Proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam have asked residents of KPK to dissociate themselves from pro-government peace committees and threatened attacks against those ignoring the warning.

The LI men distributed threatening leaflets among people and pasted posters in the area over the past two days.

Most of the areas where the pamphlets were distributed are under curfew for quite some time.
The pamphlets have been distributed at a time when the local administration has announced reinstatement of 600 khasadars who had resigned after they received similar warnings a week after the start of a military operation in the area in September 2009

Doctors in Balochistan have decided to continue their strike in protest of the non-recovery of their abducted colleague Dr Saeed Ahmed Khan, Following the approval of his bail petition by a session court in Quetta, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Balochistan chapter President Dr Sultan Tareen spoke to media representatives at a general body meeting of the association

Following the approval of his bail petition by a session court in Quetta, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Balochistan chapter President Dr Sultan Tareen spoke to media representatives at a general body meeting of the association.

A bomb tore through a security forces vehicle escorting schoolchildren home from school on Wednesday, killing four personnel and a woman in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.

The attack also wounded more than 20 people, officials said.
“The target was an army vehicle which was escorting a school bus carrying children of local army officers from different schools,” Quetta city police chief Hamid Shakeel told AFP.

KARACHI: One of Pakistan’s oldest and most renowned columnists, Ardeshir Cowasjee, passed away in Karachi on Saturday at the age of 86Cowasjee, whose weekly columns graced the Dawn newspaper from 1988 to 2011, was suffering from chest illness and had been admitted in a Karachi hospital’s intensive care unit for the past 12 days.

Cowasjee, whose weekly columns graced the Dawn newspaper from 1988 to 2011, was suffering from chest illness and had been admitted in a Karachi hospital’s intensive care unit for the past 12 days.

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani journalist and TV anchor escaped a bid on his life Monday when the bomb disposal squad defused a bomb planted under his car in Islamabad, police and his channel said.

Hamid Mir, a senior Geo TV anchor was returning to his house in the capital and the bomb was apparently planted when he stopped at a market, Geo News reported.
The explosive device in a metal box was found stuck under the front passenger seat of Hamid Mir’s car, city police chief Bani Amin said.

first lady to be grilled in land-deal

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's wife is to be questioned as part of a probe into a presidential retirement home deal that has already grilled Lee's brother and son, officials said Monday.

The inclusion of First Lady Kim Yoon-Ok in the investigation comes at a sensitive time, with South Korea just weeks away from a presidential election on December 19. "(We have) decided to investigate first lady Kim," assistant special counsel Lee Chang-Hoon told reporters on Monday. "The method and the timing of the questioning are still being discussed with the presidential office," Lee said.

Pakistan has spent $80 bn in terror war

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that no country had suffered so much as Pakistan from terrorism and it had lost 40,000 innocent lives in addition to $80 billion in economic terms.

The President was addressing inaugural ceremony of sixth conference of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians here on Sunday. He said Pakistan was committed to the SAARC Charter and believed that durable peace in the region was in the interest of all. He urged the regional countries to join hands to fight the menace of extremism and terrorism.

He said that the region should adopt a collective approach to face the common challenges and explore the opportunities for the benefit of the people.

He said that the SAARC parliaments should plan and lead efforts for solving complex issues by protecting political liberties, human freedoms and the rule of law to promote regional peace and security.

Kabul considers action against ICG

KABUL: Afghanistan is considering action against the International Crisis Group, with officials on Monday accusing the respected think-tank of bias in its reporting on the troubled nation.

An analysis by the Brussels-based ICG last month said the Kabul government could collapse after the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014, particularly if presidential elections that year are fraudulent.

Karzai's senior spokesman Aimal Faizi hit back Monday, telling: "The ICG reports and activities have been politically motivated."

Thousands lose housing in US superstorm

NEW YORK: Tens of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by superstorm Sandy faced a new crisis in New York on Sunday as temperatures plunged, raising the specter of people freezing to death.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated that 30,000-40,000 homes in the city alone had been left unusable by the October 29 storm as the cold intensifies.

Sandy pummeled 15 states with fierce winds and a huge tidal surge that killed at least 109 people in the United States and Canada and a damage bill running to tens of billions of dollars.

India-Pakistan final at Asia Cup kabaddi

LAHORE: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan will face-off in the final of the second Asia Cup Kabaddi Tournament here on Monday, 

The neighbours qualified for the final on Sunday night. In the first semi-final at the Punjab Sports Stadium, Pakistan thrashed Sri Lanka 46-26, while India defeated a stronger Iran 53-35 in the other semi-final.

PESHAWAR: Security forces are continuing operation against militants in the suburban areas of Peshawar and today started action in Bara Sheikhan, on Monday.

According to sources, security forces are conducting search and clearance operation in Bara Sheikhan area to restore peace in the restive region.

HYDERABAD: Unknown armed men opened fire at Haider Chowk area of the city, killing three and injuring three others in the second consecutive day of violence in Sindh’s second largest city, on Sunday.

 An office of a local relegious party was targeted in the attack.

Police and rescue workers reached to the spot and shifted the injured to Civil Hospital.      
On Saturday, a joint sector in-charge of the MQM and two members of Bohra communty lost their lives in two separate incidents of firing in Bohri Bazaar and Nishat Cinema areas of the city.

Crude prices rose in Asia Monday with a pick-up in China's services industry providing support ahead of Beijing's leadership transition and the US presidential election, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, gained 13 cents to $84.99 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for December delivery added 14 cents to $105.82.

Asian markets were "lifted by China's non-manufacturing PMI data, which showed an improvement," IG Markets said in a report.

Top PPP leader Nabeel Gabol has said that without a 1992-like operation clean-up in Karachi, the upcoming elections would be the bloodiest of our history

ISLAMABAD: Top PPP leader Nabeel Gabol has said that without a 1992-like operation clean-up in Karachi, the upcoming elections would be the bloodiest of our history.
Talking to The News from Karachi, Gabol said that his city was under complete control of criminal gangs, which were collecting and earning around Rs100 million daily through bhatta, dacoity, theft, etc. He said that the 1992 operation was political but now Karachi needed an operation conducted by an institution without any motive of political nature, only to clean the metropolis from the criminal gangs.

Some people think parliament still under attack: president

Some people think parliament still under attack: president

 

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday said some people might feel that parliament was still under assault from some quarters, but these were the teething troubles of a genuine democratic transition.