Heavily-armed Taliban suicide attackers on Sunday struck Afghanistan capital Kabul, with several explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic enclave as the militants took over a hotel and tried to enter the parliament.
The expression of remorse by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was enough to break the deadlock that had led to the blocking of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes for the last seven months, following the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border NATO strike at the Salala check-post in November last year.
Outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat leader Ahmed Ludhianvi played a cat-and-mouse game for almost six hours with the police and paramilitary forces who were trying to prevent them from entering the Pakistani capital.
Six people were pulled out of their homes after thunderstorms dumped up to six inches in the southern part of Oklahoma City, prompting authorities to issue a flood warning.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation officer in Afghanistan took about 45 minutes to notify a senior allied commander about Pakistan's calls that its outposts were under attack, according to new details of the probe into last month's air strike that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers.
Amid a deterioration in United States-Pakistan ties, China has assured Pakistan's political and militaryleadership of its support in maintaining sovereignty and internal stability and promised to help its 'trusted ally' play a bigger role in global and regional affairs.
Pakistani forces were "unusually accurate" as they fired shots on an Afghan-United States patrol on November 26, an American officer stationed in Afghanistan has said, providing new details about the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that could put fresh strains on the already tattered US-Pak relations.
In a fresh jolt to United States-Pakistan ties, the Pentagon on Monday said it is withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan for a "short period of time", after talks failed to lift the six-month blockade of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes to war-torn Afghanistan.
Pakistan is inching towards a decision on reopening North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply routes, which were closed following a cross-border air strike in November, though it is expected to impose "tough conditions" like a hefty transit fee for the movement of container trucks and oil tankers. The issue of allowing the United States and its allies to resume using Pakistani routes for transporting supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan figured at a meeting of leaders.
The Pakistan army on Sunday took over Shamsi airbase in the country's southwest after it was vacated by the United States forces in line with a deadline set by the government following a cross-border North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has summoned envoys in key world capitals for a meeting to review Pakistan's strategy on important foreign policy issues like the war on terrorism and relations with countries like the United States and India. Pakistan's envoys to the US, India, Afghanistan and several European countries are among those who have been asked to provide recommendations for forming strategies in the wake of the cross-border NATo raid.
Pakistan boycotted the Bonn Conference to emphasise to the world community the importance of its sovereignty even though it wants peace and stability in Afghanistan, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said on Monday.
Pakistan is refusing to participate in the United States-led probe into North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead along the Afghanistan border last week, the Pentagon has said.
With the most recent nosedive in United States-Pakistan relations in the aftermath of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, ironically, India-Pakistan relations seem to be on a more solid footing than the so-called US-Pakistan strategic partnership, said Thomas Donnelly, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, who specialises in defence and security policy.
Just days after a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation airstrike on Pakistani border posts, another incident of "heavy artillery fire" between the two forces reportedly broke out early on Wednesday across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border but was "quickly defused" and there was no loss of life, according to a media report.
The White House has ruled out an apology to Islamabad for November 26 incident in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in cross-border fire by the North Atlantic Traty Organisation and said it is time that the two countries move ahead. "I wouldn't have anything new to offer on that beyond what we have said, that we deeply regret the incident. We have thoroughly investigated it. We shared the results of that investigation with the Pakistanis," said a US official.
Pakistan will soon reopen the ground lines of communication to Afghanistan, which were shut down last November following the death of 24 soldiers in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's strike, the White House has said. "We continue to work with Pakistan on this issue. We did not anticipate that the supply line issue was going to be resolved prior to the summit. And our teams continue to meet and we are making diligent progress," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghanistan forces came under fire from across the Pakistan border before they called in a deadly air strike on two Pakistani military posts that left 24 soldiers dead, media reports quoted Afghan and western officials as saying.
United States President Barack Obama should "show some courage" and apologise to Pakistan for a cross-border air strike by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, the ruling Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops has widened the US-Pak rift, according to a leading American daily, which said the Obama administration's regret and Islamabad's anger over the strike reflects a "deepening distrust" that gets harder to repair with each new confrontation.
The Pakistani military on Monday rejected the regret expressed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief for a cross-border air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and warned that the action could have "grave consequences".
The United States on Tuesday said that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries have decided it is important to have participation of Pakistan at the Chicago Summit on Afghanistan hoping that Islamabad would be able to reopen the supply routes by then.
The search engine giant celebrates the 115th anniversary of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Pakistan on Sunday described as "pure fiction" a US media report about possible American plans to secure the country's nuclear arsenal in the event of any extremist threat, saying no one should "underestimate" its capability to defend its national interests.
Continuing its tirade against the successful launch of Agni V, Chinese state media has again accused New Delhi of buckling under pressure from the North Atlantic Treaty organisation to cut down the missile's range from 9,000 km to 5,000 km.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of most Australian troops from Afghanistan by the middle of next year, while rolling out her future plan of Canberra's role in the war-torn country. In a speech in Canberra, Gillard said Australian troops would begin pulling out this year and most would be home by the end of 2013 -- an election year in the country.
Strongly condemning the Mumbai serial blasts, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has expressed his outrage at the killing of innocent civilians in the terror strike. "These attacks against innocent civilians are outrageous and on behalf of the Alliance, I want to express my sincere condolences to the Indian authorities and especially to the families of the victims," Rasmussen said.
The new partnership on the block doesn't exactly boast novices. Sunish Sharma, managing director at General Atlantic, and another PE veteranManish Kejriwalthe Indian head of the Singapore government-owned Temasek Holdings (who is also married into the super rich Bajaj family) have come together to raise an independent private equity fund.
Launching another broadside against Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said the Taliban, that has launched some audacious attacks in his country will not be able to "move a finger without Pakistani support."
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said his government is in no hurry to reopen the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply routes that were closed after a cross-border air strike last year and that a decision on the issue will be made only after evolving consensus among political parties.
Pakistan on Thursday said that the United States probe report on the last month's North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers is "not based on facts".
If the US were to look from the east coast across the Atlantic for a country with which it could collaborate, then India would be that country for reasons more than one, Minister for HRD and Communications and IT Kapil Sibal.
A Turkish military helicopter on a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission crashed into a house outside the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, killing at least 15 people -- 12 soldiers on board and three civilians on the ground.
The United States Army continues to investigate the tragic killing of 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar, the Pentagon has said but remained unclear as to when the suspected American soldier would be charged.
Making sure nothing sensitive is left behind, American forces set on fire all their redundant and useless equipment before abandoning the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan's southwest.
The Pakistani military will shoot down any United States drone that intrudes the country's airspace under a new defence policy in which troops have been given greater liberty to respond to incursions by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and allied forces in Afghanistan, according to a media report.
Rao asserted that India has been transparent on this issue with international partners given its enormous energy security needs.
As United States finalises its plan to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, Indian authorities are getting ready to train nearly 30,000 Afghan troops in the next three years. The US has urged other countries to join hands with it to train Afghan troops, which will take over the duties of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's forces after they leave in 2014. Incidentally, the Pakistan government had expressed its interest in training Afghan troops.
