The trial of seven suspects accused of involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks was adjourned for a week apparently due to concerns among Pakistani authorities that any adverse developments in the proceedings could impact ongoing talks with India. When lawyers defending the suspects, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, reached Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where the trial is being conducted, they were informed that Judge Awan was on leave.
The Pakistan government on Friday directed authorities to totally block 17 lesser known websites with blasphemous and anti-Islamic content, even as it asked them to monitor seven other major portals, including Google, Yahoo, Amazon and YouTube, for sacrilegious material. The instructions were issued to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority after an inter-ministerial committee met to evaluate websites with anti-Islamic content.
India and Pakistan must focus on a creative and realistic approach as they begin the long haul of normalising relations following a constructive meeting of their Foreign Secretaries, the Pakistani media and analysts said on Friday. News reports of the coordial meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir dominated the front pages of the dailies.
Pakistan's Foreign Office apparently sent an official known for his ability to read faces to receive Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on her arrival in Rawalpindi in a bid to find out what was on her mind.
A Pakistani court has reportedly ordered a ban on nine leading websites, including Google, Yahoo and Hotmail, for allegedly posting blasphemous material.Media reports said the Bahawalpur bench of the Lahore high court on Tuesday directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to immediately block nine websites -- including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, YouTube, Bing and Amazon -- for publishing and promoting sacrilegious and blasphemous material.
Pakistan and India should move forward together to resolve their outstanding issues through dialogue as wars offer no solutions, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said days ahead of Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two countries.
The 27-year-old German national, later identified as Rami Mackenzie, was allegedly an expert in making suicide vests and was wanted by German authorities for links with extremists. He was clad in a burqa which covered his face at the time of the arrest.
Pakistan will try to find a 'common denominator' during the upcoming talks with Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, without 'forgetting' outstanding issues like Kashmir, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has said. "We do not have a prepared agenda. We will see what can be identified as doable and then take it to the foreign ministers' level. In this meeting, we will try and find a common denominator," Bashir said, referring to talks he will hold with Rao in Islamabad.
The United States on Friday described as 'completely inaccurate' media reports that it had offered to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve their differences over the sharing of river water.Reports in the Pakistani media on Friday suggested that the water dispute between India and Pakistan had come up during the first meeting of the Water Working Group of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, which was held on Thursday.
More than 35 Pakistani soldiers went missing on Thursday after a fierce attack by the Afghan Taliban on a border check-post in the country's restive tribal belt. The militants have claimed that they are holding ten Pakistani soldiers hostage.
Pakistan has assured the US administration that American military hardware provided to it will be used solely for defensive purposes, a top US official said on Friday.
Pakistan dismissed reports that Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley had linked serving Pakistani army officers to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, saying they were based on "misguided leaks" aimed at maligning the country.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that he is 'disenchanted' with the way India handled the bilateral relations in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks as he expected New Delhi to 'behave much more maturely'. "This new-age terror has created a phenomenon where a few people can take entire states to war. The fact that these people happen to belong to Pakistan or India or Bangladesh is immaterial. They are non-state actors, and states should behave like states."
During a meeting with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir "president" Raja Zulqarnain Khan and "prime minister" Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider, Gilani said, Pakistan will "continue to support the just cause of the people of Kashmir."
Seeking to cement its close defence ties with Islamabad, China today agreed to provide four trainer aircraft and US $ 9 million to Pakistan to train its armed forces. The two countries signed agreements to implement decisions made during a meeting between Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and his Chinese counterpart General Liang Guangile in Islamabad.
After blocking Facebook and Youtube, Pakistani authorities widened the crackdown on websites with blasphemous contents by restricting access to popular social networking website Twitter on Friday.
After blocking Facebook and YouTube, Pakistani authorities on Friday further widened the crackdown on websites with blasphemous content by restricting access to popular social networking website Twitter.
Pakistani authorities on Thursday blocked video sharing website YouTube for hosting "objectionable content", a day after cutting off access to Facebook over a page featuring blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.
Pakistan's Jang media group has formed a committee to ascertain whether well-known TV anchor Hamid Mir actually spoke to a Taliban operative about former Inter-Services Intelligence officer Khalid Khwaja who was eventually killed by militants.Mir has been at the centre of a controversy after several websites uploaded a 13-minute conversation he purportedly had with a Taliban operative. In the tape, Mir and the militant discuss the activities of Khwaja.
The Pakistan government on Wednesday directed all Internet service providers to block Facebook in line with the Lahore High Court's order to temporarily cut off access to it over a page encouraging users to post caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the popular social networking site.
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