Global index provider MSCI recently announced its plans to include Pakistan in its emerging markets index, due to its recent economic performance. MSCI announced it plans to upgrade Pakistan from frontier- to emerging-market status in 2016. News that Pakistan is being considered for inclusion in the MSCI emerging markets index was seized upon by a government desperate for international recognition of what it says are its achievements...

In the week when the US normalised relations with two of its historic foes – Cuba and Iran, the global media gave wall-to-wall coverage to the deal between the US and Iran, describing it as a historic deal that potentially changes the global political landscape. The accord was announced on Tuesday 14 July by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union's Policy Chief Federica Mogherini in a…

“The Kurds fight ferociously for Kurdistan. The Shiites have been fighting doggedly for their people. The Sunnis of the Islamic State are killing and dying for their cause. But nobody is willing to fight for Iraq. The problem really is not that Iraq’s army has collapsed. It’s that Iraq has collapsed…Iraq today no longer exists. In 2008, 80 percent of those polled said they were “Iraqi above all.” Today that…

Introduction: "Our situation here is like a prison. We are not free. I wish I was a bird, free from this condition." - A 35-year-old Nayapara Rohingya woman. "I cannot sleep soundly here; I am afraid they will come any moment and force me to go back. We have no money. My husband is not allowed to work. We are just like prisoners here." - A 30-year-old refugee woman in…