DHAKA - Bangladesh defended Tuesday its decision to snub foreign aid after the collapse of a garment factory complex where at least 388 people died as the UN revealed it had offered specialist help to find survivors. With the death toll from the country's worst ever industrial disaster still ...

ISLAMABAD - JAVAID-UR-RAHMAN   - As all the major religio-politcial parties are set to restore Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) by the start of next month (December), the last ditch effort to convince Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) as a member of the group is likely in a couple of days at ...

Karamat AliCellular mobile sector of Pakistan has achieved immense success since deregulation. Over the last four years, cellular mobile teledensity has increased from 40% to the current level of 65% and cellular subscribers have crossed 112 million mark, which were just 65 million four years ago. ...

SAN FRANCISCO  - California Governor Jerry Brown wants to move forward with building a statewide high-speed rail system seen costing nearly $100 billion, but lawmakers are nervous about approving bonds needed to lock in federal funds to get the project under way.They are gagging at the rail ...

Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith on Thursday said that Pakistan need to redouble its efforts to combat extremism. His comments came following the Afghan interior ministry had arrested six people allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Smith, who is ...

LAHORE Visiting Sri Lankan doctors told the Punjab government on Thursdat that it needed to review its existing strategy regarding platelets and spray for curbing dengue virus. Sri Lanka had confronted a devastating a situation in 2009 like the one in Pakistan today. No country can claim to have ...

UNITED NATIONS - A move by the United States and its Western allies aimed at seeking UN Security Council's condemnation of Syria's crackdown against anti-government protesters has failed as it could not muster enough support in the 15-member body. The Western-led effort to agree on a statement ...

LONDON (Agencies) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi considered increasing Italys foreign aid budget during the countrys 2009 G8 presidency to avoid a tongue-lashing from Irish rock hero Bono, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. In the leaked memo, William ...

NEW YORK (AFP) Australias Greg Norman, Fijis Vijay Singh and American David Duval - all former world number ones - are joining with the US PGA Tour in a Golfers for the Gulf bid to help the Gulf of Mexico. The stars are backing the move to help endangered wildlife in ecologically damaged marshes ...

ATHENS (AFP) - A Greek recovery drive to overcome a financial crisis is being applied as intended, experts from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday. Joined by auditors from the European Central Bank, the EU-IMF team said in a statement it had found that the ...

PONTE VEDRA BEACH (Florida) (AFP) Tiger Woods made a shaky start but improved as the day progressed to shoot a decent two-under-par 70 in the first round at the Players Championship on Thursday. Woods, trying to rebound after missing the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship last week by a whopping ...

Rescuers edged their way toward residents trapped in a toppled apartment block early Sunday and survivors huddled around bonfires in the rubble of their homes as the death toll in Chile continued to rise after one of the strongest earthquakes in history. Authorities put the official death toll from ...

Pakistan's public education system has become a major barrier to U.S. efforts to defeat extremist groups here, U.S. and Pakistani officials say. Western officials tend to blame Islamic schools, known as madrassas, for their role as feeders to militant groups, but Pakistani education experts say the ...

U.S. officials are laying out a massive military response to the Haiti earthquake, saying that ships, helicopters, transport planes and a 2,000-member Marine unit are either on the way or likely to begin moving soon. Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command, said Wednesday that one of the ...

ISLAMABAD Senior lawyers of the Supreme Court have termed governments decision to wait for the detailed judgement against NRO as a fruitless effort to escape the eventuality, saying detailed judgements contain nothing else except reasons for courts orders. Short orders are issued for the sole ...

NEW YORK - The Obama administration is moving to ramp up its efforts to win the propaganda war in Afghanistan, The New York Times reported Sunday. American Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, admitting the United States is losing the war of words and ideas to the Taliban ...

MADRID (AFP) - The attempt to rescue an injured Spanish climber stranded on a Himalayan mountain in Pakistan since suffering a fall 10 days ago was permanently called off Sunday, his climbing club said. We have decided to suspend the rescue operation given the worsening weather conditions, which ...

The humanitarian crisis involving millions of displaced people of Swat and adjacent valleys is getting worse every day and it is critical that the government of Pakistan and the Obama Administration undertake immediate joint relief operations modeled on the successful efforts following the 2005 ...

The general chosen to lead US and NATO forces in Afghanistan warned on Tuesday that the war against insurgents could be lost unless civilian casualties were reduced. Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, nominated by President Barack Obama to take over as commander in Afghanistan, told a ...

The Obama administration is seeking to help Pakistan raise $4 billion to $5 billion at an international aid conference in Tokyo Friday in a bid to stabilize the finances of the key counterterrorism ally. Washington's effort, however, is coming into conflict with Saudi Arabia, which is showing only ...

KARACHI - In the context of current scenario of the domestic financial industry, the delayed acquisition deal of Mybank and the transaction for purchasing 50 per cent shares of Arif Habib Bank by a consortium of local and foreign investors led by Hussian Lawai is likely to complete soon, banking ...

President Obama's plan to widen United States involvement in Afghanistan came after an internal debate in which Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned against getting into a political and military quagmire, while military advisers argued that the Afghanistan war effort could be imperiled without ...

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey said Monday it was ending efforts to organise peace talks between Israel and Syria because of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. "The continuation of the talks under these conditions is naturally impossible," Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told reporters after ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush vowed to fight to rescue the US economy Tuesday as world leaders pressed for action after Congress blocked a 700 billion dollar bailout. As global markets again reeled from the fallout of the financial crisis, central banks pumped out more billions ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Fierce infighting undermined the US presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton as she rejected calls to paint rival Barack Obama as un-American, according to campaign documents published in a magazine expose Tuesday. An inside glance at the rough-and-tumble fight for the ...

Pakistan's army is "fighting bravely" against terrorism, the top-ranking U.S. military officer said after a visit to the country to discuss joint efforts against the Taliban and al-Qaida. The statement from Adm. Mike Mullen came despite concern voiced by U.S. government officials that ...

Myanmar agreed at an emergency regional meeting here Monday to let its Southeast Asian neighbours coordinate foreign assistance for cyclone victims, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.