If you’re of Pakistani origin, as I am, and if you long to see that embattled country right itself, the saga of Malala Yousafzai can drive you to tears. Not just tears of joy for the way she was a favorite for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Not just tears for how she captured the imagination of Westerners who want to believe the best about Pakistan’s hopes and prospects. More than anything, they are tears of frustration, caused by the manner in which many Pakistanis reject her.

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan agreed Sunday to restore cross-border calm after a spate of shootings threatened a decade-long ceasefire in the disputed Kashmir region. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif for more than an hour on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, to discuss a series of fatal clashes on their de facto Himalayan border.

Another day, another calamity: thirty killed by a suicide bomber at a funeral in Quetta; the commanding General in Swat blown up by Pakistani Taliban; renewed Indo-Pakistani fighting along the Kashmir border threatens to torpedo fragile reconciliation efforts. These events—all in the past six weeks—reinforce recent disclosures in the Washington Post confirming deep-seated official US doubts and fears about Pakistan.

A three-day archive exhibition portraying the shared culture of Pakistan and India concluded at the National College of the Arts, Rawalpindi on Saturday. The exhibition, part of a 14-month project titled, “Exchange for Change: Pakistan and India 2012-2013”, involved around 3,500 students from Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh. Participants from the two nations said their stories are the same and worth sharing with the general public to dispel misconceptions prevalent on both sides of the border.

Afghan and Pakistani leaders met for critical talks last month as President Hamid Karzai traveled to Islamabad to sit down with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. It was Karzai’s first visit to Pakistan since Sharif, a former two-time prime minister, took the helm of a new civilian government in June. aimed at patching Kabul’s frayed relations with Islamabad and seeking the release of senior Taliban prisoners to revive the stalled peace talks. But the lead up to the meeting did not augur well.

Indian troops stepped up security in disputed Kashmir's main city of Srinagar on Saturday, ahead of a concert to be held later in the day by celebrated conductor Zubin Mehta. Organizers said the concert would go ahead despite demands by Indian Kashmiri separatists for the event to be cancelled on grounds it would allegedly legitimize Indian "state repression" in the restive region.

Chairman, Pakistan- China Institute,Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed was honoured in Beijing by China's top Tsinghua University with an award for his 'Outstanding Contribution to Pakistan China public diplomacy.' The award was given by Ms Yang Yanyi, Assistant Minister at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Professor Li Xiguang, Director Tsinghua University International Centre for Communication during a seminar of China Pakistan Think Tanks held Sunday in Beijing.