The New York Times reported that Pakistan was moving 6,000 troops (more than a brigade) to fight militants on its western border with Afghanistan, quoting a Pakistani official who did not want to be identified. The Pakistan military, advancing on three fronts backed by fighter aircraft and attack helicopters in Buner, snatched the vital 8-km-long Ambela heights which overlook most of Buner.
The Indian was abducted along with a Nepali on Monday while they were travelling from Herat to capital Kabul. No militant outfit has claimed responsibility and no arrests have been made so far.
China on Friday said that any successor to the present Dalai Lama should be approved by it, ruling out recognition to any heir nominated by him or by his followers.
About 300 students held hostage by three would-be suicide bombers at a school in north-western Pakistan on Thursday were freed by armed local residents who stormed the building killing two of the militants in a gunbattle. The militants took control of the government-run primary school in Dir district of the North West Frontier Province and held the children hostage for several hours.
Rediff reader Anmol More shared his experience.
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French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Saturday became the first western leader to bluntly threaten it with a boycott of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony amid another bloody flare up in Tibet. The United States, European Union and Australia have been piling pressure on China to immediately open dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, eight people have been killed in fresh riots in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze.
Chengdu Airlines said the ARJ21 has a lower cost per seat than similar models of Airbus and Boeing models.
Despite carmaker drama in the U.S., and a failed deal with Chrysler, China's auto champ may be poised to go international.
The joint exercise will begin on December 21 with the spotlight on anti-terrorism drills, with China expected to draw upon the experience of Indian troops known for expertise gained in their counter-insurgency operations.
"While jihadis in Pakistan are now fighting the army in Balochistan, Swat and North Western Frontier Province, the same may be brainwashed and made to infiltrate in India," Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj, general officer commanding-in-chief, southern command, said.
'US forces have killed Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a member of the 12-member shura of the Neo Taliban.'
'By annoying the Arabs and cozying up to Iran, Pakistan may end up losing Arab economic support, annoying the Americans and increase Shia-Sunni tensions domestically,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) points out.
Prices are sustainable and not just driven by speculative gains
Terrorist outfit Al Qaeda is training a 12-member team of westerners in Pakistan for a special mission including plotting attacks on return to their home countries, a media report has said.
Seven people were killed and 12 others injured on Thursday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a security check post close to the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.
The 40-year-old Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan has been an outstanding example of conflict resolution but scarcity of water in the basin states since the early 1990s has brought the agreement under strain and its "survival appears weak", according to a UN report.
A spokesman for Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, rang an international news agency to confirm that the Taliban had kidnapped the four men.
The future can only get better if we continue to break silos and work as integrated teams focussed on promoting national interests, recommends Sanjeev Nayyar.
The attack took place during evening prayers in Kohat in North Western Frontier Province, some 70 kms from Peshawar.
The seventh Tibet Work Forum was held in Beijing on August 28 and 29. Delhi should be deeply concerned, at a time India faces a precarious situation in Ladakh, because the TWF also defines China's western border policies, observes Claude Arpi.
Secretary of Pakistan's ministry of water resources Khawaja Shumail said: "We have neither concern nor objection if India diverts water of eastern rivers and supplies it to its people or uses it for other purposes, as the IWT allows it to do so."
The Indian-style stupa will be ready by next year.
At least seven people were killed on Thursday in Pakistan in two separate blasts, including a suicide attack on the Pak-Afghan border apparently targeting soldiers.
The inking of the commercial contract to build and run the strategic port will help India win access to Afghanistan, Russia and Europe
51 dead, 870 injured in Iran earthquake.
'The Post's coverage is not an authentic public discourse guided by unbiased Western intellectuals, but a slanted doomsday propaganda orchestrated by Indians and expatriate Indians,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
China and India, who are poised to spearhead global economic growth, should not be complacent but strive to enhance productivity and develop critical thinking skills
'It is a testing time for our foreign policy which may involve a certain element of taking risks, assessing costs, and expecting failures,' asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
A French restaurant popular with foreigners in Kabul was the target of a New Year's Day bombing on Friday, officials said.
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China on Tuesday said that the Dalai Lama can improve ties with it only by giving up wish for Tibetan independence and publicly announcing that Tibet is an inalienable part of the country.
Back-to-back droughts in India, the world's largest importer of edible oils and pulses, has boosted prices and made pulses attractive to Canadian farmers.
In a move that is bound to raise hackles in India, Pakistan is working on raising the constitutional status of its occupied Gilgit-Baltistan to address China's concerns over the $46-billion economic corridor through the strategic region.
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