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ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban leaders are targeting the capital Islamabad in retaliation for government offensives in the country's northwest, a local media report says. A story carried Wednesday by a Pakistani daily says Taliban leaders have threatened clerics in Islamabad, telling them that if they don't support their militant brand of Islam they will be targeted…

KARACHI: Younis Khan will be holding the short camp of the Pakistan cricket team before the Sri Lanka Test here at the Pakistan Steel Mills Ground. He said that the camp is being held at the Pakistan Steel Mills Ground to keep the players away fromt the media. The medis has protested citing the reason…

LAHORE: Former Chief Operating Office of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shafqat Naghmi has decided to sue the PCB for Rs.1 in a defamation law suit. He maintained that he is suing the PCB because the PCB had defamed him by accusing him of misappropriation of funds.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt hit back Wednesday at severe government criticism of the board's financial management, saying the country's Senate has “no powers” to interfere in cricket affairs. The PCB chief faced volleys of questions from Senate's standing committee this week, with Senator Enver Baig calling for Butt to step down…

LONDON: Sacked England coach Peter Moores been hired to take charge of English county side Lancashire. The 46-year-old Moores was fired by the England and Wales Cricket Board last month following the breakdown of his relationship with Kevin Pietersen, who relinquished the captaincy. “I feel very excited and privileged to be given the opportunity to…

KABUL: Taliban fighters, carrying assault rifles and wearing suicide vests, stormed the Justice Ministry and another government building in Afghanistan's capital Wednesday, forcing workers to flee from windows, according to government officials and a Taliban spokesman. Nineteen people were killed in the assault. The coordinated attacks struck in the heart of Kabul, underscoring the reach…

TEHRAN: Iran said on Wednesday that a fatwa ordering the death of British writer Salman Rushdie was still valid 20 years after it was issued by the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “It is natural that as long as a fatwa has not been annulled, it is still valid,” foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said…

COLOMBO: Mahela Jayawardene on Wednesday decided to step down as Sri Lanka's cricket captain after the upcoming Tests in Pakistan, saying he was doing it “in the best interests” of the team. “This is something I have been considering for some time as it has been my long-held belief that my successor should have at…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Petroleum Ltd should interact with Balochistan's chieftains in their surveys for oil and gas, the governor has instructed the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd. However, because of precarious security conditions, the search for oil and gas reserves is almost non-existent in the province. Work in Kohlu worth $17 million and in Barkhan…

PESHAWAR: Clashes between security forces and extremists have forced people to vacate FATA. At least 20,000 affectees have migrated to the Jalozai camp in Nowshehra. The camp has been home to migrant Afghanis for nearly 30 years and more than 5,000 affectees have applied for registration making it the largest refugee camp in NWFP. Additional…

BEIJING: China has slaughtered more than 13,000 fowl after dead birds tested positive for bird flu. Xinhua News Agency quotes China's Ministry of Agriculture saying 519 fowl had died and were confirmed as having the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The fowl died in Hetian prefecture in Xinjiang, China's far western region that borders Pakistan…

MELBOURNE: Australian sportspeople and organizations are raising millions of dollars in aid for the survivors of the country's wild fires that have killed at least 181 people. The Australian soocer team is donating match fees from the Asian Group 1 qualifying match at the 70,000-seat Yokohama stadium, and Football Federation Australia has already made a…

LONDON: The schedule for the final qualifier for the 2011 Cricket World Cup to be held in South Africa from April 1-19 was released on Tuesday by the International Cricket Council (ICC). In total nine venues are to be used for 54 matches played over 19 days with 12 teams fighting it out for the…

FORT DRUM: The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff said Monday the United States was still “not done” in Iraq but that the military's primary focus was now the war in Afghanistan. “You have turned it around in Iraq,” Admiral Mike Mullen told several hundred soldiers at the Fort Drum US Army base…

ISLAMABAD: The US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan was to meet key leaders here Tuesday as part of a major US policy review aimed at turning around the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in south Asia. Richard Holbrooke, considered the architect of peace in Bosnia, was due to meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime…

WASHINGTON: Influential U.S. senator John Kerry has said strengthening Pakistani democratic government must be a key part of the regional approach to curb militancy in the region and that Afghanistan should not be allowed to destabilize Pakistan. “The United States is not in Afghanistan to make it our 51st state, but to make sure it…

WASHINGTON: An aloof national government and terrorist groups operating along its border with Pakistan make Afghanistan a challenge, U.S. President Barack Obama said. Afghanistan won't experience the “relatively peaceful” election that Iraq had recently because the Afghan government “seems very detached from what's going on in the surrounding community,” Obama said during the first news…

WASHINGTON: Recognizing the democratic Pakistani government's resolve to curb Al-Qaeda militancy along its Afghan border, President Barack Obama on Monday talking to media persons, pledged to have Pakistan as a 'stalwart ally' of the United States against the terrorist threat. He also vowed to proceed with a combination of U.S. security, development and diplomatic efforts…

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday emphasized that only a cohesive and integrated regional approach was the way forward to defeating extremism and terrorism. The President expressed these views while talking to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who called on him here at the at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. Zardari also…

ISLAMABAD: A top American envoy making his first visit to the region has sought new ways to battle Al-Qaeda in nuclear-armed Pakistan and help stem violence in neighboring Afghanistan. Envoy Richard Holbrooke arrived in the Pakistani capital Monday, the same day Poland said militants suspected in the apparent killing of one its citizens had the…

WARSAW: Poland on Tuesday offered a one million zlotys (290,000 dollars, 224,000 euros) reward for information leading to the capture of Taliban militants who beheaded a Polish geologist in Pakistan. “I am setting a bounty of one million zlotys for information which can help us bring the killers of Mr Piotr Stanczak to justice,” Foreign…