.

This is a great movie and deserves all the attention it is getting. You see, the Indian government is spending millions of U.S. dollars – remember the ‘Incredible India’ campaign on CNN? – to hide exactly what this film reveals. The British director and the Indian novelist are amazing. But so are the unvarnished truths about India that come to the fore for the first time through this film. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—British movie “Slumdog Millionaire” emerged as the big winner at the 66th Golden Globes ceremony, scooping four awards to underline its credentials ahead of next month's Oscars. Director Danny Boyle’s blockbuster, based on the novel Q and A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup, bagged the awards for best drama, musical score, young actor and screenplay. There is a great jubilation in India since the movie is set in Mumbai. The story revolves around Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is about to experience the biggest day of hi...

With 180 girls' schools torched since 2008 in Pakistan's Swat Valley and some 900 indefinitely closed, the future for education for some 125,000 young women is under dire threat by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The latest bombings took place Monday in the district capital, Mingora, "once considered the safest place in Swat," according to The Guardian . Five girls' schools were leveled by TTP militants who last week decreed a permanent ban on education for girls. In recent weeks, residents who have crossed the TTP have been strung-up from trees, beaten, or had their shops destroyed while markets have been ruled " no go " areas for women. First mobilized during the 1980s by the CIA and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI) as "plausibly deniable" assets to wage "holy war" against Afghanistan's socialist government, organized crime and drug-linked jihadi groups now threaten Pakistan itself. Call it "blo...

By B. Raman 1.The Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) have mounted a damage-control exercise by sharing with senior journalists details of technical intelligence (TECHINT) collected by them, which clearly indicated that the terrorists are planning to carry out sea-borne terrorist strikes against hotels on Mumbai's coast, one of the hotels being the Taj Mahal hotel, which was actually attacked and occupied by some terrorists on the night of November 26, 2008. This intelligence was disseminated by them to those responsible for physical security. It seems to be the contention of the IB and the R&AW that what happened in Mumbai was a serious instance of physical security failure and failure to act on available intelligence and not an instance of intelligence failure. 2. Other independent reports indicate that the reports were acted upon by the Mumbai Police and the security authorities of the Taj Mahal Hotel. It was not as if they ignored them. ...