The last reports on Tuesday evening suggested that the Afghan government had suffered a serious setback after a Taliban offensive succeeded in taking control of much of Sangin, a strategic town in the Helmand province.

Forty-four years ago on 16 and 17 December 1971, Dacca fell and the Pakistani army surrendered East Pakistan in a humiliating defeat. Lieutenant-General A. A. K Niazi, Martial Law Administrator of East Pakistan, surrendered to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, Joint Commander of the Bangladesh-India Allied Forces.

Yesterday’s general strike in South Korea was another clash in the ongoing battle between the right-wing President Park Geun-Hye and organized labour.

Over the last month, South Korea has made headlines because of huge protests with more than 130,000 participating, and a pending general strike, called for 16 December. This will be the second general strike this year, after 100,000 workers rallied on 24 April to oppose planned labour law reforms by the conservative government of President Park Geun-Hye.

In the past month South Korea has been the scene of a bitter struggle between one of the main unions in the country, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), and the right-wing government led by president Park Geun-hye.

Pakistan and India announced on Wednesday in Islamabad that they were resuming the dialogue on outstanding issues, ending a two-year-long stalemate. The “Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue,” as it has been named, will include all elements covered under previous versions of the talks: peace and security, confidence-building measures, Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, Tulbul Navigation Project, economic and commercial cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control and humanitarian issues, people-to-people exchanges, and religious tourism.

On Saturday, December 5th, Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) in Lahore organized Youth Convention 2015. The convention, dedicated to the struggle of Che Guevara, formally launched PYA on national scale. Most progressive student organizations joined hands to form the biggest alliance of its kind in recent decades in Pakistan. The mains aims of formation of this alliance are to fight for free education, guaranteed employment or unemployment benefits for the youth, and the revival of student unions in the educational institutions.

In the sixty-eight years of Pakistan’s existence the most significant feature of its socio-economic development has been the contradiction of its economic growth having an inverse effect on the living conditions of its ordinary people. The present economic slowdown that was the result of a crashing economic downfall since 2008 is now unravelling into another decline.

The Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) is holding its founding convention on Saturday, December 5th in Lahore. This will be an immense step forward towards the revival of left youth and student politics in Pakistan. Student unions have been banned in the country since 1983 and none of the so called civilian or "democratic" regimes have dared to reverse this brutal relic of Zia ul-Haq's draconian regime.

The Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) is holding its founding convention on Saturday, December 5th in Lahore. This will be an immense step forward towards the revival of left student politics, which has been in steep decline for almost three decades now. It is worth mentioning that students unions are banned in the country since 1983 and no “democratic” regime has reversed this brutal relic of Zia’s draconian regime.

The recent visit of Pakistan’s military chief previous Sunday has been shrouded in mystery and marked by controversies ever since it was announced.  Apparently instigated by General Raheel Sharif, it comes just weeks after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with US President Barack Obama at the Oval Office to discuss many of the same issues said to be on his army chief's agenda, including Afghan peace talks and Pakistan's nuclear ambitions.

On 4th November a factory roof collapsed in Sundar Industrial Estate located near Lahore. More than 500 workers were working in the factory at the time of the collapse. Dozens of dead bodies have been recovered but many more lie there waiting to be bulldozed as the rescue operation has ended.

The Progressive Youth Alliance in collaboration with the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign organized activities on the eve of the 98th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in many cities of Pakistan.

In the past couple of weeks, unprecedented events had been unfolding in Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in the streets of Kabul to protest against the gruesome beheading of 7 people, all whom were ethnically Hazara.

[This article was written on Friday 6 of November] Today, three days after the collapse of a factory in Lahore’s Sunder Industrial Estate, dozens of people remain buried under the rubble and the authorities have failed to remove the debris and rescue the injured or retrieve the dead bodies of the workers