Karachi

Pakistan has rejected Australia’s free offer of 57 000 sheep stranded on a ship in the Gulf since Saudi Arabia rejected them five weeks ago. The livestock are at the heart of a dispute between Australian and Saudi Arabia over their level of infection with the scabby mouth viral illness.

The Indus river, Pakistan’s major water source for drinking and agriculture, is so overused that fishermen and farmers are being forced to migrate as local authorities battle over water rights. The river once allowed Pakistan to feed itself and produce enough of a surplus for trade.

Eight people were killed in a powerful car bomb attack on the US consulate in the southern port city of Karachi on Friday.

PAKISTANI intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network is preparing to unleash a wave of suicide attacks around the world.

Three parcel bombs exploded in two police offices and a government building in Pakistan’s violence-plagued commercial capital Karachi on Wednesday, injuring at least nine people including a parcel courier, police said.