect from every side of the debate. Full disclosure compels me to state at the beginning that I favor fulfilling the commander's request and a modification of the strategy. But I also hope that the debate ahead of us avoids the demoralizing trajectory that characterized the previous con