ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has conveyed its concerns on airstrikes and violation of the country's territorial integrity to the US, Adviser on National Security Mahmud Ali Durrani said on Sunday. Durrani told a private TV channel that Pakistan had made it clear to the US that violation of its territorial integrity would not be tolerated. "The bottom […]
PESHAWAR,PAKISTAN: The NWFP government is unlikely to enforce the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2008 on the 27th of Ramazan owing to delays in the consultation process and a lack of response from the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM). Officials said the draft was forwarded to the TNSM a few days back, but the Dir-based group had not responded as yet. […]
WASHINGTON: While Pakistan was credited with have taken "some steps' to improve the treatment of religious minorities, the International Religious Freedom Report, released at the weekend, described the general situation on this front in pretty negative terms. The report, covering 2007, said, "The government took some steps to improve its treatment of religious minorities during […]
Efforts are underway to reach a Christian-Christian reconciliation between Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and al-Marada Movement leader Suleiman Frangieh. Reconciliation efforts intensified after two people were killed and three wounded in clashes Wednesday between the LF and Marada in the town of Bsarma in the northern Lebanese province of Koura. [Naharnet] In the upcoming […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ‚ A huge truck bomb exploded at the entrance to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday evening, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 150, the police said. The blast, one of the worst acts of terrorism in Pakistan's history, went off just a few hundred yards from the prime […]
Details are sketchy, but it appears that Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resign after the ANC's National Executive Committee asked President Thabo Mbeki and several of his sympathizers in government to step down. The NEC took a long time in coming to this solution and appears to have been deeply divided. I am surprised Mbeki […]
The World Health Organization's Global Malaria Programme has issued its World Malaria Report 2008. The gist of the argument is as follows: Things cotinue to improve. they need to improve more. The number of nets to protect people from malarial mosquitoes has risen impressively. It needs to rise more. the number of people with access […]
Cautious optimism seems to prevail in Zimbabwe, with an emphasis on the “cautious” part. And why not? For the moment relative calm prevails and the worst of the country's political deadlock appears to have been resolved. But Robert Mugabe still has his hands on, or at least near, the reins of power, talks have been […]
The violence in Mexico is becoming one of the highest rates worldwide, with more kidnappings this year than in Colombia or Iraq. Increasingly, the environment of violence is penetrating Mexican society. In part this process began with the arrival of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa in 2006. In the Mexican system, the President has six […]
Am I the only person for whom the current political crisis in South Africa seems like a scene from The Godfather? It seems as if Tom Hagen, the trusted consiglieri, needs to step in and remind the principals that whatever happens is business, not personal. Instead, everyone is Sonny Corleone, taking it all very, very […]
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeks to correct some misconceptions about his feelings on Jews and Israelis: "We are opposed to the idea that the people who live there [Israel] should be thrown into the sea or be burnt," he said. Well. He maintains an opposition to the Zionist regime, and believes a new government should be chosen […]
Just when Pakistanis thought they had a new democracy, ushering in a new civilian government, a new president and the end of eight years of military rule, they are faced with the bleakest moment in the country's history. Proverbially listed as a failing state, this precariously poised country could now be in a downward spiral […]
ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: The United States will give $8.4 million to Pakistan through the World Food Programme to provide approximately 11,000 metric tons of wheat for over 1,600,000 people, including students of 3,200 schools. The WFP will begin distributing food aid in 12 districts in the NWFP and Balochistan this month. An agreement to this […]
LONDON, Sept 18: All sides need to help bolster security along the Pakistan-Afghan border, where recent US incursions have strained US-Pakistan ties, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Thursday. Speaking as Nato defence ministers gathered for informal talks, he underlined the need for closer contacts between Nato and the Pakistani government, which […]
WASHINGTON, Sept 18: Unilateral actions cannot defeat militancy in Fata, said US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte who also indicated on Thursday that the United States and Pakistan were working on a more collaborative approach to deal with this problem. Diplomatic sources in Washington say that the two countries whose relations have been strained […]