Washington: US President Barack Obama telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday to express his condolence over the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO air strike last week and told him the "regrettable" incident was not a "deliberate attack". The incident has thrown the already fragile US-Pakistan ties into a tizzy, with Pakistan boycotting the Bonn conference to discuss the future of Afghanistan. "Earlier today the...
11:27:53 PM Dec 04, 2011
Lahore: The Pakistan government plans to revise its policies on key national and outstanding issues, including relations with the US, the war on terror and the Kashmir dispute, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Sunday. The government will revise the 'terms of engagement" for these issues, including policies that were framed during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Gilani said during an interaction with a group of...
07:46:04 PM Dec 04, 2011
Islamabad: Former FIA chief Tariq Khosa, who had led the investigation of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has turned down the Supreme Court's offer to head a commission to probe a secret memo sent to the US military purportedly by the Pakistani civilian leadership fearing an army coup. In an order issued on December 1, the apex court had asked Khosa to head a commission that will conduct a three-week investigation...
03:05:20 PM Dec 04, 2011
Islamabad: Former Federal Investigation Agency chief Tariq Khosa, who had led Pakistan's investigation of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, on Saturday refused to head a commission set up by the Supreme Court to probe the secret memorandum sent to the US military in May. In an order issued on December 1, the apex court had asked Khosa to head a commission that will conduct a three-week-long investigation into the memo that...
09:51:33 PM Dec 03, 2011
Islamabad: Queen of controversies Veena Malik may or not have done a nude shoot for an Indian magazine but this time it may not be a hands-down win for Pakistan's custodians of morality because her admirers seem to have multiplied over the years. Malik, who last ran into trouble for not playing miss-goodie-two-shoes on Indian reality show 'Bigg Boss IV' earlier this year, is back in the spotlight for allegedly...
01:06:46 PM Dec 03, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday apprised British Foreign Secretary William Hague about the NATO air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Khar received a phone call from Hague in which she informed the British foreign secretary about Pakistan's decision not to participate in the Bonn conference on Afghanistan, the Online news agency reported. Hague said Britain understood Pakistan's position in the matter, the report said. Earlier,...
09:48:31 AM Dec 03, 2011
Islamabad: US officials gave Pakistan soldiers the wrong location when asking for clearance to attack militants along the border last weekend, Pakistani military officials said on Friday. The strike resulted in the deaths of 24 soldiers and a major crisis in relations between Washington and Islamabad. The claim was the latest in a series by mostly anonymous officials in both countries trying to explain what happened before and during last...
04:54:54 AM Dec 03, 2011
Islamabad/Washington: Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has warned that any future aggression will see the country responding "with full force, regardless of the cost and consequences" as it emerged on Friday that Pakistani officials, who were unaware of their soldiers being in the area, gave the green signal for the NATO airstrikes. US officials said their Pakistani counterparts at a border coordination centre gave the NATO forces the...
02:49:58 AM Dec 03, 2011
Berlin: Pakistan has officially withdrawn from an international conference on Afghanistan, Germany's foreign ministry said on Friday, saying that it regretted the boycott. Pakistan said on Tuesday it planned to pull out of the meeting in reaction to a cross-border attack by NATO that killed 24 of its soldiers and plunged US-Pakistani relations deeper into crisis. Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told her German counterpart Guido Westerwelle in a...
01:50:56 AM Dec 03, 2011
Lahore: A Pakistani court on Friday sought responses within two weeks from authorities to a petition challenging the screening of Indian films in the country. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed directed the Commerce Ministry and Film Censor Board to file their replies to the petition filed by film producer Kamran Ijaz. Ijaz's counsel told the court that the exhibition of Indian films had a 'detrimental effect' on...
11:35:58 PM Dec 02, 2011
New York: Pakistani officials gave the go-ahead to a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops, unaware that their own forces were in the area, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday quoting US officials. Last weekend's cross-border attack has caused public outrage in Pakistan, where the government has pulled out of next week's international conference on Afghanistan and threatened to end support for the US-led war there if...
03:02:01 PM Dec 02, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Friday gave his troops "full liberty" to respond to any further cross-border attacks by NATO forces in Afghanistan in the wake of an air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, official sources said on Friday. The powerful army chief told commanders of units deployed along the western border with Afghanistan that they had "full liberty of action to respond (by) employing...
10:37:31 AM Dec 02, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistan, enraged by a NATO cross-border attack that killed 24 soldiers, could end support for the US-led war on militancy if its sovereignty is violated again, the foreign minister said, warning that "enough is enough." The South Asian nation has already shown its anger over the weekend strike by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next wee on Afghanistan, depriving the talks of a central player in...
04:11:44 AM Dec 02, 2011
Islamabad: Al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Thursday for the kidnapping of a 70-year-old American aid worker in Pakistan in August, and issued a series of demands for his release. In a video message posted on militant websites, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Warren Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al Qaeda and...
03:22:51 AM Dec 02, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistan's former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani on Thursday said he had no plans to leave the country while the 'memogate' scandal is being probed by the government, hours after the Supreme Court barred him from travelling abroad. "I resigned to pave the way for a transparent investigation and intend to stay in my country for as long as necessary," he said. Haqqani, who recently resigned as Ambassador...
12:59:48 AM Dec 02, 2011