Over the past few years, Sabir Nazar has emerged as Pakistan's best known cartoonist for drawing a series of cartoons that take a sharply critical look at religious orthodoxy, conspiracy theories, and misinterpretations of current affairs that feed into the Pakistani mass consciousness. Through cartoons and comments posted on the social networking site Facebook, he offers biting insights that turn commonly-held viewpoints and beliefs about Pakistan on their heads.

Al Qaeda has long struggled with controlling its Iraqi offshoot. Now it seems as if Ayman al-Zawahiri has had enough. The level of direct coordination between Al Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan and the group that originally was known as Al Qaeda in Iraq has always been limited - and has appeared pretty much dead since 2006.

After a tumultuous year, top Indian and Pakistani military officials held a rare meeting to round out 2013. The Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both India and Pakistan met on the Pakistani side of the Wagah border – the first such meeting in 14 years, since the end of the Kargil War – to “discuss ways to ensure peace along Kashmir’s de facto border."

Vision First, an NGO dealing with refugee issues, presents daunting statistics: of the 12,409 people who sought asylum in Hong Kong in the past 21 years, just four succeeded. Despite such enormous odds, about 800 people still flock to the city seeking refuge each year - and that's excluding 1,200 others who claim to have been tortured in their home countries.

The time seemed right to most observers, the place not entirely thought out. Why would the sitting, though troubled, prime minister of a country visit another sitting, but less troubled, premier of another country at a city other than the capital?

At the risk of stating the obvious, Afghanistan is in disarray. The only way out of this miserable situation is for a miracle to happen. After all, philosopher David Hume told us that miracles are not logically impossible. The situation as bad as it seems can be reversed, however—only with a continued American military presence, financial assistance, and solid Afghan leadership will the country succeed.

Pakistanis online are outraged over reports of a French restaurant's ban on reservations by Pakistani customers. "La Maison" in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, requires customers to provide information such as an individual's nationality and passport number. The only Pakistani customers reportedly allowed are dual-citizenship holders or Pakistanis accompanied by foreigners.