Trade with India will bring stability to region: Gilani

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that more trade with India would bring stability to the region. 

“We have not put Kashmir issue on the back burner and are discussing all issues with India including the core issue of Kashmir,” Gilani said while responding to a question during “Prime Minister Online” programme, jointly hosted by PTV and a private TV channel. 

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After 6 years, Indians visit ancient temple in Pak

Islamabad: A group of pilgrims from India will celebrate Maha Shivaratri at an ancient Hindu temple complex in Punjab province after six years. 

A delegation of 50 Hindus from India will celebrate the festival at Katasraj near Chakwal. Hindu mythology considers the place as sacred. 

The Indian delegation, which reached Lahore Saturday through the Wagah border, was met by Evacuee Trust Property Board Pakistan chairman Asif Hashmi. The delegation returns to India Feb 23. 

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Pak PM hints at early elections

Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has hinted at the possibility of holding early parliamentary elections. 

The parliamentary elections are scheduled in early 2013. 

The prime minister said the issue of early elections will be discussed after next month's Senate elections and the presentation of the annual budget in May, Xinhua reported. 

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PaK PM stopped from boarding Kazakhstan flight

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister of PaK, Sardar Attique has been stopped at the Islamabad airport prior to his departure for the OIC summit in Kazakhstan, Geo News reported. 

Speaking to Geo News, the PaK Prime Minister said that he has received a message from the Foreign Ministry stating that he does not need to travel to the summit. 

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Ticking nuclear timebomb

Radiation levels rose Wednesday in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant where a new fire broke out, forcing the government to withdraw emergency workers engaged in efforts to cool overheating reactors at the quake-stricken site as authorities scrambled hard to contain the spiralling atomic crisis.

Some 50 employees were believed to be working at the plant, 220 km north of Tokyo, to avert a meltdown when the radiation levels surged suddenly.

The government’s nuclear safety agency said the radiation levels briefly reached 10 millisievert per hour at the plant’s entrance at 10:40 am local time, but added that it was possibly due to radioactive substances emitted from the No. 2 reactor.

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A Kashmiri Teenager Moves UN Diplomats and Activists in Geneva

The tears of Aneesa Nabi, whose parents were killed by Indian soldiers, even shook the Indians, as activists rushed to console her; several embassies sent observers to witness her testimony, including US 
government’s permanent mission to Geneva.

Ahmed Quraishi reports:

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What We Know About Dr. Afia Siddiqui..??

I tried To Know Something More About Dr. Aafia Siddiqu and Thought it To Share It with you

Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a married mother of three small children and a citizen of the United States, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 10 years, gaining a PhD in genetics. On 30th March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui left her mother’s house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh, along with her three children, in

a metro-cab to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, Punjab. She and her children never reached the airport and no one that she knows has ever seen them since.

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Japan economy shudders after shocks

TOKYO: - Japan counted the financial cost on Monday of its worst catastrophe since World War Two as the economy shuddered, prompting the central bank to line up a record $183 billion in funds to stabilize the banking system. 
Markets swooned at the shock of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that may have killed more than 10,000 and has left millions of people without power, water or homes. 

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Gaddafi''s military press ahead in east, ''rebels out of Brega''

Rania Cairo, Mar 13 (PTI) After a series of counter-attacks by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the outgunned and loosely organized rebels were today pushed out of eastern oil town of Brega, as the Arab League supported a ''no-fly'' zone to halt the advance of the Libyan military to opposition stronghold of Benghazi.The military, loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, have cleared "armed gangs" from the oil-rich town of Brega in the east, Libyan state TV quoted unnamed army sources as saying today."Brega has been cleansed of armed gangs," it said, but the report could not be immediately confirmed.

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Radiation leaks after explosion at Japan nuclear plant, disaster toll rises

FUKUSHIMA (Japan): Radiation leaked from Japan's earthquake-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday after a blast blew the roof off, and authorities prepared to distribute iodine to people in the vicinity to protect them from exposure.

The government insisted radiation levels were low because although the explosion severely damaged the main building of the plant, it had not affected the reactor core container. 

READ MORE - Radiation leaks after explosion at Japan nuclear plant, disaster toll rises

US, India draw closer as defense planners, army chiefs meet

WASHINGTON: Top men leading India's fighting arm and its defense policy engaged with their American counterparts here this week as New Delhiand Washington drew closer in a strategic clinch while trying not to alarm China and Pakistan, which are seen by the democratic duo as posing complex challenges in the neighborhood and beyond. 

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Gaddafi renews attack on rebels

Jalal al-Gallal from the National Libyan Transitional Council has told the BBC there has been no direct contact with the Gaddafi regime

Continue reading the main story

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi have launched further air strikes on the rebel-held oil port of Ras Lanuf, in a renewed offensive.

Warplanes fired missiles on residential areas and near rebel positions in the desert, witnesses said.

There were no reports of casualties.

Meanwhile, the rebels said they had been approached by pro-Gaddafi officials offering to hold talks on an exit for the Libyan leader.

The rebels rejected the offer, a spokesman said.

Go-betweens

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13 killed in Pak car bomb attack

Lahore: A powerful car bomb went off close to an ISI office in the central Pakistani city of Faisalabad today, killing at least 13 people and injuring nearly 50 others.
The blast destroyed a CNG station, at least three buildings and dozens of cars near the intelligence agency’s heavily-guarded office in Civil Lines area of Faisalabad.
Thirteen bodies were found at the site of the blast, Faisalabad Commissioner Tahir Hussain told the media. 

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Russian flight controllers claim aliens spoke to them in 'cat-like language'

Air traffic controllers in Siberia claim to have been buzzed by a high-speed UFO with a female sounding alien speaking to them in an unintelligible cat-like language.
The object had suddenly burst onto flight monitors over the remote Russian diamond capital of Yakutsk, and it was shown flying at a speed of slightly over 6000 mph, and rapidly changing direction.
The UFO was logged at a height of 64, 895 feet above sea level and appeared to interfere with aviation frequencies.

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Libya revolt: Gaddafi in crimes against humanity probe

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said he will investigate Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his sons and senior aides for crimes against humanity.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said no-one had the right to massacre civilians.

Thousands of people are thought to have died in the violence after security forces targeted protesters in unrest which began on 17 February.

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Libya suspended from U N Human Rights Council

The United Nations General Assembly has unanimously voted to suspend Libya from the U.N. Human Rights Council in the wake of continuing attacks on pro-democracy protesters there by Muammar Qadhafi’s regime.

“Expressing deep concern about the human rights situation” in Libya, the General Assembly “decides to suspend the rights of membership in the Human Rights Council” of the African nation, the brief resolution said. 

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Gunmen kill Pakistan minority affairs minister

Islamabad: Gunmen shot and killed Pakistan's government minister for religious minorities on Wednesday, the latest attack on a high-profile Pakistani figure who had urged reforming harsh blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.
Shahbaz Bhatti, a member of Muslim-majority Pakistan's Christian community, was on his way to work in Islamabad, when unknown gunmen riddled his car with bullets, police officer Mohmmad Iqbal said.
The minister arrived dead at Shifa Hospital and his driver was also wounded badly, hospital spokesman Asmatullah Qureshi said. 

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In Cairo, reporter beaten with steel bars

A BBC reporter said he was badly beaten by Cairo police who he accused of targeting foreign journalists covering anti-government protests in the Egyptian capital. "They were targeting journalists deliberately," said Assad Sawey, who sported a bloodied bandage on his head as he spoke to BBC World television in Cairo. "They took my camera away and when they arrested me they started beating me up with steel bars...like the ones used here for slaughtering animals," he said. "They used electric bars to electrify me," he said. Sawey said that several foreign journalists covering the same demonstration in central Cairo were also arrested: "They were all loaded onto trucks and were removed to somewhere unknown." It was not clear if these were four French
journalists arrested today in the city. They were held for about an hour before being released. An AFP photographer said Cairo police confiscated his camera's memory card that contained pictures of protestors confronting security forces. Protests demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak spread across Cairo after Friday prayers, AFP reporters said, as nationwide demonstrations entered their fourth day.

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Egypt protests: Mubarak sacks government, vows reforms

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak sacked Egypt's government and vowed to bring in democratic and economic reforms, in a televised address early on Saturday after deadly anti-regime protests.
"I have asked the government to resign and tomorrow there will be a new government," a stoney-faced Mubarak said after four days of protests demanding his resignation in which at least 27 people have been killed.
He vowed to pursue economic and political reforms.
"We will not backtrack on reforms. We will continue with new steps which will ensure the independence of the judiciary and its rulings, and more freedom for citizens," Mubarak said.
New steps will be taken "to contain unemployment, raise living standards, improve services and stand by the poor."
Mubarak, in power for three decades, vowed to bring in "new measures" for democracy and justice without giving any indication of other major changes, even as protests raged in Cairo and other cities despite a night-time curfew.

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Facts about President Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak, in power for three decades, faced unprecedented protests on Friday from Egyptians inspired by the overthrow of Tunisia's president.
Mubarak has no designated successor. This has fuelled speculation that he is grooming his son to take over, arousing anger among some protesters.
Following are some facts about Mubarak:
* Mubarak, 82, was thrust into office when Islamists gunned down his predecessor Anwar Sadat at a military parade in 1981. The burly former air force commander has proved a far more durable leader than anyone imagined at the time.
* The president has long promoted peace abroad and more recently backed economic reforms at home led by his cabinet under Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. But he has always kept a tight lid on political opposition.
* He has resisted any significant political change even under pressure from the United States, which has poured billions of dollars of military and other aid into Egypt since it became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, signing a treaty in 1979.
* Mubarak won the first multi-candidate presidential election in 2005 although the outcome was never in doubt and his main rival came a distant second. Rights groups and observers said the election was marred by irregularities.
* He has not said whether he will run for a sixth six-year term in 2011. Officials have indicated he probably will if he can, although questions about his health after surgery in Germany last March make this a constant subject of debate. If he does not run, many Egyptians believe he may try to hand power to his 47-year-old son Gamal. Both Mubaraks deny such a plan.
* Gamal, unlike his father and Egypt's other presidents, does not have a military background, which analysts say would make it harder for him to establish his authority as president should he seek office.

READ MORE - Facts about President Hosni Mubarak