How India mistreats Kashmir

Editor’s note: Kapil Komireddi is an Indian journalist. He has written from South Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. The views expressed are his own.

Returning home from a visit to Pakistan in 2009, I was invited to have tea with one of the Indian army officials stationed on the international border. Inside his office, I was introduced to another traveler, a middle-aged Kashmiri man who was also on his way back from Pakistan. The three of us spent the next two hours talking about Pakistan. I spoke fondly of Lahore, but the Kashmiri was full of scorn.
“Take my word on this, sir: Pakistan will break apart,” he told the officer. “They are all starving over there.” Later that day, on our way to Delhi, the Kashmiri

Asian shares rise on positive U.S. tone, yen slips

 TOKYO –  Asian shares rose on Monday, boosted by a positive tone in U.S. equities last week, while the yen fell to a near seven-month low against the dollar on expectations a new government after next month's election in Japan may deliver more stimulus.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.5 percent, recovering from a nine-week low marked on Friday.
Australian shares rose 0.6 percent while South Korean shares <.KS11> opened 0.5 percent higher.
Japan's Nikkei average <.N225>, which bucked the broad Asian downtrend on Friday and surged 2.2 percent to a two-week closing high, opened up 1.3 percent.
"The market bullish sentiment will continue today," said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Inc, adding that sentiment had changed as trading volume hit an eight-month

Asian factories perk up, U.S. shows improvement

NEW YORK/BEIJING –  Asia's large economies started to pick up steam last month after a year of slower growth, surveys showed on Thursday, while U.S. manufacturing showed modest improvement.

The jury was out on whether the data signaled sustained improvement in the fragile global economy, although analysts said strength in the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies, was essential to overall economic well-being.
That is particularly so at a time when a debt crisis in the 17-country euro zone has plunged several countries in the region into recession. Reports on major euro zone countries are due on Friday and expected to show continued economic contraction.
But the picture appeared to be brightening elsewhere.
The Institute for Supply Management said the pace of U.S. manufacturing growth picked up slightly in October, with its index rising to a five-month peak of 51.7. But hiring in the sector slowed.
A separate report from data firm Markit showed the slowest pace of growth in 37 months,

How India is treading its own path with Afghan ties

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit this week to India highlighted the strengthening relationship between the two countries. While India has invested heavily in a range of development projects in Afghanistan since 2002, its emergence as a political player is relatively new, considering that as recently as January 2010, and under Pakistani pressure, India was excluded from a conference in Istanbul discussing security in Afghanistan. Deteriorating relations between the United States and Pakistan, and the subsequent announcement of 2014 as the year of “transition” changed the West’s attitude towards India’s role. By June of this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was urging India to play a more active role in Afghanistan.
While there had been speculation prior to Karzai’s India visit that the two countries would agree to scale up training of Afghan

Pakistan agrees to free ten Afghan Taliban

Islamabad prisoner release proposed in attempt to revive talks between Taliban and Kabul.

Pakistan has agreed to free several Afghan Taliban prisoners, officials from both countries said on Wednesday.

The talks between Pakistani diplomats and Afghan peace negotiators came as Salahuddin Rabbani, chair of the Afghan High Peace Council, is on a three-day visit to Islamabad. Rabbani's visit is seen as a bid to re-start the peace process, which has been stalling for more than a year. He is expected to meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and other high ranking officials.

The proposed prisoner release is the clearest sign that Pakistan will put its weight behind Afghan reconciliation efforts.

Afghan officials have long lobbied for the release of Taliban prisoners by Pakistan in the hope that direct contacts with top insurgent commanders could boost peace talks.

"We aren't too certain whether they can play an important role in peace negotiations but it is a positive gesture from Pakistan in helping peace efforts," an Afghan official told the Reuters news agency.

According to reports in the Dawn newspaper, it was unclear if

Death penalty request over Afghan massacre

US army prosecutors request court-martial and death penalty for Sergeant Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 villagers.

Army prosecutors have called for a US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers to face a full court-martial and the death penalty.

Wrapping up their case in the pre-trial hearing, prosecutors described the "heinous and despicable" alleged massacre in March by Sergeant Robert Bales, details of which were given during an eight-day hearing at a military base south of Seattle.

"Based on the sheer brutality and nature of the crimes, it is our recommendation to proceed to a general court-martial," said prosecutor Major Rob Stelle at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Washington.

"Because of the heinous, brutal and methodical

Sri Lanka troops accused of prison 'massacre'

Opposition party demands independent inquiry into violence at country's largest prison that left 27 convicts dead.

Opposition party demands independent inquiry into violence at country's largest prison that left 27 convicts dead.

A soldier stands guard near prison in Sri Lanka following a weekend jail riot that killed 27 people. [AFP]

As government troops beef up security following a weekend jail riot, the country's main opposition has demanded an independent inquiry into the incident, which left 27 convicts dead. The United National Party (UNP) on Sunday called for a parliamentary investigation into the riot that erupted on Friday evening and carried on into Saturday morning at the maximum-security Welikada prison in the capital Colombo. "This is nothing but a massacre," UNP spokesman Mangala Samaraweera told the AFP news agency. "Most of the convicts appeared to have been killed