National

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Qazi Muhammad Anwar on Tuesday returned a cheque of Rs 1 million to Federal Law Minister Babar Awan following a strong protest by bar members, who called it an attempt to divide the lawyers.
The SCBA president also banned Awan's entry into bar premises, saying that the grant of Rs 4 million offered by the law minister for the uplift of the bar library would not be accepted. The law minister had given the Rs 1 million

SRINAGAR: A clash between police in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) and protesters who defied a curfew to demonstrate against the arrest of a Hurriyat leader left 16 people injured Tuesday.
Masarat Alam, 44, who is known for his fiery denunciations of Delhi, was arrested by police on Monday in Srinagar, after evading capture for four months. Thousands of security forces on Tuesday implemented a strict curfew in parts of IHK to try to pre-empt protests over Alam's arrest.
Police

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday announced that it would issue its judgement on multiple petitions challenging certain aspects of the 18th Amendment on October 21, including the definition of the exact contours of its authority to review the mechanism approved by parliament for appointment of judges.
Earlier on September 30, a 17-judge full court of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had reserved its verdict after more than four months of

WASHINGTON: The United States has said it has no idea where top Al Qaeda commanders Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are hiding, a day after a report claimed that the two fugitives were living in the northwest under ISI protection.
"I don't think we know where they are. If we knew where they were, I think we would have done something about it," Defence Deputy Secretary William Lynn said in an interview.
Lynn was responding to a CNN report which quoted an

QUETTA/PESHAWAR: Gunmen on Tuesday torched vehicles carrying supplies for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, in the second such attack in 24 hours, police said.
The two tankers were attacked in Balochistan. Two men riding on a motorcycle held up the trucks at gun point, forcing the drivers and their helpers to leave, police official Khuda Bakhsh said. The gunmen doused the trucks in petrol before shooting at them at Dasht Bado town, 175 kilometres south of the provincial

PESHAWAR: At least three security personnel were killed and another two injured when Taliban attacked their convoy near Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, on Tuesday.
Reports said the convoy of armed forces was on its way to Wana when one of the vehicles hit an improvised explosive device (IED) near Azam Qela. Three people in the vehicle were killed on the spot. It was the second attack on security forces in South Waziristan Agency in three days.
Three days ago,

LONDON: The Inter-Services Intelligence played a major role in helping prepare the 2008 Mumbai attacks, one of the planners of the bloodbath has told Indian interrogators, a report in British newspaper Guardian claimed on Tuesday.
David Headley, who confessed to surveying targets for the attacks that left 166 people dead in November 2008, made detailed claims about support from the ISI, said the Guardian. Headley described dozens of meetings between officers of the ISI and senior

PESHAWAR: Dengue infection is endemic in Hazara division and Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, stated an official handout here on Monday.
The peek time of dengue infection is from March to October. Such cases occur every year in these areas. Recent infection is reported from Dhab No 2, Mansehra city, village on Khaki Road, Lohar Banda, Hari Mera, Khaki, Ogai, Buffa, Khwajgan and Jaloo. Cause of the infection is reported to be the water reservoir across Khaki, says a report

PESHAWAR: Doctors from three hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continued their protest, boycotting their work at Outpatient Departments (OPDs) here on Monday.
The doctors' strike entered second week on Monday that had started after the Provincial Doctors Association's call for a protest drive against what the doctors said were the 'growing security threats' and kidnapping of their colleague for ransom.
The doctors at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Hayatabad Medical Complex

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior was informed on Monday that there was no Blackwater in the country. Additional Secretary Interior Asif Nawaz Warriach told the committee, which met here at Parliament House with Abdul Qadir Patel in the chair, that the ministry had no information which confirmed presence of Blackwater in Pakistan.
However, when the Chairman committee Abdul Qadir Patel asked the Additional Secretary Interior Asif Nawaz Warriach "Are

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians and members of provincial assemblies appear to have no regard for the law or the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), as some of them accused of possessing fake degrees are consistently avoiding to appear before the ECP special committee to defend their educational record.
Only three of the 15 MPs summoned appeared before the special committee on Monday and the ECP officials hearing the fake degree cases said that the committee would refer the cases

LAHORE: A lawyer has sent a reference to the president and the Supreme Judicial Council against a judge of the Lahore High Court for influencing a police case in favour of a naib qasid of his court.
Saeed Ahmed Malik moved the application against Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed seeking proceedings against him under Article 109 of the constitution for misuse of powers. Malik said that on September 23, 2009, a mob led by Mehmood and his son Akram attacked his property and demolished it

ISLAMABAD: The government has no intention of withdrawing its notification of March 16, 2009, Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq told the Supreme Court on Monday.
Appearing before a 17-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry which was hearing a suo motu case pertaining to media reports alleging the government of contemplating the withdrawal of the March 16, 2009 notification reinstating the superior judiciary, the AG informed the court

ROME: Global powers on Monday gave their backing to Afghanistan's efforts to negotiate with the Taliban and set conditions for the gradual handover of power from foreign troops to local security forces.
The high-level talks on Afghanistan in Rome brought together representatives from 46 countries and international organisations, including for the first time Iran and the OIC. "We want to go in this direction of a realistic aim which is sufficient stability for Afghanistan and

PESHAWAR: A would-be suicide bomber was killed and 14 people, including women and children were injured, when police thwarted a terror strike and destroyed an explosives-laden vehicle in Lakki Marwat on Monday.
According to details, policemen deputed at a checkpost near the Ghaznikhel police station flagged down a suspected double-cabin vehicle. However, the driver ignored the signal and made an attempt to escape. At this, police opened fire on the vehicle and it exploded into a

KABUL: Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is living comfortably in a house in Kurrum Agency close to his deputy al-Zawahiri, CNN on Monday quoted a NATO official as saying.
The report claimed that Bin Laden was being protected by local people and "some members of the Pakistani intelligence services". "Nobody in Al Qaeda is living in a cave," the unnamed senior NATO official is quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied Bin Laden, Zawahiri or even Mullah

MIRANSHAH: US drones fired missiles at a compound and vehicle in a village in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on Monday, killing at least six militants, a senior security official told AFP.
"The identities of those killed in the strike is not yet known," the official said on condition of anonymity. "There are still four drones flying over Datta Khel," he said.
A second security official confirmed the strike which took place in Sunzalai village near Datta Khel, a town 45