New Delhi: The Pakistani security services are directly aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan and have direct influence over its top leadership, a leaked NATO report has claimed. The report alleged that Pakistan's top spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has complete information about whereabouts of the top Taliban commanders. The report that has been prepared from thousands of interrogations says that the Taliban have wide support among the Afghan people....
11:04 AM, Feb 01, 2012
Brussels: NATO's top official said Monday that the alliance will adhere to its plans to hand over security to local forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, comments that came after France said it would push NATO to speed up its timeline for the handover of combat operations by a year. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledged that the final transition phase, which involves handing over lead responsibility for...
08:01 AM, Jan 31, 2012
Baghdad: The US pulled its troops out of Iraq because its economy is collapsing and it needed to save money, an al Qaeda front group said in a message posted on its website on Wednesday, its first online comment since the US completed its pullout last month after nine years of war. Al Qaeda was one of the main US enemies in Iraq. It was behind some of the deadliest...
02:42 AM, Jan 26, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's military on Monday rejected US findings on a November 26 NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, reducing the chances of a resolution of the dispute and an improvement in ties which are at their lowest in years. "Pakistan does not agree with several portions and findings of the investigation report, as these are factually not correct," the military said in a statement after a detailed...
03:30 AM, Jan 24, 2012
Islamabad: Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level US officials have held talks with a representative of an insurgent movement led by a former Afghan prime minister who has been branded a terrorist by Washington, a relative of the rebel leader says. Dr Ghairat Baheer, a representative and son-in-law of longtime Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (Gul-bu-DEEN HEK-mah-tyar), told The Associated Press this week that he had met separately with David Petraeus,...
12:17 PM, Jan 23, 2012
Washington: Pakistan's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has said that the current bilateral relationship between Islamabad and Washington is at its lowest ebb, lower than those post 9/11 attacks on the US. "We're at a very poor level. I don't think they were at this level even before 9/11, when I took over," Musharraf told the CNN in an interview when asked about the relationship between Pakistan and the...
12:49 PM, Jan 14, 2012
Islamabad: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will come face to face for the first time since they crossed swords over the memo issue, when a cabinet committee meets on Saturday to discuss crucial issues related to national security and relations with the US. The government has convened a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, Pakistan's highest decision-making body for security...
02:50 AM, Jan 14, 2012
Islamabad: US drones hit Pakistan's tribal region for a second time in as many days, killing six suspected militants in a targetted missile attack. The drones fired two missiles at two vehicles in North Waziristan, a day after the attacks resumed following a lull of two months in the aftermath of the deadly NATO strike that had killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and made ties with the country take a huge...
09:51 PM, Jan 12, 2012
New Delhi: The Google logo appears in the form of a cross section of the earth's crust to commemorate Danish geologist and anatomist Nicolas Steno's 374th birthday. Steno (also known as Nicolaus Steno, Niels Steensen or Niels Stensen) is regarded as the father of geology and he also made significant contributions to the field of human anatomy. He discovered the parotid salivary duct, also called Stensen's duct. He was the...
08:00 AM, Jan 11, 2012
Kabul: As the drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan steps up in 2012, NATO military planners are trying to figure out the logistics of how to ship out the massive quantities of alliance vehicles, weapons and other equipment from the mountainous landlocked country. The operation requires the removal of $30 billion worth of state-of-the-art military gear by the end of 2014, when US and other coalition troops are to end...
08:18 PM, Jan 03, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan and China have concluded a crucial USD 1.58 billion currency swap deal and multi-million dollar pacts to upgrade the strategic Karakoram Highway and a power plant, amid severe strains in US-Pak ties. The two "all-weather" strategic partners signed six bilateral agreements, including the 10-billion-yuan currency swap deal between China's central bank and State Bank of Pakistan, on Friday. The pact were inked during a visit to Islamabad by...
05:09 PM, Dec 24, 2011
Islamabad: China's on Friday assured Pakistan of its continued support and cooperation in economic and defence issues amid severe strain in US-Pak ties following a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. State Councillor Dai Bingguo, China's top foreign policy official arrived in Islamabad on Friday for a visit that Chinese officials said was aimed at taking the "all-weather" relationship between the two countries to "a new high". During...
09:37 PM, Dec 23, 2011
Gilani also slammed the army for not detecting Osama Bin Laden's presence in Pakistan, asking who issued him the visa to stay. ...
07:04 AM, Dec 23, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday in an unprecedented tongue-lashing against the powerful military said it is "unacceptable" if the army "considers itself a State within State" and warned that "conspiracies" are being hatched to "pack up" his government. Prime Minister Gilani also strongly criticised the army for failing to detect Osama bin Laden's presence in the country and said government firmly stood with the institutions and fully...
02:48 AM, Dec 23, 2011
Baghdad: A wave of 16 bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 69 people in the worst violence in Iraq for months. The apparently coordinated attacks struck days after the last American forces left the country and in the midst of a major government crisis between Shiite and Sunni politicians that has sent sectarian tensions soaring. The bombings may be linked more to the US withdrawal than the...
02:23 AM, Dec 23, 2011
Islamabad: The Pakistan Army on Thursday said it did not agree with the findings of a US inquiry into a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month. "The Pakistan Army does not agree with the findings of the US/NATO inquiry as is being reported in the media," chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said in brief statement. "The inquiry report is short on facts. A...
01:46 AM, Dec 23, 2011
Washington: The strong fire from the Pakistani military posts against the US-led NATO military forces was the "catalyst of the tragedy" last month that led to the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers, the Pentagon said on Thursday, indicating deep trust deficit and "misunderstanding" between them. The Pentagon remarks came as the US Central Command (CENTCOM) and NATO both came out with their investigations on the November 26 incident, concluding that...
10:20 PM, Dec 22, 2011
Washington: Asserting that its US-led NATO forces "legitimately responded in self-defense" after being fired upon on November 26, NATO on Thursday said that mistakes were committed on both sides that resulted in the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers. "The combined international and Afghan force was initially fired upon by unidentified forces, then believed not to be Pakistani military, and legitimately responded in self-defense," NATO said in a statement soon after...
06:24 PM, Dec 22, 2011
Islamabad: Pakistan wants new rules of engagement with the US and an assurance of "no Abbottabad-like unilateral action in future", Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said. The prime minister was referring to the May 2 killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by US commandos who carried out the daring raid by swooping into Abbottabad town without informing Pakistan. Gilani on Wednesday said that Pakistan wanted new rules...
12:41 PM, Dec 22, 2011
Islamabad: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said the US must guarantee Pakistan's sovereignty and ensure that there is no unilateral action like the raid that killed Osama bin Laden under the new terms of engagement that will define bilateral relations in future. Gilani made the remarks while addressing a meeting of Afghan and Pakistani parliamentarians at the Prime Minister's House. Pakistan wanted to take up three issues with...
09:29 PM, Dec 21, 2011
