UK decides to pull out troops from Afghanistan

According to a foreign news agency, Prime Minister Davd Cameron was expected to announce on Wednesday the return of 800 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year.

According to defence ministry, there will be no British soldier in Afghanistan by year 2015.

US President Barack Obama last month ordered all 33,000 US surge troops home from Afghanistan by mid-2012. France quickly followed suit, saying several hundred French troops would leave by the end of this year.

The Western nations have set a deadline of the end of 2014 to hand over control of security to Afghan forces.

Nearly 30 NATO tankers torched in Bolan

BOLAN: Gunmen set fire to nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Saturday, an official said, two days after the United States apologized to Pakistan for a cross-border air raid that killed two Pakistani soldiers.

Suspected militants have stepped up attacks on convoys carrying supplies for NATO forces since the September 30 NATO air strike in northwestern Pakistan described by the U.S. ambassador as a terrible accident.

About 20 gunmen set fire to around 30 tankers parked outside at a roadside restaurant in Bolan in a pre-dawn attack, the official said.

The tankers were on their way to the border town of Chaman.

“The attackers first fired shots and then fired small rockets at the tankers. Twenty-eight to 29 tankers caught fire,” local government official Naeem Sherwani told a foreign news agency. He said one of the

I can’t be tried for high treason under Article 6: Musharraf

Ex-president Pervez Musharraf has said that he could not be trialed for high treason under Article 6. Whatever he did was ratified by the Supreme Court and the parliament.In an interview to a foreign news agency, Musharraf said that army does not intervene in politics on its own. It is always the politicians who invite the army. He added that many big guns of politics used to come to him and ask him for political intervention. He also said that Nawaz Sharif is a part of Taliban in disguise.

Taliban abduct 18 Afghans ahead of polls

The Taliban have kidnapped eight Afghan election officials and 10 campaign workers ahead of weekend polls on Friday.
They were kidnapped last night by the Taliban, the head of the Independent Election Commission in northwestern Bagdhis province, Abdul Rahman, told a foreign news agency.
Afghanistan is due to go to the polls on Saturday to elect 249 members of the lower house of parliament, in a poll the militants have promised to disrupt with violence and intimidation.

Taliban abduct 18 Afghans ahead of polls

The Taliban have kidnapped eight Afghan election officials and 10 campaign workers ahead of weekend polls on Friday.
They were kidnapped last night by the Taliban, the head of the Independent Election Commission in northwestern Bagdhis province, Abdul Rahman, told a foreign news agency.
Afghanistan is due to go to the polls on Saturday to elect 249 members of the lower house of parliament, in a poll the militants have promised to disrupt with violence and intimidation.

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jama’at spokesman Gunned Down in Karachi

Karachi: Unknown persons have gunned down spokesman of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jama’at Maulana Ahasanullah Farooqui in Guru Mandir area of Karachi. Farooquis companion was also injured in the firing.

According to onlookers, Ahasanullah Farooqui and his companion Naeem were standing on a motorcycle puncture shop when unknown persons opened fire on them, killing Maulana on the spot and injuring his companion. The dead body was shifted to Civil Hospital. Unknown persons washed the firing site instantly.

Turkish air raid in northern Iraq wounds civilian

SULAIMANIYAH: Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight wounding one person in the raid, an Iraqi regional government official told foreign news agency on Saturday.

“The bombing started at 3:00 am (midnight GMT) and lasted for one hour in the area of Sidakan,” near the Iranian border, said the official from Iraq”s Kurdish autonomous region, on condition of anonymity.

“A civilian was injured and farms were damaged,” he said, adding that the raid hit villages in the Qandil mountains, an area in northeastern Iraq, which also straddles the borders of Iran and Turkey.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers” Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has been campaigning for Kurdish self-rule since August 1984.

Landslides kill at least 46 in Bangladesh

DHAKA: Landslides triggered by heavy rain in southeast Bangladesh buried dozens of houses and killed at least 46 people on Tuesday, officials said.

The landslides hit villages in the Cox”s Bazar hill and resort district, where officials said they recorded 25 cm of rainfall in 24 hours to 9 am on Tuesday.

“The death toll may go up as rescuers are still searching for bodies and people are likely to be still alive under the flattened houses,” one senior official told foreign news agency.

Clinton arrives in South Korea

SEOUL: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Wednesday in South Korea, a foreign news agency reported, for a visit aimed at showing solidarity with Seoul in its confrontation with Pyongyang.

She was to have talks with President Lee Myung-Bak and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan before holding a press conference and departing for home later Wednesday.

Facebook blasphemous page now down

LOS ANGELES: A Facebook page that led Pakistan to temporarily block the social-networking site this week has been taken down.

The page promoted “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” scheduled for Thursday following an American cartoonist”s satirical suggestion that people draw images of the prophet to promote free speech. The page attracted tens of thousands of supporters.

But on Friday, the page no longer appeared on the site. Facebook said Friday it had not taken any action on the page, according to foreign news agency. It was likely removed by its creator, possibly because “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is over, but the reason is unclear.

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