by Asad Raza Gokal Since September 2020, when the UAE struck with Israel a deal on normalizing relations, alarm bells began to ring louder for the Pakistani Shia diaspora residing in the country. In the United Arab Emirate (UAE), members of the Shia families, a religious minority, are mostly employed in professions that pay them enough to cater the needs …

Reprisal murders targeting media persons doubled in 2020, finds CJP; Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian journalist, was hanged on December 12 after conviction by the regime News Desk A media freedom watchdog has reported alarming increase in murder cases of journalists worldwide for their professional work during the outgoing year. At least 30 journalists were slain while on duty this year, …

Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian journalist and activist whose online work helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017, has been sentenced to death for his actions following what Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called a “grossly unfair” trial. A Revolutionary Court “considered that the 13 charges [against Zam] were the equivalent of the charge of spreading ‘corruption on earth’ and therefore passed the death …

CM announces lockdown for Gilgit-Baltistan HOME LOCKDOWN COMES INTO FORCE FROM MIDNIGHT————————————————–Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister announces enforcement of home lockdown plan in Gilgit-Baltistan to contain spread of Coronavirus. He urged people to follow health guidelines and strictly ensure physical distance which is the only way to avoid get infected. He said the relevant officials have elaborated the details of the lockdown. …

  More than 1,000 remain there as thousands more are released into impoverished Balochistan, reports The Guardian newspaper    It was the smell that was the worst. In this dusty camp on Pakistan’s border with Iran, which at one stage held more than 6,000 people, the stench of sweat, rubbish and human excrement hung in the air. There was no …

Hong Kong, Lebanon, Sudan, Brazil and Colombia are witnessing similar movements.   by Alka Kurian Women are among the strongest opponents of India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens, which threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims, poor women, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people. The Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from …

The criticism of Western policy by the so-called free press within narrow bounds has subtle effect of imposing the hegemonic doctrine of imperialism, serves the western dominant intellectual culture and its institutions, says Prof Noam Chomsky

Herald Report   The US invasion of Iraq was aimed at setting up permanent military bases there and to benefit energy corporations and weapons industry, comments Professor Noam Chomsky, an internationally acclaimed American linguist in a conversation with Hassan Mirza, published in The Express Tribune Blogs section. The conversation is based on correspondence between the two over a period of …

Experts say Pakistan needs to shift its foreign policy from geostrategic to financial diplomacy   Special correspondent Islamabad: Diplomatic and development experts have termed the Pakistan recent diplomatic overtures ill-conceived and ill-prepared. They suggested that Pakistan needs a paradigm shift in its foreign policy and focus on economic diplomacy rather than on the traditional geostrategic partnership. They were speaking at …

A Ukrainian airliner crashed soon after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport on Wednesday, killing all 176 people aboard, Iran’s state television and Ukraine’s leaders said. The Boeing 737 belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashed near the airport and burst into flames. Ukraine’s embassy in Iran, citing preliminary information, said the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash …

For centuries, Iran has been producing some of the world’s most influential and inspiring poets, whose works revolutionized the literature of both the East and the West. Spanning themes of love, divine mysticism and human rights, their poetry is an incredible contribution to Iranian culture, and remains entirely relevant today. Here we profile 10 of the most inspiring Iranian poets. by ANAHIT …

Kurdish-led group says last of militants cleared from stronghold of Baghuz After almost five years, the battle to dismantle Islamic State’s brutal “caliphate” has ended with an announcement from US-backed forces that the militants have been driven out of their last stronghold of Baghuz, deep in the Syrian desert. Isis had held out for months against the Syrian Democratic Forces …