The Baloch House

http://m.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2133039/why-china-russia-relations-are-warming-arctic


BY NICOLASGROFFMAN17 FEB 2018China needs Russia for its Polar Silk Route ambitions; Russia needs China as it tries to reclaim the Baltics 2China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the opening of the BRICS Summit in Xiamen. Photo: AFPChina’s Arctic ambitions are now at a tipping point, enmeshed with the politics of the Baltics and the wider tussle between Russia and Nato.In January, China issued an Arctic policy white paper that proposes a Polar Silk Road, but key to the plan is more Russian support. In return, Russia expects to secure tacit consent from China if it moves against one or more of the three Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. All three are defended by Nato, with British, Canadian and other troops on the ground already.How China’s Polar Silk Road can make Canada the next big Asian powerThe Polar Silk Road is a smaller addition to w…

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/travel/silk-road-terracotta-army-maijishan-mogao-caves-kashgar-xiahe/news-story/4539a7de7a73871b7449a7664746cdcb


See the terracotta warriors and magical caves along the famed Silk Road.By LYNDALLCRISPFebruary 17th, 20188 min readA young novice at Labrang Lamasery, Xiahe. Picture: AlamyIt is an unfortunate start to a trip long planned on the Silk Road across China. We kick off in Beijing, unrecognisable since visiting in 1997, and are returning from a pleasant afternoon wandering Beihai Park with its 17th-century library and lakes covered in blooming lily pads.Hailing a taxi calls for death-defying gymnastics as we negotiate several lanes of manic traffic. Eventually one stops and we’re on our way back to the Park Plaza Hotel and looking forward to a sunset drink. The driver doesn’t pull into the hotel driveway but stops on the street outside. We hand him a 100 yuan note (about $20), he holds it up and screams “fake”. How can this be? We changed our…

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/282112-balochistan-gives-proposals-to-make-taxation-structure-progressive
ListenISLAMABAD: In order to make taxation structure progressive, Balochistan has proposed three major constitutional amendments for excluding income tax (minus Withholding Tax) from divisible pool, making non-tax revenues as part of resource distribution formula and move income tax on agriculture from provincial to federal domain for finalising the NFC Award.  “There is need to remove income and corporate tax from divisible pool while Withholding Tax (WHT) should remain into fold of divisible pool of the NFC. There is need to provide provincial share in non tax revenues and move income tax on agriculture from provincial to federal domain,” Balochistan’s non official member into the NFC and renowned economist Dr Kaiser Bengali said in a seminar on fiscal federalism arranged at Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) here on Thursday.He said that three constitutional am…

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistan-could-face-economic-pain-if-fatf-puts-it-on-terror-financing-grey-list/story-3vfXpqEkSHXoLO1e8c9a3M.html

Pakistan, which denies links with terror groups, last month shrugged off a US aid suspension worth $2 billion, but inclusion on the FATF “grey list” could inflict real damage.File photo of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed addressing a seminar in Lahore, Pakistan, on January 30, 2017. (AP)Updated: Feb 16, 2018 19:14 ISTBy Reuters, Reuters, Islamabad/Washington/Hong KongThe prospect of Pakistan being placed back on a global terrorist financing watchlist could endanger its handful of remaining banking links to the outside world, causing real financial pain to the economy just as a general election looms.Washington and its European allies have co-sponsored a motion calling for the nuclear-armed nation to be placed on a “grey list” of countries deemed to be doing too little to comply with anti-terrorist financing and anti-money launde…

http://www.atimes.com/article/pakistan-declares-hafiz-sayeed-terrorist-ahead-fatf-meet/

The government in Islamabad has passed an order confirming that Hafiz Sayeed and his two organisations (LeT and JuD) are terrorist outfits, so debates at the FATF meeting in Paris next week will be crucial for the countryBy KUNWARKHULDUNESHAHID and SAIKATDATTAFEBRUARY 15, 2018 7:31 PM (UTC+8)620Militant leader Hafiz Saeed waves as he walks out of a court which ordered his release from house arrest in Lahore on November 22, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Mohsin RazaNearly 10 years after the United States Treasury Department designated Hafiz Saeed as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist“, Pakistan has finally passed an order labeling him the same way at home.While it is unclear what this means for Sayeed personally, the two groups associated with him, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) will face a nationwide ban.The dailyReportMust-reads from across Asia - directly to your inboxPakista…