Tag: Foreign

KABUL - A foreign force air raid in central Afghanistan may have killed three Afghan police and wounded three, the NATO-led force said on Monday, the third such incident in more than a month.
Civilian casualties and the mistaken killing of members of the Afghan security forces have been a frequent source of friction between President Hamid Karzai's government and Western military forces in a war now in its 10th year. In southern Kandahar's Spin Boldak town - scene of the

ISLAMABAD - The current political crisis in the country following the departure of MQM from the ruling coalition has left American and other foreign diplomats based in Islamabad deeply concerned. They fear it would distract the PPP government from the ongoing anti-terrorism efforts and also diminish further the chances of a military operation in North Waziristan.
"The diplomatic missions in Islamabad, especially those from the western nations including the US, are not only

ISLAMABAD - Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Major General Athar Abbas has said that no foreign troops would be allowed to launch ground offensive in the Tribal Areas and an operation continued in the Tribal Areas to maintain law and order.
Major General Abbas said foreign troops had neither been allowed to conduct ground operations in Pakistan, nor would they be allowed to do so in the future.
He said the arrival of terrorists from across the border was the

KARACHI - Law enforcement agencies (LEAs) have arrested six suspected terrorists with links to an Iran-based militant organization, foiling their bid to form a terrorist wing of the outfit in Karachi, intelligence sources told Pakistan Today on Saturday.
The suspects are believed to be involved in sectarian killings of over 100 people. They have been shifted to an unidentified location and raids are being carried out to arrest their 13 accomplices.
The arrested men are

KABUL: Two Afghan security guards have been killed after international forces raided the offices of a transportation company in Kabul, a senior police officer said Friday.
"Foreign forces have conducted an operation in district four of Kabul city in which two private guards of the business were killed," Mohammad Zahir, the city police's chief of criminal investigations, told AFP. He added that the guards worked for a private security company which provided services at Tiger

ISLAMABAD - The government and the opposition on Thursday expressed unity to protect national sovereignty and pledged that no foreign power would be allowed to dictate Pakistan.
"It is a wrong perception that the US would dictate us when and where to launch operation... the nation will take a decision on this issue... the government will not compromise on national security and integrity," Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said in the National Assembly while responding to a point

KABUL - International troop deaths in Afghanistan topped 700 in 2010, an independent website said Tuesday, with US military chiefs reportedly pushing to expand special operations ground raids into Pakistan.
The number of coalition forces killed fighting the Taliban this year - already the deadliest in the nine-year war - now stands at 702, around a third higher than last year, according to an AFP tally based on iCasualties.org. US troops account for 70 percent of the deaths and

LONDON: Pakistan is nearly ready to launch a privatisation programme which aims to bring in foreign management expertise and tap international markets to turn around its flagging state-owned industries, the privatisation minister Waqar Ahmed Khan said in an interview. "You will see in the next 12 months about 5 or 6 deals coming on the block," he said on Sunday, adding that he expected the first deal in January.
Pakistan privatisations in the past have been dogged by allegations

MOSCOW: North Korea's foreign minister held rare talks in Russia on Monday amid a flurry of diplomatic attempts to ease tensions following Pyongyang's deadly attack on a South Korean island last month.
Pak Ui-Chun is on a visit to Russia until Wednesday and was in talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on a number of issues, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry said.
"The talks are ongoing," the spokesman told AFP, saying it would be premature to comment

KABUL: An insurgent attack killed six foreign soldiers in Afghanistan's Taliban-infested south on Sunday, days before the White House publishes a review of US military strategy in the increasingly deadly war.
Despite record numbers of coalition deaths and talk that the Taliban's reach is spreading, the US assessment is likely to endorse the current strategy amid claims of some battlefield success in the highly volatile south.
But critics say the mounting death toll is

ISLAMABAD: Religious Affairs Secretary Agha Sarwar Qazilbash on Saturday told the special committee of the Public Accounts Committee that his ministry had not yet received any directions from the prime minister regarding the role of the Foreign Ministry in Haj affairs.
The special committee of the PAC met with Riaz Hussain Pirzada in the chair to review audit reports of the Ministry of Religious Affairs for the year 1996-97. Qazilbash told the committee that investigations into

KARACHI: Overseas Pakistanis continue to remit more money on the back of what analysts believe is a soaring demand for money at home and security-related uncertainties abroad owing to war on terror.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), foreign remittances continued to show a rising trend during first five months of the current fiscal year, with Pakistani workers remitting $4.4283 billion. An increase of $ 595.72 million or 15.54 percent is seen compared to the

ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court bench on Wednesday declined to grant
a stay order on leasing of the Reko Diq gold mines in Balochistan, worth over $260 billion, to foreign exploration companies.
The bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday was hearing a petition against leasing out Reko Diq gold and copper mines in Balochistan to foreign companies by the federal

GUANGZHOU: Former Pakistan great Javed Miandad has pleaded with foreign teams to tour the troubled Asian nation, saying cricket there is suffering because of the absence of top-level competition.
Pakistan have been forced to play home series overseas because of security fears in the country, where thousands have been killed in suicide attacks and bombings blamed on homegrown Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks.
No foreign side has toured Pakistan since an attack by

ISLAMABAD: Federal audit authorities have held the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), which deals with foreign loans and grants, responsible for losing out on a major grant of over Rs 53 billion during fiscal year 2008-09.
According to the 2009-10 audit report of the EAD, the failure of the division to finalise the disbursement procedure cost the country grants of over Rs 53 billion.
The report says per Rules of Business 1973, the EAD is assigned the responsibility to

KABUL: A suicide car bomber targeted foreign forces in Kabul on Friday but the device detonated early, slightly injuring an Afghan soldier, ISAF and city police said.
An International Security Assistance Force spokesman said the explosion happened near Camp Julien, which is located in the ruins of the former Afghan royal palace in the west of the city.
"According to initial reports it was a vehicle-borne IED (improvised explosive device)," the spokesman said. A later

KABUL: NATO and Afghan officials were Saturday probing reports a rogue Afghan soldier shot dead foreign troops -- said to be two US Marines -- on a base in the volatile south of the country, the alliance said.
A NATO official said that two US Marines had been killed in the incident, which took place in Helmand province late on Thursday night.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP the Marines had been shot by an Afghan soldier who had been on the base for