Pakistan has received the first three upgraded F-16 fighter aircrafts with an official saying the aircraft could be used to deal with "all internal and external threats". An official spokesman claimed Pakistan would be the only country besides Israel to get the latest version of the F-16, reflecting the strategic relations between Islamabad and Washington.
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.
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.
President Pratibha Patil on Saturday said the commitment of China's top leadership, including her counterpart Hu Jintao, to strengthen Sino-Indian ties was evident during the 'wide-ranging and constructive' talks she had with them. In her first public engagement in Shanghai, China's gleaming business hub, Patil said India and China enjoy a thriving trade and economic relationship, vibrant cultural ties and also greater people-to-people exchanges.
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."
There were some awkward moments before the departure of President Pratibha Patil from Beijing to the central Chinese city of Luoyang on Saturday when a member of her entourage, Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Raghuvansh Prasad, did not turn up at the airport on time, making her wait for nearly 20 minutes.Though the scheduled departure was slated for 9 am local time, the President arrived at the airport at 8.50 am for the last farewell formalities.
Patil, the first Indian Head of State to visit China in a decade, took up the issue of the growing trade imbalance.
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.
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