Pakistan

An attacker opened fire at the gates of the mosque before setting off a suicide bomb and killing at least 31 people in the deadliest attack of its kind in Pakistan's capital in more than a decade.

More than 170 others were wounded in the explosion, which occured after security guards attempted to block the attacker from entering the mosque compound.

For Pakistan, the stakes are practical as well as political: avoiding a broader conflict near its borders, protecting trade routes and energy flows, and limiting instability.

In the desert town of Nushki, home to about 50,000, the insurgents seized control of the police station and other security installations, triggering a three-day standoff.

The public has to find a middle ground between awareness and overload of bad news, oppressive rulers, and radicals rely on the “blind eye” reflex.

The BLA attacks may prove to be yet another incident in the long conflict in Balochistan. However, it could also play into larger questions about how restive the Baloch region has become.

State broadcaster Pakistan Television reported that members of an armed group carried out coordinated attacks at more than a dozen locations, including Quetta, Nushki, Dalbandin, Pasni, and Gwadar. 

Amid heavy snowfall, tens of thousands of families have evacuated Pakistan’s Tirah Valley, driven by warnings of military operations against Islamist terrorists in the region.

Critics fault the government for bypassing parliament as Islamabad joins a US-backed initiative alongside other Muslim states.

Young Pakistanis are weighing disengagement or emigration as economic strain and political pressure squeeze opportunity and speech.