Author: |Posted: 2:57 pm on 29/05/09
Category: World News Blog
My Pakistani journalist friend was clear. “This is the first serious effort by the Pakistani army since 9/11 to eliminate the Taliban.” In other words, the military assault to oust the militants from Swat shows that Pakistan’s strategic thinking has changed.
An intelligence contact reinforced the point. “It may have been America’s war in the past, but it’s no longer so,” he said. “It’s now our war and our security at stake.”
After General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani took over as army chief last year, he read more
Author: |Posted: 10:07 am on 29/05/09
Category: Snowblog
The item on the rarest Dinky toy in the world on last night’s Channel 4 News gave me a pang of nostalgia as I glimpsed my beloved Dinky car transporter (not the actual one, but the model) on the right of screen in Nick Glass’s report.
When I was seven years old my mum and dad put me in for a choral scholarship to become a chorister at Winchester Cathedral. read more
Author: |Posted: 4:23 pm on 28/05/09
Category: World News Blog
The military alert level has been raised a notch by South Korea and the US, signifying what’s deemed a “grave threat” posed by the North’s nuclear sabre-rattling.
Its state-controlled news agency, KCNA, said today that “even a minor accidental clash could lead to nuclear war.” I do wish they wouldn’t keep saying this sort of thing.
After our programme last night, I had a chance to discuss matters with two former British ambassadors to Pyongyang – John Everard and Dr J E Hoare – and ask them how alarmed they really were. read more
Author: |Posted: 11:36 am on 28/05/09
Category: Snowblog
If the expenses scandal is about anything, it is about the public’s right to know what politicians do in their name and with their money.
Yet as the parties attempt to purge the transgressors, all the indications are that the same secrecy and attempted cover-up that led to the leaking of MPs’ expenses to the Telegraph, is now dominating the political parties’ actions as they attempt to rid themselves of the mistrust in which they are now mired. read more
Author: |Posted: 10:43 am on 28/05/09
Category: World News Blog
LAHORE, PAKISTAN – One of the joys of working in Pakistan is that people here love the media. There are dozens of Pakistani newspapers and TV channels and every other Pakistani, it seems, is – or thinks he is – a journalist.
Of course the government – like most governments – wants to restrict or control coverage, but their own people can’t help themselves. They like us.
In a refugee camp in North West Frontier Province, two policemen came up and told us we had to report to the major. Oh no, I thought, we’re in trouble. read more
Author: |Posted: 3:20 pm on 27/05/09
Category: World News Blog
Okay, so how scared should we be by North Korea’s nuclear brinksmanship?
On the face of it, it’s not looking good. First, there’s the (still unconfirmed) nuclear test detonation on Sunday, followed by five short-range missile launches on Monday and Tuesday. And today, reports that North Korea may have restarted its Yongbyon plant which makes weapons-grade plutonium.
Then there’s the shrill rhetoric: the headlines of the party paper screaming that “We are fully ready for battle,” the announcement that Pyongyang’s abandoning it’s 56-year truce with the South – and also this morning, the threat of “a powerful military strike” if its ships are stopped and searched. read more
Author: |Posted: 1:12 pm on 27/05/09
Category: World News Blog
MARDAN, PAKISTAN – The Taliban said they would take revenge for the attacks on them in the Swat valley, and they might do it anywhere in Pakistan.
It seems they have been as good as their word. This morning, we were in Mardan visiting refugees from the fighting in Swat when we heard about the blast in Lahore.
The refugees are the most obvious victims of this war, but the impact is being felt all over the country. read more
Author: |Posted: 11:09 am on 27/05/09
Category: Snowblog
Boris Johnson’s brush with a near-death accident on his bike in London’s Limehouse district (see video below) throws into sharp relief the experience we cyclists endure every working day.
I am, like Boris, a jobbing cyclist. I use the machine every working day of my life – to, from, and at work. Several times a week something happens that perhaps a second or two later, or a metre or so closer, might have killed me.
Author: |Posted: 6:18 pm on 26/05/09
Category: Snowblog
What is it about poetry? What is it about the mere conjuring of words and images that provokes suicide, hatred, ferocious rivalry – in fact, the very worst traits of human coexistence?
Is poetry an eternal crime of passion? Do those who write it become so embroiled in their own passion that they lose a sense of proportion?
Author: |Posted: 10:47 am on 26/05/09
Category: Snowblog
A hundred and fifty thousand people over 10 days, packing events and discussions that range through politics, philosophy, economics and high culture.
The Hay festival appears if anything to have benefited from the recession. “Stay at home” Britain has come in its droves. I have never seen the place fuller.
