Tag: Western

Efforts to find a deal to end the civil war in Libya intensified on Tuesday, with a UN special envoy heading for Tripoli and...

Heavy clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi broke out on Saturday on the front line in Libya's Western Mountains at the...

Western and regional powers looked to boost Libyan rebels battling to topple Moamer Gaddafi by designating them Friday as the country's legitimate rulers, a...

New details have emerged of how two western hostages in Afghanistan were freed in exchange for a hefty ransom paid in Pakistan and the...

The Swiss International Airlines has been voted the ‘Best Airline – Western Europe’ in this year’s Skytrax World Airline Awards. The distinction is based...

Libyan rebels captured two western villages on the road to Tripoli on Wednesday, as NATO insisted it could complete its mission without putting soldiers...

Meezan Bank Limited (MBL), Pakistan's first and largest Islamic commercial bank, and Western Union, world leader in money transfer services, have entered into a...

DOHA/TRIPOLI - A group of Western powers and Middle Eastern states called for the first time on Wednesday for Moammer Gaddafi to step aside, but North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries squabbled publicly over stepping up air strikes to help topple him.
In a victory for Britain and France, which are leading the air campaign in Libya and pushed for an unequivocal call for regime change, the "contact group" of some 16 European and Middle Eastern nations, plus the United

TEHRAN - Iran has stopped refuelling "western passenger planes" since Europe-bound Iranian commercial planes were refused fuelling there, the first vice-president was quoted as saying in the governmental Iran newspaper on Wednesday. "Recently fuel supply for Iranian passenger planes flying to Europe was stopped," Mohammed Reza Rahimi said.
"Iran decided immediately to strike back and banned supply of fuel to Western passenger planes landing in Iran," Rahimi added without

DAKAR/GENEVA - United Nations staff in western Ivory Coast have found more than 100 bodies in the past 24 hours, some burned alive and others thrown down a well, in a further sign of the ethnic violence gripping the country.
The grim discovery came a week after the International Committee of the Red Cross said at least 800 bodies had been found in the town of Duekoue after an explosion of inter-communal violence. United Nations human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said on

TEHRAN - Tensions between Iran and the Gulf Arab countries are the result of a "Western and Zionist conspiracy", the foreign ministry in Tehran said on Sunday.
"Sowing discord between Islamic countries, especially between Iran and the countries of the region, is a Western and Zionist conspiracy," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparst was quoted as saying on the website of state television.
"We advise regional governments to heed the demands of their people in

GENEVA - At least 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the western Ivorian town of Duekoue this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday.
"We have information that at least 800 persons were killed on March 29 (Tuesday) in Duekoue in intercommunal violence," ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas told Reuters.
ICRC officials visited the Carrefour area of Duekoue on Thursday and Friday to assess needs and gather testimony, a

TRIPOLI - Western warplanes hit Libyan forces at a strategically important eastern town, trying to land a crippling blow on Muammar Gaddafi's tanks in a nearly week-old campaign that NATO says could last three months.
In Tripoli, residents reported another air raid just before dawn on Friday, hearing the roar of a warplane, followed by a distant explosion and bursts of anti-aircraft gunfire.
Western-led operations to enforce a no fly zone to stop a violent crackdown against

LONDON - Oil prices rose by over $2 a barrel on Monday as a wave of U.N.-mandated airstrikes on Libya and proliferating unrest in the Middle East fanned concerns about oil supply from the region. Brent crude for May was up $1.80 to $115.73 a barrel by 1234 GMT after earlier trading over $116, while U.S. crude for April gained $1.81 at $102.88 a barrel.
"With the nature of the external military involvement becoming clearer, there is a further escalation of the situation, and the

JERUSALEM - Israel has removed scaffolding which was limiting access to the Little Western Wall, a key Jewish site in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, residents and officials said on Friday. News of the move was first revealed in the Haaretz newspaper, which said it was geared towards improving access for worshippers to the site, which is considered holy by Jews.
The site is part of the same ancient wall that used to surround the Second Temple, and lies several

Date: December 31, 2010
Re: Pakistan the first quarter
Having been in Pakistan since October, I am forwarding a brief review of my first personal impressions.
1) View about America: Survey after survey has shown that the populace at large very unfavorably views US government and policy. The perception in the corridors of power is very different. Given their propensities to focus on conspiracy theories most of them have a notion of US influence in Pakistan that far

MOSCOW - Russia on Friday rejected the West's criticism of a court decision to keep Kremlin critic and ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in jail until 2017 in a case watched as a barometer of the country's democratic progress.
"The opinions expressed there (in the West) should not and absolutely do not affect the decisions taken by the judicial authorities of the Russian Federation," news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.
"They are independent of both