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| November 24, 2008 | Monday | Ziqa'ad 25, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Special Economic Zones to be setup in Thar Monday, 24 Nov, ISLAMABAD: The government is planning to set up special economic zones (SEZs) in Thar in a bid to utilise energy from the Thar coal reserves, said Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Salman Faruqui on Monday. The government has already constituted the Thar Coal Board to work out details ahead of the formal announcement of these zones. They will help in reducing the occurrence of transmission line losses. (Posted @ 20:43 PST)
Twenty-five killed, 40 arrested in Michini operaton Monday, 24 Nov, PESHAWAR: Security forces on Monday disclosed that over 25 militants were killed and 40 arrested during a military operation in the restive Michini area and a huge quantity of arms and ammunitions was seized from them. Speaking at a press conference at a military base camp at Shno Ghondai area close to Mohmand Agency, the NWFP Inspector General of Police Malik Naveed said security forces had controlled the situation in maximum areas and were successfully going ahead to flush out the miscreants from the ‘defective’ areas. (Posted @ 20:22 PST)
France, Germany vow to protect auto industry Monday, 24 Nov, PARIS: France and Germany, the twin economic engines of continental Europe, will not let their auto industries flounder amid the financial meltdown and economic crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday. Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they agreed during talks that coordinated action was key to addressing the economic downturn, even if different measures were used by Paris or Berlin. (Posted @ 19:37 PST)
Eight injured in Peshawar blast Monday, 24 Nov, PESHAWAR: A bomb blast injured at least eight people Monday at an Imam Bargah in Peshawar, officials said. The bomb, planted inside the Imam Bargah in the crowded neighbourhood of Hashtnagri, went off just after evening prayers, they said. 'Eight people are injured in the bomb blast,' area police official Saleem Khan told AFP. (Posted @ 18:37 PST)
Blast in Peshawar, nine injured Monday, 24 Nov, PESHAWAR: An explosion in Peshawar's Hashtnagri area on Monday left nine people injured. According to reports, ambulances had been dispatched to the site of the blast which took place outside an Imam Bargah on Hussainia Street. The boundary wall of the Imam Bargah was partially damaged, the police said. (Posted @ 18:37 PST)
NATO calls for more troops in Afghanistan Monday, 24 Nov, MONS: NATO commanders in Afghanistan need more troops and equipment to combat the Taliban, the alliance's top officer warned Monday, as insurgent attacks mount in southern and eastern regions, AFP reported. US General John Craddock said that, based on a new assessment, the commanders would need three military brigades - around 10,000 troops - on top of the single brigade the United States is set to deploy in January. (Posted @ 18:22 PST)
Zardari in UAE to strengthen bilateral ties Monday, 24 Nov, ABU DHABI: President Asif Ali Zardari and his United Arab Emirates counterpart Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan on Monday expressed their resolve to upgrade and further strengthen bilateral ties particularly in trade and economic fields for mutual benefit of two countries. President Zardari who arrived here on two-day official visit to UAE held talks with UAE President shortly after arrival with focus on establishing a comprehensive, strategic and economic partnership between both countries. (Posted @ 17:03 PST)
Reports of Rashid Rauf's death are false: lawyer Monday, 24 Nov, LONDON: British-Pakistani terror suspect Rashid Rauf is still alive, his lawyer told the BBC on Monday, saying reports that he had died in a US missile attack in Pakistan were 'fake' AFP reported. The alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic jet bombing conspiracy was reportedly killed at the weekend in a US raid in a northwestern border district that is a known stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. (Posted @ 16:46 PST)
Militants swept out of Peshawar: Frontier Corps Monday, 24 Nov, PESHAWAR: Pakistani forces have killed 25 suspected militants in a two-week operation to secure the frontier city of Peshawar, which sits on a key supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, an official said on Monday. Security forces backed by warplanes and artillery have swept through an area between the city and Pakistan's wild tribal belt, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants have found refuge. (Posted @ 16:18 PST)
Baghdad bomb attacks kill 13 women, five others Monday, 24 Nov, BAGHDAD: A roadside bomb killed 13 female government employees on a bus on their way to work in eastern Baghdad on Monday, and a female suicide bomber killed five people outside Baghdad's Green Zone compound, Reuters reported police as saying. The attacks are the latest in a series of explosions in the Iraqi capital, where violence has broadly fallen but insurgents have shown themselves still able to stage large-scale attacks. Police said the women state employees worked at the Trade Ministry. (Posted @ 11:47 PST)
Chavez leads Venezuela vote, opposition makes gains Monday, 24 Nov, CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s left-wing party won most state races in elections on Sunday, shoring up his dominance in much of the OPEC nation, but the opposition scored victories in important power centres. Chavez’s Socialist Party won in 17 of 20 states with another two races too close to call, the national electoral authority said early on Monday. (Posted @ 10:19 PST)
N. Korea to suspend rail service, restrict movement Monday, 24 Nov, SEOUL: North Korea announced on Monday it would clamp down on cross–border movements and suspend a historic railway service from December 1 in protest at what it called South Korea’s policy of confrontation. The communist state said it would ‘selectively expel’ South Koreans based at two joint projects in the North, the Kaesong industrial estate and the Mount Kumgang tourist resort. (Posted @ 09:48 PST)
Verdasco clinches Davis Cup for Spain Monday, 24 Nov, MAR DEL PLATA: Fernando Verdasco won the Davis Cup for Spain here on Sunday, beating Argentina’s Jose Acasuso 6–3, 6–7 (3/7), 4–6, 6–3, 6–1 to give his country a third title after 2000 and 2004 and deny the hosts a first. Verdasco’s success in 3hr 56min gave the Spanish, shorn of the services of injured world number one Rafael Nadal, a winning 3–1 lead. ‘It’s like a dream come true – it’s the most beautiful day of my life,’ beamed Verdasco. (Posted @ 08:32 PST)
Pakistan should be Obama’s top priority Monday, 24 Nov, NEW YORK: One of President (Elect) Obama’s top priorities should be Pakistan, ‘a country with 170 million people and up to 60 nuclear weapons may be collapsing’ says two time Pulitzer Prize winning writer Nicholas Kristoff in an Op-Ed piece published in the New York Times Sunday. He also suggests that Obama administration ‘should push much harder for a peace deal in Kashmir — including far more pressure on India — because Kashmiri grievances empower Pakistani militants.’ Kristoff says ‘I’ve been coming to Pakistan for 26 years, ever since I hid on the tops of buses to sneak into tribal areas as a backpacking university student, and I’ve never found Pakistanis so gloomy. Some worry that militants, nurtured by illiteracy and a failed education system, will overrun the country or that the nation will break apart.’ (Posted @ 06:06 PST)
Obama to announce his top economic team Monday, 24 Nov, CHICAGO: President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday prepared to announce his top economic team as he worked on a stimulus plan designed to lift the country out of its worst financial crisis in decades. With top Democrats talking about a package in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a top aide to Obama hinted the campaign promise to repeal the tax cuts for the wealthy might be delayed. Obama went to his daily workout at the gym on Sunday but otherwise stayed out of sight as he prepared for the announcement on Monday of the people who will lead his administration's efforts to revive the economy. (Posted @ 05:48 PST)
Iraq PM says US troops will leave if no pact Monday, 24 Nov, BAGHDAD: Iraq will not seek to extend the UN mandate of US troops and they will pull out immediately if Iraqi parliament fails to approve a pact allowing them to stay until 2011, Iraq's prime minister said on Sunday. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was speaking after Iraq's leaders met with recalcitrant politicians on Sunday to try to persuade them to accept the pact, which gives the United States three years to phase out a military presence that started with a 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. 'Extending the presence of the international forces on Iraqi soil will not be our alternative,' Maliki told journalists. 'The alternative will be their immediate withdrawal from Iraq.' (Posted @ 05:27 PST)
Pakistan to receive up to $4bn from IMF by Thursday Monday, 24 Nov, WASHINGTON: The executive board of the International Monetary Fund will consider a $7.5 billion rescue package for Pakistan on Monday to help the country avoid an economic collapse. The board is likely to approve the package the same day as there seems to be a general consensus in Washington that it’s in everybody’s interest to move rapidly to prevent an economic implosion in Pakistan. If the rescue package is approved by Monday afternoon, the necessary documents allowing the transfer of money to Pakistan can also be signed the same day. (Posted @ 05:04 PST)
Venezuelan vote seen as key test for Chavez Monday, 24 Nov, CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez sought to hold on to his dominance in state and municipal elections Sunday, facing an opposition aiming to win back power in key states and cities. Chavez has said the vote, held one year after the president suffered his first defeat at the polls, could decide 'the future of the revolution, the future of socialism and also the future of Hugo Chavez.' (Posted @ 04:50 PST)
Pakistan lacks technology to stop drone attacks: Qamar Monday, 24 Nov, THATTA: Federal Minister for Privatization Syed Naveed Qamar has said that Pakistan lacked modern technology to contain the US bombardment within its territorial limits but has high hopes that after taking over by the US President in waiting Bark Obama the situation would change. Responding to a volley of questions by the reporters here at the residence of late Syed Gul Mohammed Shah where he had arrived to condole his death, Syed Qamar, said Pakistan was confident about a vital change in foreign policy of US in the time ahead. He said, the world was aware about the Pakistan’s sincere steps in war against terrorism and it will continue to work for peace. (Posted @ 04:27 PST)
Georgian, Polish presidents' motorcade fired on Monday, 24 Nov, TBILISI: Shots were fired near the motorcade carrying the presidents of Georgia and Poland on Sunday Georgian officials said. No one was hurt in the shooting. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who led the pro-Western 2003 uprising but whose popularity has waned in recent months, blamed Russian troops in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia. 'Frankly, I didn't expect the Russians to open fire,' he said at a news conference with Polish President Lech Kaczynski. 'The reality is you are dealing with unpredictable people. They weren't happy to see our guest and they weren't happy to see me either.' (Posted @ 04:06 PST)
JI chief threatens to block NATO supplies Monday, 24 Nov, PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami Chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has warned that if US drones did not stop missile attacks in the tribal area his party would cut off main supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan. ‘People will barricade routes from Karachi to Torkham border town to suspend supplies for the NATO forces in Afghanistan,’ Qazi Hussain Ahmad warned while addressing a jirga of tribesmen here at the party provincial secretariat on Sunday. He urged government to review the previous regime’s policy and suspend cooperation with Washington in the war against terrorism. If the government could not stop drone attacks in the tribal and settled areas of the province then JI would block supplies to NATO forces, he said. (Posted @ 03:33 PST)
Ideas 2008 to show self-reliance: Farooq Ahmed Monday, 24 Nov, Karachi: Director General Defense Export Promotion Organization (DEPO), Major General Farooq Ahmed has said that purpose of organizing Ideas 2008 exhibition was not aimed at proliferation of weapons but to gain self-reliance in the field of defense. Addressing a press conference in Karachi Expo Center he said that it was the biggest ever exhibition of Pakistan’s defense history in which 256 companies of 58 countries and 66 high level delegations were participating. (Posted @ 03:31 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Editor: Abbas Nasir
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