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November 22, 2024
 

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Farhan Bokhari
COMMENTARY
May 18, 2006
Avert failure in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD -- A team of Afghan military officers who have just completed their first ever military exercises with Pakistani and U.S. troops in Pakistan represent Washington's hope for a new future for Afghanistan's beleaguered security apparatus. But the effort also promises to stir controversy because...
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2005
A lesson from Pakistan on proliferation
ISLAMABAD -- The controversy surrounding North Korea's nuclear program is a reminder of past miscues in Pakistan, whose disgraced nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, was accused last year of selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2005
Global help in Afghanistan remains vital
ISLAMABAD -- Uncertainty over Afghanistan's political future has finally begun to recede with the successful conclusion of the country's first parliamentary elections in years. Although violence continues to plague Afghanistan, its political progress is impressive. In the long run, however, its stability...
COMMENTARY
Sep 16, 2005
Pakistan's Israel diplomacy
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's opposition parties have chosen to renew their calls for President Pervez Musharraf to step down immediately following the first ever face-to-face meeting between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2005
Blaming Pakistan won't help
ISLAMABAD -- The latest diplomatic rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan speaks volumes about the underlying frictions among both countries and the United States in the so-called war on terror.
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2005
U.S. security pledge buoys Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD -- The latest U.S. promise to enhance Afghanistan's security in the years to come raises more questions than it answers for the the war-ravaged country, although the so-called declaration of strategic partnership signed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington...
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2005
Bad time to take a chance on arms sales
WASHINGTON -- When China's National People's Congress convened in Beijing early this month, Premier Wen Jiabao highlighted his nation's military modernization campaign and breathed threats against Taiwan. It would be hard to find a worse time for Europe to offer China military aid.
COMMENTARY
Mar 12, 2005
Opium again driving Afghan economy
ISLAMABAD -- This month's warning by the United Nations' main drug-monitoring watchdog that Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a narcotics-driven state should hardly come as a surprise.
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2005
Let trade cement Indo-Pakistani peace
ISLAMABAD -- After more than 57 years, an agreement by India and Pakistan to allow people within the divided state of Kashmir to cross the border by bus, beginning in April, is the most important confidence-building measure yet achieved in the two countries' yearlong peace process.
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2005
Musharraf's penchant to stay in charge
ISLAMABAD -- The prospect that Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- who seized power in a bloodless coup five years ago -- will remain head of the military looms as a major setback in the political outlook for South Asia's second-largest nuclear-armed country.
COMMENTARY
Dec 11, 2004
More to winning than tackling the Taliban
ISLAMABAD -- A call by a senior U.S. official urging Afghanistan's Taliban fighters to lay down their arms in exchange for a promise that only those guilty of major crimes would be punished marks a departure from Washington's traditional hardline stance toward the group.
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2004
Bush's win doesn't mean Musharraf can rest easy
ISLAMABAD -- The re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush for another four years comes as a welcome development for the pro-American government of Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Relations between the two countries have been close since Pakistan became an ally in the U.S.-led war...
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2004
Exacerbating Pakistan's democratic predicament
ISLAMABAD -- A decision by Pakistan's ruling party to push a bill through Parliament that would extend President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's tenure as head of the influential military establishment as well as give him wide-ranging powers marks a new setback for the nuclear-armed South Asian country's troubled...
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2004
Indo-Pakistani relations: the next phase
ISLAMABAD -- The upcoming meeting between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marks another important phase in the nine-month-old peace process between South Asia's two nuclear-armed neighbors.
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2004
Afghanistan's volatile politics
ISLAMABAD -- A spate of attacks by Taliban forces on U.S. troops and Afghan government soldiers has intensified worries over the country's first presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place next month.
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2004
Kabul will need homegrown solutions
ISLAMABAD -- Renegade warriors who continue to mount attacks on U.S. military troops and Afghan government soldiers have effectively upset the runup to Washington-backed presidential elections scheduled in four months.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2004
What of Afghan POWs?
ISLAMABAD -- Startling revelations of the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops in Iraq comes as a powerful reminder of the plight of prisoners of war in U.S. custody in other trouble spots, most notably Afghanistan. Indeed, the moral authority of the world's so-called lone superpower has declined...
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2004
South Asian peace can't wait
ISLAMABAD -- The surprise upset in India's recent elections, which saw the Congress Party take power, is unlikely to change the positive course Indo-Pakistani relations have taken. But given the two countries' long history of acrimony and the threat that hardline militants pose to the emerging peace...
COMMENTARY
May 13, 2004
Chinese nuclear deal buoys Islamabad
ISLAMABAD -- China's agreement to supply a second 300-megawatt nuclear power reactor to Pakistan encourages Islamabad's ruling establishment, which is eager to develop the country's nuclear energy potential in a significant way. The deal for the new reactor, to be located at Chashma in central Punjab...
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2004
Karzai must address ethnic imbalance
ISLAMABAD -- The U.S.-backed regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which has been promised more than $8 billion in international economic aid over the next three years, is still struggling to consolidate its political position.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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