Free Republic

Currency traders have an infatuation with interest rate differentials. Under the prevailing assumption, currencies issued by countries with high interest rates ought to appreciate against currencies issued by countries with low interest rates. This follows the logic of the carry trade, where the currency procured at low rates is exchanged for the currency deployed at high rates. While this temporarily stimulates demand for the high rate currency, it creates an open short position that only accentuates the fundamentally superior value of the low rate currency. This value rests on the axiom that interest rates and credit risk are inversely related....

A Chinese naval fleet left the southern Pakistani port of Karachi on Thursday morning following a three-day friendly visit to Pakistan. The Chinese fleet of a Shenzhen missile destroyer and a Weishanhu ocean supplier was piloted out of the Karachi port by a Pakistani destroyer. Those present at the sent-off ceremony by the shipside were Pakistani Comcoast Rear Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed, Chinese Consul General in Karachi Sun Chunye and Military Attache at the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad Li Mengyan. During their stay in Karachi, the Chinese navy visiting group, led by Rear Admiral Han Linzhi, received warm welcome by their...

Since the July 7 bombings in London, Pakistan's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, has again come under severe international pressure to clamp down on local extremist groups linked to Al Qaeda, bring extremist religious schools under control and stop the Taliban from using Pakistan as a base for attacks in Afghanistan. As a result, serious cracks are developing in the 35-year alliance between Pakistan's army, its intelligence services and Islamic fundamentalist parties. Musharraf has parried international criticism of Pakistan by accusing Prime Minister Tony Blair of allowing Islamic extremism to flourish in Britain, but since July 7 he has arrested...

At a time when anti-Americanism has spread across the globe, a new poll shows that more people in India have a positive view of the United States than in any other nation surveyed. The poll, conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, raises a larger question: How long will it be before the courtship between India and the United States leads to a strategic partnership? Despite a congruence of vital national interests and a shared political goal to build a long-term strategic relationship, the United States has yet to forge a true partnership with India. To be sure, there have...

An editorial in the independent daily Arman-e Melli says that Pakistan exports terrorism to Afghanistan today in order to influence, and ultimately, to rule that country and calls it the "bully" of the region. The paper calls on the US to withdraw its military and security support for Pakistan, because only then will that country change its policies, hand over Al-Qai'dah leaders, and the "government of mullahs will collapse in Peshawar and democracy will emerge". It points out that since the United States claim to be sponsoring democracy in the world and in the Middle East, it should not continue...

HERE'S a nice irony of timing. On the day Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was telling Canberra's National Press Club about his wonderful program to empower Pakistani women - and hailing the presence of two Pakistani female politicians in the room as evidence - The New York Times was editorialising on the travel ban Musharraf's Government has placed on another Pakistani woman, Mukhtaran Bibi. She is a Pakistani teenager who was sentenced by a tribal council to be gang-raped, allegedly because her brother had a relationship with a woman from the wrong caste. After the gang rape was carried out, Mukhtaran...

A group of researchers from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California have released a study on the promises and pitfalls of hydrogen powered vehicles. They focused on what would happen if all vehicles in the U.S. swapped gas tanks for hydrogen fuel cells. Their results show that such a switch could prevent 3,700 to 6,400 American deaths attributable to pollution. The report has been published in the current issue of Science. The research team used a computing model to examine the possible effects on ambient gas, particle concentrations, estimated health risks and the impact on our climate if all U.S....

Is it time to bail out of shares? Many gold shares owners are pulling their hairs out every morning in front of their computers. "Those suckers just keep going down, and down, and down!" Most shares and indexes haven't seen new highs since late 2003, the XAU chart has just broken through its October 2000 uptrend support line, and the XAU's 200 day moving average has just turned down. So, is it time to bail? No. And that's a "No!!!" with a Capital "N" and a bunch of exclamation marks behind it to boot. Why not? Several reasons, and the...

Several universities and research groups in the American Mid-West hope to one day become a leading source of hydrogen fuel. South Dakota State University, University of North Dakota and the University of Minnesota are working on different projects under the auspices of the Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative. There is no abundant natural source of pure hydrogen, so it must be produced from other sources and that is where the Midwest hopes to cash in with its supplies of ethanol, wind energy, and farm waste. Rest of the article

AT THE RECENTLY concluded regional conference in Islamabad, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf vowed to commence a peace dialogue starting next month to resolve their long-standing bilateral problems, including the vexatious territorial dispute over Kashmir. General Musharraf has, in turn, once again, pledged to stamp out terrorism in Pakistan. While the news about a possible break-through between these two nuclear-armed antagonists is encouraging, it is dangerous to underestimate the dynamics of the conflict and way too premature to celebrate. After Sept. 11, 2001, the radically changed world geopolitics, General Musharraf has signed numerous international...

Pervez Musharraf leads a terrorist state, says DAVID VAN PRAAGH. We forget that at our soldiers' peril. Today, Canada has the distinction of welcoming the leader of what, by any fair reading of mounting evidence, is a state supporting terrorism. That is disturbing to say the least. But Canadians may soon be among the victims of this terrorism. Canada is not alone in playing host to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. General Musharraf also will visit the United Nations, where Pakistan is a member of the Security Council, and he will address the UN General Assembly. He has been an...

Turning the other cheek is not one of President Bush's best-known traits. But he is ready to forgive a lot in the case of Pakistan, where a skillful political alchemist is transforming a record of failure, extremism and betrayal into gold from the U.S. Treasury. A year after U.S. intelligence confirmed that Pakistan had supplied North Korea's rogue regime with nuclear weapons technology, Bush lavished a much-coveted Camp David welcome on President Pervez Musharraf last week. The general also won a $3 billion aid package. Bush did this at the urging of his defense and spy chiefs, who face the...

<p>Cooperation against al-Qaeda will continue, but will remain selective ... to suit the political convenience of whatever Pakistani military ruler is in power. When Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan agreed to line up with the United States after Sept. 11, 2001, many Pakistanis who sympathized with al-Qaeda and the Taliban were outraged. Don't worry, Musharraf reassured them days later in a revealing TV address in the Urdu language not intended for American ears.</p>

A Very Dirty Plot A police raid on Islamic militants uncovers uranium and dirty bomb-making instructions. Islamic extremists in Bangladesh may be trying to make a radioactive "dirty" bomb. On May 30, Bangladeshi police arrested four suspected members of a militant Islamic group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, at a house in the northern village of Puiya. Officers also seized a football-size package with markings indicating it contained a crude form of uranium manufactured in Kazakhstan. Subsequent tests last week at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission in Dhaka confirmed the 225-gram ball is uranium oxide—enough to make a weapon capable of dispersing radiation across...

Canada expands terror list OTTAWA (CP) -- The federal government has banned five more groups, including the International Sikh Youth Federation, for alleged terrorist activities. Solicitor General Wayne Easter announced Wednesday that the groups have been added to the government's list of banned entities. That means belonging to the groups, raising money for them or aiding their activities could bring up to 10 years in prison. There now are 31 such entities listed under the anti-terrorism law. In addition to the Sikh federation, the government banned the Sikh extremist groups Babbar Khalsa and Babbar Khalsa International. It also banned the...

Protective measures include daily car searches and ramparts reinforced with steel. By Gretchen Peters | Special to The Christian Science Monitor ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Standing in the leafy courtyard of the US Embassy here, it is hard to imagine this country may be the most dangerous posting in the world for American diplomats. The government compound looks more like a country club. Lush gardens surround an Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts, a restaurant, and a softball field. Then a siren rings, and embassy staff pour out of the building. "Secure all classified materials. Close all windows," blares the voice of...

The Anglo-American invasion of Iraq has deepened the rift between the US and the rest of the world, with a surge in anti-Americanism among Islamic nations, and heightened American antagonism towards once-trusted allies. According to a new poll by the Pew Research Centre, which is based in Washington, majorities in seven of eight Muslim countries believe they will be attacked by the US - a fear expressed by more than 70 per cent in Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. In all 16,000 people were interviewed in 20 countries and the Palestinian Authority between 28 April and 15 May, more than a...

32 blades, no explanation Mystery surrounds Pakistani who will be sentenced for carrying razor blades at D/FW By Toni Heinzl Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - Fazal Karim and the 32 double-edged razor blades he kept in a coiled belt in a cardboard box in his carry-on bag remain a mystery to the men who prosecuted and defended him in federal court. A former computer programmer with the civilian-aviation authority of Pakistan, Karim, 37, lived with his wife and three young children in Houston, where he ran three cellphone stores. Prosecutors say he returned to Texas from a four-week trip...

<p>WHEN the United States revealed last October that Pakistan had supplied uranium enrichment technology to North Korea, the Bush administration did not pin the blame on the U.S.-backed military ruler in Islamabad, General Pervez Musharraf. Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Musharraf's claim that he had stopped the nuclear transfers to Pyongyang initiated by his civilian predecessors.</p>

<p>Pakistan has purchased No Dong missiles from North Korea ? fully assembled and ready to fly ? prompting the Bush administration to impose sanctions on the Pakistani company in charge of the nation's nuclear weapons program. U.S. officials, who disclosed the transfer to The Washington Times, said American-made C-130 aircraft were used to transport the missiles to Pakistan. "This is a very serious matter," a senior administration official said. "We are not talking about missile technology or components but full-fledged No Dong missiles that can deliver nuclear weapons ? and they used aircraft we gave them to bring the missiles home."</p>