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/ 12 March 2008

Suicide bombings in Lahore kill at least 31

Two suicide attacks killed at least 31 people and injured more than 200 in Lahore on Tuesday as suspected Islamist militants escalated their campaign of mayhem in Pakistan’s largest cities. The bombs were the latest in a string of attacks against military and police targets in Lahore, the previously peaceful capital of Punjab province.

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/ 3 March 2008

More than 20 killed in Iraq violence

At least 23 people were killed in bomb attacks and shootings around Iraq on Monday as United States troops announced the discovery of a mass grave with the bodies of 14 men bound and shot in the head. The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where at least 19 people were killed in two car bombings.

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/ 18 February 2008

Polls open for Pakistani vote

Fears of violence overshadowed Pakistan’s general election on Monday with 80 000 troops backing up police to watch over a vote that could return a Parliament set on driving President Pervez Musharraf from office. Musharraf has lost much popularity over the past year because of his manoeuvres to hold on to power which included a clash with the judiciary.

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/ 29 January 2008

Pakistan missile strike kills 12 in new violence

Twelve suspected militants were killed by a missile strike in Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt, hours after gunmen held 300 children hostage at a nearby school, officials said on Tuesday. Separately, a Pakistani soldier was killed and five others injured in the latest clashes between security forces and Islamist insurgents in the lawless borderlands with Afghanistan.

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/ 9 January 2008

Scotland Yard beefs up Bhutto probe

Scotland Yard strengthened its team aiding the probe into the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday as concerns for the country’s nuclear security grew. Three more detectives arrived from London, including an expert in the type of explosives used in the gun and suicide-bomb attack that killed Bhutto.

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/ 8 January 2008

Snipers and roadblocks: Middle East on Bush alert

Snipers patrolling rooftops, streets and entire city blocks sealed off and thousands of police and soldiers on duty — Israel and the Palestinian Authority are going on full alert for United States President George Bush’s visit. For weeks, Israeli and Palestinian officials have grappled with how to ensure the safety of the leader of the world’s sole superpower.

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/ 3 January 2008

Musharraf calls UK for help on Bhutto probe

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called for help from British police in probing the murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as he sought to dampen public anger on Thursday a week after her death. He said a Scotland Yard team would "immediately" come to help resolve doubts surrounding the circumstances of how she died.

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/ 31 December 2007

Pakistan elections hang in the balance

Pakistani officials were to meet on Monday to decide the fate of scheduled January 8 elections, after Benazir Bhutto’s party announced it would contest the vote despite her assassination. The vote, seen as a key step in the nuclear-armed nation’s transition back to democracy after eight years of military rule, has been thrown into disarray by her slaying.

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/ 30 December 2007

Bin Laden warns Iraqis not to fight al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned Sunni Muslims in Iraq not to take up arms against the terror network and promised the "liberation of Palestine" in a new online message. In the 56-minute tape released late on Saturday, the Western world’s most wanted man also accused the United States of seeking to control the region through the Iraqi government.

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/ 30 December 2007

Pakistan crisis hangs on Bhutto party

Pakistan’s political future hung in the balance on Sunday with Benazir Bhutto’s party deciding whether to pull out of planned elections amid an acrimonious dispute over how she was killed. Her husband and top party officials were also expected to name a successor to Bhutto as head of the country’s largest opposition party.

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/ 29 December 2007

‘Aussie Taliban’ released from jail

Former Guantánamo Bay inmate David Hicks walked free from an Australian jail after completing a sentence for supporting terrorism on Saturday, vowing not to let down those who got him home. More than six years after he was captured in Afghanistan, the so-called "Aussie Taliban" was escorted from Adelaide’s maximum security Yalata jail.