Modi orders bureaucrats to clean toilets on national holiday

By AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered his bureaucrats to come in to work to clean up their offices — including toilets — on this week’s national holiday to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.

The move is part of a nationwide cleanliness drive to be launched by Modi on the holiday Thursday, with the premier himself expected to take a broom to the capital’s notoriously dirty streets.

The initiative has sparked grumblings by officials from India’s infamously slow and vast bureaucracy who say the request to work, although theoretically voluntary, cannot be ignored.

Modi has cracked down on officials since storming to power in May elections, demanding they turn up to work at 9 am and paying unannounced visits to government offices.

“We have already been turning up on time and working till late (since Modi took office). Now we have been asked to wield the broom and we might as well do so,” one reluctant official told AFP in New Delhi on Tuesday.

“My children are upset that I will have to go to the office even on a national holiday,” he said, requesting anonymity.

But another official was decidedly upbeat, saying it was an important step in ridding India of its entrenched class system in which only those from low castes cleaned up waste.

“It is an unprecedented sanitation movement,” the officer in the power ministry told AFP.

“Wielding the broom is a powerful symbol. It shows that no work is mean and that each one of us should be responsible for cleaning up our waste.”

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1135294

First Ebola Case Is Diagnosed in the U.S., CDC Reports

By Kelly Gilblom

The first case of deadly Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. has been confirmed in Dallas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in a statement.

Read more » Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-30/first-ebola-case-is-diagnosed-in-the-u-s-cdc-reports.html

Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us

An economic system that rewards psychopathic personality traits has changed our ethics and our personalities

By Paul Verhaeghe, theguardian.com

We tend to perceive our identities as stable and largely separate from outside forces. But over decades of research and therapeutic practice, I have become convinced that economic change is having a profound effect not only on our values but also on our personalities. Thirty years of neoliberalism, free-market forces and privatisation have taken their toll, as relentless pressure to achieve has become normative. If you’re reading this sceptically, I put this simple statement to you: meritocratic neoliberalism favours certain personality traits and penalises others.

There are certain ideal characteristics needed to make a career today. The first is articulateness, the aim being to win over as many people as possible. Contact can be superficial, but since this applies to most human interaction nowadays, this won’t really be noticed.

It’s important to be able to talk up your own capacities as much as you can – you know a lot of people, you’ve got plenty of experience under your belt and you recently completed a major project. Later, people will find out that this was mostly hot air, but the fact that they were initially fooled is down to another personality trait: you can lie convincingly and feel little guilt. That’s why you never take responsibility for your own behaviour.

On top of all this, you are flexible and impulsive, always on the lookout for new stimuli and challenges. In practice, this leads to risky behaviour, but never mind, it won’t be you who has to pick up the pieces. The source of inspiration for this list? The psychopathy checklist by Robert Hare, the best-known specialist on psychopathy today.

Madonna’s ‘dream school’ opens in Karachi, Sindh

SINDH – KARACHI: Pop icon and social activist Madonna took to Instagram on Monday to announce the opening of  her ‘dream school’ in Karachi that she pledged to help build last year.

“The Revolution of Love continues in Pakistan! The Dream School is finally finished. 1,200 kids attending. Knowledge is Power! #rayoflight #livingforlove,” read her caption.

Last year, Madonna announced that she is raising money to expand a school in an impoverished area on the outskirts of Karachi, according to a press release on her official website.

The starlet went on stage at a live concert in London and publicised that she is supporting girls’ education in Pakistan through her Ray of Light Foundation, and urged people to support her cause.  She was joined on stage by Humaira Bachal, an education activist from Karachi.

Madonna has long spoken about her admiration for Humaira Bachal, a Pakistani woman who has campaigned for better education for young girls.

Speaking at the Chime For Change event in London last year, Madonna said, “Let’s help Humaira build a bigger school in Pakistan! How ‘bout this? You build the first floor, I’ll build the rest of the school. Let’s do this together!”

The Dream Model Street School is located in Mawach Goth, Karachi and was founded by the Dream Foundation Trust (DFT), a Pakistani non-governmental organisation.

Read more » The Express Tribune
http://tribune.com.pk/story/768771/madonnas-dream-school-opens-in-karachi/

Taliban seize strategic Afghan district in Ghazni province

Taliban fighters have seized control of a strategic district in the Afghan province of Ghazni, officials say.

Insurgents killed about 70 villagers after taking Ajrestan district late on Thursday night after a week of battle.

A spokesman for the provincial governor said 15 people suspected of collaborating with authorities were beheaded, including women.

The Taliban is active in many parts of Ghazni, an important gateway to the capital, Kabul, from the south-east.

Fighting is continuing as security forces try to regain the district but officials fear surrounding districts are now vulnerable to attack.

Strategic district

Some analysts say that control of Ajrestan also provides militants with a launching pad for attacks into adjacent provinces in the east of the country.

China’s Choice: India or Pakistan?

Which South Asian country is more important for China’s future?

By Mu Chunshan

Among China’s relations with Asian neighbors, its ties with the countries in South Asia are generally considered to be the weakest. Now, with Sino-Japan tensions over the East China Sea and conflict with many Southeast Asian countries over the South China Sea, the role of South Asian countries has become more prominent. South Asia is now a focus in China’s regional strategy, as shown by President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to the area.

When it comes to South Asia, people think of India and Pakistan first. China has an “all weather friendship” with Pakistan but an ambivalent, often testy relationship with India. But the future is sometimes different from both the past and the present. Moving forward,  which country is more important for China? Even without a clear answer, just puzzling through this question can help make many issues clear.

In fact, we only to need to answer two questions to know whether India or Pakistan is more important for China. First, which one is a major power? Second, which one can better help China realize its interests?

Which is the major power, India or Pakistan? The answer is relatively simple — India. When it comes to international influence, India is part of BRICS and the G20 and is a leader of the developing world through the G77 and the Non-Aligned Movement. India is well poised to become a major power in the world arena.

The answer is even more obvious from the economic perspective. According to the World Bank, India’s GDP in 2013 was roughly $1.9 trillion. By contrast, Pakistan’s GDP was only $236 billion, only about 12 percent of India’s. In 2013, India was the 10th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP.

India’s economy is just beginning to boom; its growth rate in 2013 was 4.5 percent. Experts believe that India today is like China in the mid-1980s, poised for rapid economic growth. Despite many difficulties, there is no reason for India’s economic growth to come to a halt. By contrast, Pakistan has not enjoyed the same type of economic growth in the past decade. Of course, at 1.2 billion, India’s population is far greater than Pakistan’s, but even when looking at per capita GDP India outranks Pakistan. The gap between two countries will probably widen in the future, placing Pakistan at even more of a disadvantage when compared with India.

‘Brain-eating’ amoeba claims 11th life in Sindh

Photo credits: — AP file photo

KARACHI: A 57-year-old man — the oldest victim so far — who had visited Pakistan after years in the United States died of infection caused by Naegleria fowleri also known as “brain-eating amoeba” increasing the year’s death toll to 11 in the province and 10th in Karachi, officials said on Sunday.

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1134952

At least 26 injured as police, protesters clash during Hong Kong protests

By Anjali Tsui, Euan McKirdy, Esther Pang and Vivian Kam, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — Police are in a tense standoff with tens of thousands of pro-democracy student demonstrators, recently joined by the like-minded Occupy Central movement, which has announced the formal start of a campaign of civil disobedience in the Chinese territory.

Read more » CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/28/world/asia/china-hong-kong-students/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter

Karachi ruled by everyone, run by no one

By Vaqar Ahmed

Here’s the routine for most people in Karachi:

They wake up in the morning and get ready for work. The lucky ones have enough water to take a bath but most have to make do with much less. If there is some gas, the stove is switched on, and some tea and bread is prepared for breakfast. Then, it is off to the bus stop with the hope of finding transport to make it to work in time. When the bus arrives, the object called human body is stuffed into it like a sardine joining other sardines in a tin box.

The same routine happens in reverse at the end of a long day. Also, during the day, those who went out for work and those who stayed at home need electricity to do their jobs or carry out the various tasks at home; if they are lucky, they will get it for a few hours.

Read more » DAWN

Can Pakistan’s new ISI spy chief Rizwan Akhtar restore security?

Pakistan’s army has chosen a new head of the country’s controversial spy agency. Seen as experienced in counter-insurgency operations, Lieutenant-General Rizwan Akhtar is being called “a professional soldier”. But as M Ilyas Khan reports, the question is whether he will be able to restore internal security.

Lt-Gen Akhtar’s appointment as head of Pakistan’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) makes him the second most powerful man in the military – and possibly in the country, some would say – after the army chief.

Read more » BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29340680

The mentally ill population in the largest U.S. jail system is out of control

Screaming Inmates Make L.A. Rethink Jailing Mentally Ill

By James Nash

Inmates in suicide-proof gowns scream and bang on their cell doors one floor below Terri McDonald’s office in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. The bedlam is a reminder, if she needs one, that the mentally ill population in the largest U.S. jail system is out of control.

It’s a “shameful social and public-safety issue,” said McDonald, the assistant sheriff who runs Los Angeles County’s jails. “I believe we can do better. I believe at some point in the future we’ll look back and wonder, ‘What took so long?’”

Read more » Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-26/screaming-inmates-make-l-a-rethink-jailing-mentally-ill.html

Pakistan’s women cricket team storm Asian Games, win first Gold medal for the country

by Asfia Afzal

Pakistan’s women cricket team fought their way to victory in the final of the Asian Games women twenty 20 cricket tournament beating Bangladesh by 59 runs.

The women’s team outclassed defending champion China with a nine-wicket win in the semi final of Asian Games 2014 played at Yeonhui Cricket Ground, in Inheon on Thursday.

With the victory the team was through to the final of the Incheon Asian Games to face Bangladesh, where they successfully won the first gold medal for the Pakistani nation in the Asian games.

Bangladesh’s team played their best in the semis and defeated the Sri Lankan Women side by 25 runs in the second semi-final to seal their spot in the finals but Pakistan’s team stole their win in finals with 97 runs against Bangladesh’s 38 runs.

Read more » Business Recorder
http://www.brecorder.com/sports/cricket/197250-pakistan%E2%80%99s-women-cricket-team-storm-asian-games-win-first-gold-medal-for-the-country.html

Sindh Assembly passes resolution against division of Sindh

By Agencies

KARACHI: In the absence of members of the opposition and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Pakistan Peoples Party on Thursday managed to unanimously pass a resolution in the Sindh Assembly against the division of the province or formation of new administrative units.

The resolution was jointly moved by Sohail Akbar and other PPP members in the backdrop of a recent demand by the MQM to create more administrative units in Sindh.

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1134279/sindh-assembly-passes-resolution-against-division-of-sindh

Marsoon Marsoon Sindh na desoon resolution  passed by Sindh Assembly

Metro Bus or Mars: The problem with our priorities

By Bilal Karim Mughal

1969 was the year, when the United States succeeded in landing humans on the moon – our closest neighbour in space – and safely bringing them back to Earth.

The United States, being the most technologically advanced country on Earth, put that feather in its hat about 45 years ago.

What was the condition of India and Pakistan at that time? The two countries had already fought two battles, and were about to plunge into another one in 1971.

While the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was established in 1969, the same year when humans set foot on the moon, Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) was established in 1961 – eight years before its Indian counterpart.

Explore: Space: Above and Beyond

SUPARCO was set up by the most famous of all Pakistani scientists and the country’s only Nobel Laureate: Dr Abdus Salam.

Dr Salam had advised Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan, then President of Pakistan to establish a Space Sciences Research Wing within Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. This later turned into SUPARCO in 1964.

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1134488

40 rioters dead in Luntai county violence in Xinjiang

Baku-APA. Forty rioters died in a series of explosions in Luntai County of northwest China’s Xinjiang on Sunday, and six civilians, two police officers and two auxiliary policemen were killed, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Another two rioters were captured by the police, according to the official Tianshan website.

The blasts hit a shop, an open fair and two police stations around 5 p.m. Sunday, the website said.

Xinjiang police said it was an “organized and serious” terrorist attack.

Courtesy: apa
http://en.apa.az/news/216880

Isis publicly execute leading lawyer and human rights activist in Iraq

Isis militants have publically executed Samira Salih al-Nuaimi, a leading lawyer and human rights activist, who the terror group claimed that had abandoned Islam.

Al-Nuaimi was kidnapped by Isis (also known as Islamic State) on 17 September after she allegedly criticised the militant group’s destruction of places of worship in Mosul, Iraq, since it had taken control of the city, in comments posted on Facebook.

She was then kidnapped from her home by a group of masked men and tried in a self-styled Sharia court for apostasy, which for the militants is considered to be an act of abandoning Islam by converting to another faith, or by committing actions that are against the Muslim faith.

Militants kidnapped and tortured Samira Saleh al-Naimi for five days before executing her

The militants then tortured al-Nuaimi for five days.

Read more » THE INDEPENDENT
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-publicly-execute-leading-lawyer-and-human-rights-activist-in-iraq-9756197.html

ISIS linked Jihadists in Algeria ‘behead’ French hostage Gourdel

Jihadists in Algeria ‘behead’ French hostage Gourdel

A video posted online purports to show the execution of a Frenchman taken hostage by a group linked to the “Islamic State” known as Jund al-Khalifa. The group kidnapped the man in Algeria on Sunday.

Read more » DW
http://www.dw.de/jihadists-in-algeria-behead-french-hostage-gourdel/a-17951032

Parties reject Altaf’s demand for new provinces in Sindh

KARACHI: A multi-party conference on Tuesday rejected a call of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to create more administrative units in Sindh and resolved that everyone living in the province irrespective of their ethnic background would not allow the division of Sindh.

The conference, titled ‘Administrative provinces and demand for dividing Sindh is a conspiracy against Sindh, country and peace’, was jointly organised by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan and the Qaumi Awami Tehreek.

Besides two former chief ministers, representatives of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, PML-Functional, Jamaat-i-Islami, National Party, Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Balochistan National Party, several Sindhi nationalist parties and members of civil society and minorities attended the conference.

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1133885/parties-reject-altafs-demand-for-new-provinces-in-sindh

BBC urdu column: Mohammad Hanif on new DG ISI Appointment

Read more » BBC urdu
See more » http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2014/09/140924_new_isi_chief_analysis_rk.shtml

India is the only nation so far to reach Mars on its first attempt.

By JOANNA SUGDEN

India put a satellite into Mars orbit early Wednesday, the only nation to have done so on a maiden voyage and the first in Asia to reach the red planet.

As the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked on, space scientists at mission control in Bangalore, India’s tech capital, announced that the Mangalyaan orbiter had entered Mars orbit after a 10-month voyage from Earth.

Mangalyaan, Hindi for Mars craft, cost $74 million to send into space, making it by far the cheapest of recent missions to Mars. The U.S. spent $671 million getting its Maven satellite to Mars orbit, where it arrived late Sunday.

Read more » The Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/24/indias-mangalyaan-enters-mars-orbit/?mod=e2tw

Asma Jahangir, Snowden honoured with ‘alternative Nobel’

By Agencies

STOCKHOLM: Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir and Edward Snowden are among the winners Wednesday of a Swedish human rights award, sometimes referred to as the “alternative Nobel.”

The 1.5 million kronor ($210,000) cash award was shared by Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and US environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Also read: Herald exclusive: An interview with Asma Jahangir

The former National Security Agency contractor, who was honoured for his disclosures of top secret surveillance programs. split the honorary portion of the 2014 Right Livelihood Award with Alan Rusbridger, editor of British newspaper The Guardian, which has published a series of articles on government surveillance based on documents leaked by Snowden.

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honours efforts that prize founder Jacob von Uexkull felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

The prize is awarded annually “to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”, according to the foundation.

As an honorary award winner, Snowden, would not receive the customary 500,000 kronor ($70,000) prize money, but the foundation said it would “fund legal support for him” without disclosing the amount.

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1134056

Pakistani movie – Operation 021 Teaser

Operation 021 is upcoming Pakistani spy-action thriller movie — to be released on Eid-ul-Azha

Courtesy: Daily Motion

Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar named new ISI chief

By Dawn.com | Reuters

RAWALPINDI: Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar, considered a close ally of Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif, has been promoted to the post of Director General Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) on Monday among other promotions within the army ranks. The announcement was made by Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major Asim Bajwa on Twitter:

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1133581/lt-gen-rizwan-akhtar-named-new-isi-chief

SP also ‘punished’ for stopping general’s car

SP also ‘punished’ for stopping general’s car

LAHORE, Oct 16: Model Town division SP Syed Ahmed Mobin Zaidi was transferred and directed to report to the central police office (CPO) in the wake of an incident on Tuesday night when a police team stopped the car of a major-general’s family at a picket near Ghalib Market, Gulberg.

Model Town division ASP Muhammad Ali Nikokar has already been asked to report to the CPO. Besides, Ghalib Market SHO Shahid Chaddar has been suspended and Constable Nazir booked under Section 506.

The police had stopped the car on Tuesday night to remove its tinted glass, which was banned by the Punjab government for security reasons following the murder of MNA Maulana Azam Tariq.

The driver, who was reportedly in army uniform, introduced the family on board. But constable Nazir Ahmad refused to let them go because “no body was exempted from the ban”.

This led to an argument between the two which attracted other policemen present there who intervened in the matter and allowed the family to go with the tinted glass still intact.

Before leaving, the general’s driver reportedly threatened the policemen with dire consequences. His threat meterialized within minutes as the senior army command got into action and asked the police hierarchy to take strict action against the constable, Ghalib Market SHO and Model Town division SP and ASP.

The police command not only booked constable Nazir Ahmed but also allowed the army to take him to the corps headquarters handcuffed for “further interrogation”. He managed his release on Wednesday after getting bail from a local court.

Sources said SP Syed Ahmed Mobin Zaidi did try to use his connections in the army but failed to stop his transfer due to “enormous pressure” on the police hierarchy.

According to an army official, the action has been taken to “condemn the police conduct at pickets”. Soon after the incident, vehicles of the army and the judiciary were exempted from the ban.

Courtesy: DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/120505/sp-also-punished-for-stopping-general-s-car

Sneak peak at Russia’s ‘under renovation’ Arctic base

Kotelny Island is a nondescript piece of frigid wasteland of no particular note. Except hosting a military base-in-the-making, the first of many from which Russia plans to project its military might to and across the Arctic. RT visited with the Navy.

The island is the largest in the Novosibirsk Archipelago, located in the Laptev Sea off the eastern Siberian coast. Back in the soviet days the military deployed an observation post and a radar station on the Kotelny Island, but with the fall of the country all the troops were withdrawn, leaving behind only a civilian meteorological station.

But now, after decades of desolation, the former military base is being rebuilt. Last year sailors and engineers of the Russian Northern Fleet began construction works, cleaning up rusty barrels and broken vehicles abandoned on the island and constructing a landing strip so that supplies could be airlifted rather than air-dropped.

Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/188712-arctic-russia-military-base/

Thanks To Imran Khan And A Sunni Cleric, Pakistan’s Democracy Is Under Threat

By Deedar Hussain Samejo, Forbes

Pakistan has been once again gripped by the domestic political crisis. Country’s fragile democracy is facing serious threats as cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Movement for Justice party, and Sunni cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, head of Pakistan People’s Movement party, along with their supporters, armed with clubs and batons, continue to paralyze the capital city, Islamabad, for more than three weeks.

Protesters led by Imran Khan, who believes that Nawaz Sharif is corrupt and became prime minister after rigging the May 2013 elections, and Tahir-ul-Qadri, who aims to abolish the current parliamentary form of political system and bring “revolution” in the country, have occupied the sensitive area of the capital city, bringing the normal diplomatic activities at a complete standstill. They are demanding nothing less than resignation of elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Archbishop of Canterbury admits doubts about existence of God

The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted to feeling doubts over the existence of God.

In a recent interview at Bristol Cathedral, Archbishop Justin Welby said on a recent morning run with his dog he had questioned why God had failed to intervene to prevent injustice.

“The other day I was praying over something as I was running and I ended up saying to God ‘Look this is all very well but isn’t it about time you did something – if you’re there.’”

Earlier in the interview, when asked if he had moments of doubt, Archbishop Welby replied: “Yes. I do, in lots of different ways.”

“There are moments, sure, when you think is there a God, where is God?”

Read more » The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/archbishop-of-canterbury-admits-doubts-about-existence-of-god-9740965.html

No room for democracy

By Ayesha Siddiqa

The video of two parliamentarians being forcibly offloaded a PIA flight from Karachi to Islamabad has gone viral. The incident is generally being viewed as an indicator of how a peculiar behaviour, which was associated with old style patronage politics, will get challenged. The national carrier may find it increasingly difficult to treat its passengers differently — trap over two hundred souls in an aircraft while allowing VIPs to sit in a comfortable lounge as the aircraft recovers for two hours from its technical problems. Surely we can all clap at the event as a forward movement, this also indicates militant attitudes creeping into our political and social lives. Here I am not taking a position for or against but only suggesting what has changed.

This is not even an isolated incident. Those enjoying video evidence must also see the manner in which the police have been taking a thrashing from the ‘Naya Pakistan’ protestors. While we can all sympathise with Imran Khan’s right to change the political tone, it would be worthwhile for him to envision how he would, if he did become the prime minister of this country, put the genie back into the bottle. Much that he likes to compare himself with Jinnah, Imran would not be able to ensure that the same police, which get battered and bruised during the rule of his opponents, will get respected when he becomes the man in charge. No one seems willing to tell the story of the tired policemen who have been doing their duty for the last 30 days with little to boost their ego.

No nuclear waste: Fuel of future produced at Russia’s high-tech underground plant

Russia’s ‘Breakthrough’ energy project enables closed a nuclear fuel cycle and a future without radioactive waste. The first batch of MOX nuclear fuel has been manufactured for the world’s only NPP industrially power generating breeder reactors.

The first ten kilograms of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) – a mixture of plutonium and uranium dioxides (UO2 and PuO2), have been industrially produced by Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, at the Mining & Chemical Combine (GKhK) in the Krasnoyarsk region.

A world first, tablets of the fuel of the future have been put on serial production and are destined for Russia’s next generation BN-800 breeder reactor (880 megawatts

Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/188332-mox-nuclear-fuel-production/

India rolls out red carpet as China President Xi makes maiden visit

By AFP

AHMEDABAD: India’s new prime minister rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping in his home town on Wednesday, as the Chinese president began a maiden visit with both sides seeking to reset the relationship between Asia’s rival superpowers.

Narendra Modi has pulled out all the stops for Xi’s arrival, organising an intimate riverside dinner in Ahmedabad, the main city in his home state of Gujarat, where giant billboards in Chinese, Gujarati and English have been put up to welcome him.

Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1132526