Word: hamid
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
These are prolific, topical times for Pakistani fiction. Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, published in early 2007, was the first of the recent bloom. Hamid's unnerving novella, about a Princeton grad who grows a beard, quits his fancy New York consulting job and returns home to Lahore after 9/11, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Mohammed Hanif's 2008 novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, based on the 1988 plane crash that killed General Zia ul-Haq, was a finalist for the Guardian first-book award. And Daniyal Mueenuddin's superb In Other Rooms, Other Wonders...
...struggle to achieve such stability will persist long after the election itself. Afghanistan's current President, Hamid Karzai, was once a darling of Washington but has proved feckless. His misrule has contributed greatly to the Taliban revival that the U.S. and its allies are now trying to quell. There's not much reason to hope that a re-elected Karzai will get significantly better. The White House's best bet will be to strengthen the instruments of governance so that they carry clout even in timorous hands. The good news is that Afghanistan's leaders, who desperately need American arms...
Most Iranian commentators do not think so. Although House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Howard Berman called Kyl and Lieberman's Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act "a sword of Damocles" hanging over the Iranians, the view from Tehran is quite different. In Tehran's daily newspaper Mardom Salari, columnist Hamid Reza Shokouhi recently wrote, "It is possible to turn this sword of Damocles into an opportunity for gaining self-sufficiency." (See pictures of the turbulent aftermath of the Iranian elections...
...early returns from Afghanistan's presidential election had the smell of a decorous massage job. With 10% of districts reporting, the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, the former Foreign Minister, were tied, with about 40% each. But few of those votes came from Karzai's Pashtun strongholds in the south, where turnout was light - owing to Taliban threats - but heavily managed. "It's not exactly one man, one vote out in the rural areas," a Western diplomat told me. "The tribal leader gathers everyone together and says, 'We're voting for Candidate X.'" In some cases...
...second installment of results, announced on Wednesday, President Hamid Karzai extended his lead over his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. After a dead heat the first day, he now stands at nearly 45% of the vote vs. 35% for Abdullah. Eager as Afghans and media outlets are for fresh information, the figures still reflect only 17% of the more than 27,000 polling sites nationwide. Moreover, they were drawn from less than half of the country's 34 provinces. As a result, even as some observers posit a Karzai victory, it's still hard to gauge where...