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IN Arabic, `revolution` is a feminine noun. This is fitting, as without women revolutions are sterile. They have no movement, no life, no sound. Urdu, a distorter of tongues, pilfering as it does from Persian and Hindi, but largely Arabic, uses the masculine word for coup d`etat ingilab for revolution, rather than the accurate feminine: thawra. Perhaps that`s why the Taliban were confused. Perhaps that`s why they imagined that shooting a 15-yearold girl would somehow enhance their revolution. `I Am Malala`, Malala Yousufzai`s fearless memoir, cowritten with journalist Christina Lamb, begins on Malala`s drive home from school on the day she was shot in the head. `Who is Malala?` the young gunman who stopped the Khushal School van asked. None of the girls answered. But everyone in the valley knew who Malala was. Ten years old when the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan came to the beautiful Swat Valley, once the home of ancient Buddhist kings,11years old by the time she had established herself...

• Iraq total also up despite pull-out & middot • Annual bill for conflicts hits £4.5bn The cost of Britain's military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq this financial year has soared to more than £4.5bn, an annual increase of more than 50%, figures released yesterday reveal. Operations in southern Afghanistan accounted for a little over half, nearly £2.6bn, compared with £1.5bn last year. Most of the money was spent on providing tougher armoured vehicles for soldiers who face a growing threat of roadside bombs. Surprisingly, as the government prepares to withdraw from Basra, the cost of Britain's military presence in southern Iraq this year increased to nearly £2bn, compared with less than £1.5bn last year, according to the figures released by the Ministry of Defence. Much of that increase was accounted for by what defence officials called "impairment" - writing off the value of equipment such as Warrior fighting vehicles which are judged not to be worth the expe...

Now that Obama is installed in the Oval Office, the job of "saving the world" can begin . Of course, that's what the corporate media tells us — Barack Obama is a front man for the New World Order. He is a used car salesman tasked with selling us on global fascism, that is to say transnational corporatism. this one-term senator, basically a man out of nowhere — will save us . In fact, Barack Obama cannot save us and that will not be his job, even though millions apparently believe it . Barack Obama is a front man for the New World Order. He is a used car salesman tasked with selling us on global fascism, that is to say transnational corporatism. As Obama wrote for the globalist Council on Foreign Relations periodical Foreign Affairs , "the security and well-being of each and every American depend on the security and well-being of those who live beyond our borders." For the globalists , "security and well-being" translates into invading small and enfe...

An article posted on a Baloch Separatist Blog in 2006, which shows Israel's planning and hosting of such anti-state/anti-Pakistan elements on its soil, to further her evil designs, by spreading hatred. A Baloch considers himself or herself a Baloch first, and then anything else. He lives by his tribal code, respects his cultural norms (rawaaj), and believes in egalitarianism. He could be a citizen of any of the numerous countries in the world, but his loyalty lies to his ethnicity, his culture, and Balochistan. One of the goals of the Government of Balochistan in Exile is to unite the Baloch people from around the world so we can collectively liberate Balochistan from its colonizers, the Iranians and the Pakistanis . Balochistan's strength and uniqueness in the region lies in the fact that the Baloch culture is secular and tolerant . To a Baloch, religion is a very private matter and they don't appreciate when others try to impose their beliefs on them. Many who do practi...

As the fallout from Nov'08's bloody siege in Mumbai focuses the world's attention on Pakistan's ability to control insurgents within its own borders, Al Jazeera investigates Pakistan's role in the so-called 'war on terror'. In this exclusive 4 part series, Rageh Omaar travels from the capital, Islamabad, to the tribal heartlands to chart the spread of suicide bombings and the escalation of violence that has turned Pakistan into a war zone. Pakistan's War: The Battle Within Rageh Omaar revisits the scene of the military assault on the Red Mosque, which he witnessed in July 2007. Rageh and his team had been the last television crew inside the mosque before the siege began and filmed the last interview with mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi before his death. Rageh learns that the showdown for control of the Red Mosque marked a turning-point in Pakistan's war with the insurgents - the moment when the Taliban-backed insurgency moved from the tribal areas o...