Image Day - Manmohan Singh

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaks during a press conference in Srinagar. After some years of relative calm in the Kashmir Valley, recent months have seen some of the most intense anti-India feeling for about 20 years.

> AP Photo by Mukhtar Khan

The tensions were sparked by a plan to grant land to a board that oversees the running of a Hindu shrine. The proposal led to serious friction between the Muslims of the valley and their neighbours in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. More than 30 people have been killed by the police since the protests began.

> Kashmir on Talk-Desi

BBC News Says: Curfew in Kashmir comes to an end

Image Day - Free Tibet

Tibetan activists in-exile take part in a candle-light peace march in Mumbai. More than eighty people have so-far died after the Chinese crackdown on Tibetans.

> Getty Images

Image Day - Freedom for Kashmir?

Mother of Ruhullah-Bhat, a militant commander, clings to her son's body as it is carried during the funeral procession at Frisal, 60 km south of Srinagar.

> AP Images

Bangladesh bans talk-show

Bangladesh's government has banned two popular live political talk shows, the private satellite television channel ETV has said.

"The information ministry handed us a written order saying that we cannot telecast out our live talk shows," a senior ETV official told AFP.

ETV, the country's first terrestrial television station, was banned by a court order during the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government in 2002.

It resumed operation last year after foregoing its terrestrial rights.

Via Bangladesh-Blogger

UK Politics - Have Your Say

Seen on: YouTube

Make your voice heard on the issues in UK politics that matter most to you.

Via Box-UK

Patient-Musharraf

Pervez-Musharraf has promised that Pakistan will hold fair elections next month and urged the West to be more patient.

He also sought to ease worries about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal as Islamic-extremists step up their fight with his government, insisting that tight security would prevent the weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

"We have a multilayer custodial and command system," Musharraf told the European Parliament as he began an eight-day European-trip.

European Union foreign-policy chief Javier-Solana said after meeting with Musharraf that Feb. 18 parliamentary elections must be "free, fair and secure" and that their conduct would determine the bloc's relations and engagement with Pakistan.

Via Time-Magazine

White-House Overwrote E-Mail

E-mail messages sent and received by White-House personnel during the first three years of the Bush-administration were routinely "recycled,".

During the period in question, the Bush presidency faced some of its biggest controversies, including the Iraq-war.

Two federal statutes require presidential-communications, including e-mails involving senior White House aides, to be preserved for the nation's historical record.

Some historians responded to the court disclosure yesterday by urging that the White House's actions be thoroughly probed.

"There certainly could have been hugely important-materials there . . . and of course they're not owned by President Bush or anybody in the administration, they're owned by the public," said presidential historian Robert-Dallek.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he has no reason to believe any E-mails were deliberately destroyed.

The court filing said tapes were recycled before October 2003, and at that point, the White House "began preserving and storing all backup tapes."

Via Washington-Post

The Cold War

The term "Cold War" was introduced in 1947 by Americans Bernard Baruch and Walter Lippmann to describe emerging tensions between two former-allies.

It was the period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and Soviet-Union and their respective allies from the mid-40s till early-90s.

Link > CNN Special: Cold War

George-Bush Online

President George W. Bush is to answer-questions submitted through the official White House Website about his week-long trip to the Middle-East.

Via AFP

Islam & Democracy

Seen on: YouTube

Abdur Rahim Green talks about Islam and Democracy.

Born in Dar-es-salaam in Tanzania to British parents, Green's father, Gavin-Green, was a colonial-administrator in the then extant British-Empire.

Whilst in Britain his father got a job in 1976 working for Barclays-Bank International and was subsequently sent to Cairo, Egypt, to set up a branch.

His study of the Qur'an attracted him to Islam, and he-embraced Islam in 1988.

Despotism & Democracy

Seen on: YouTube

Do you take the word democracy for granted? Is it time to re-think again?

Pakistan elections delayed

A spokesman for Pakistan's election-commission has said that holding parliamentary elections as scheduled on 8 January "looks impossible". But Kanwar Dilshad said the final decision would be reached on Wednesday after consulting political parties.

There are no grounds whatsoever for delaying the elections.
Raza Rabbani, deputy secretary general, PPP, deputy secretary general, PPP

Mr Dilshad told reporters that protests had directly affected the organisation of the poll in some parts of the country. "We will inform the political parties about the situation in Sindh where our 13 offices were burnt," he said.

Via BBC

Bhutan: Monarchy to Democracy

Voters in the remote Himalayan nation of Bhutan are heading to the-polls in a key step towards the ending of almost a century of absolute monarchy.

About 300,000 Bhutanese are eligible to vote. International observers from India, the US, Australia and the United Nations will be monitoring the election.

Bhutan's transition to democracy began when former King Jigme-Singhye-Wangchuck announced he was handing over power to his Oxford educated son and transforming the monarchy.

Via AlJazeera