By Ahsan Butt

Well, obviously it’s only been an hour or two since this whole thing was announced, and we know very little at this point. It would behoove everyone, including myself, to be cautionary in their pronouncements and “lessons” from this episode. To that end, I’m thinking more in terms of questions than answers.

By Paul Rogers

The diplomatic signals point to negotiation with the Taliban as a route to ending the Afghan conflict. But the geopolitical hurdles remain formidable.

By Sunny

Via Sepia Mutiny this big story is in the New York Times today: A United Nations panel investigating allegations of war crimes by Sri Lankan troops at the end of the bloody battle against Tamil rebels in May 2009 found that there was credible evidence that government soldiers had targeted civilians, shelled hospitals and attacked humanitarian workers, according to a leaked copy of the panel’s report.   

By Razeshta Sethna

In Pakistan, hope has a conjoined twin: resilience. For third-generation Pakistanis today there aren’t many reasons for optimism in a country where since independence a great deal of ruin, decay and backwardness has set in. Liberals claim their progressive way of thinking is unthreatened, that there is hope beyond the challenge of education, terrorism, and economic collapse; that the religious right is a minuscule minority unable to win an election, in a country already in the grip of non-secular proxies.