UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The latest on the high-level U.N. General Assembly meetings (all times local): 3:40 p.m. The leaders of small Pacific nations are giving emotional tributes to Ban Ki-moon for becoming the first U.N. chief to visit their part of the world in seven decades. Their speeches have been tinged with concern about … Continue reading
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Northwestern Pakistan was struck by two separate militant attacks hours apart on Friday, when gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a Christian colony near the town of Peshawar, killing one civilian, and a suicide bomb attack on a district court in the town of Mardan killed 12 people and wounded 54 others. … Continue reading
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh is closing its notorious 18th-century prison where sensational political killings over decades have targeted people on both sides of the South Asian country’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. The government wants to reopen the old, dilapidated Dhaka Central Jail as a museum to its tumultuous past, while giving its … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The suicide bombing in the city of Lahore on Easter underscores how Pakistan’s Christian minority has become an easy target for the country’s Islamic militants, although Muslims also were among the victims. There are barely 2.5 million Christians in the mostly Muslim country of 180 million, and they say they worry about … Continue reading
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — In an emotional televised address, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Monday to hunt down and defeat the militants who have been carrying out attacks like the Easter bombing that targeted Christians and killed 72 people. “We will not allow them to play with the lives of the people of Pakistan,” Sharif … Continue reading
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister on Monday vowed to eliminate perpetrators of terror attacks such as the massive suicide bombing that targeted Christians gathered for Easter the previous day in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 70 people. The attack underscored both the militants’ ability to stage large-scale attacks despite a months-long government … Continue reading
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — When Saba Qaiser was 19 years old, her uncle and father shot her in the head, stuffed her in a bag and threw into a river to die. They said she had shamed her family when she married the boy of her choice. She crawled from the water, severely wounded. It … Continue reading
A bill headed for President Barack Obama this week includes a provision that would ban U.S. imports of fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh, closing a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law that has failed to keep products of forced … Continue reading
CHARSADDA, Pakistan (AP) — When Islamic militants stormed the university campus in this Pakistani town, chemistry professor Hamid Hussain was carrying a concealed pistol. Locking his students in his classroom he opened fire on the assailants, buying his pupils enough time to escape before he was gunned down. The survival of Hussain’s students in a … Continue reading
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A court acquitted former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf Monday, Jan. 18, in a murder case involving the killing of a separatist leader, Akbar Bugti, who had died in a 2006 military operation in Baluchistan province, lawyers said. An anti-terrorism court announced the verdict in the southwestern city of Quetta, Baluchistan’s provincial … Continue reading
STERLING, Va. (AP) — Donald Trump says that if he’s elected president, he’ll know within six months whether he can achieve an elusive peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians, one of the world’s most vexing challenges. But the Republican presidential candidate says he has doubts about each side’s commitment to the peace process. “I … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — For years, Pakistan did not put prisoners to death. Then a Taliban attack butchered 150 people, most of them children, and the country resumed carrying out the death penalty and quickly turned into one of the world’s most avid executioners. But instead of killing militants, the campaign is largely executing common criminals, … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — For years, Pakistan did not put prisoners to death. Then a Taliban attack butchered 150 people, most of them children, and the country resumed carrying out the death penalty and quickly turned into one of the world’s most avid executioners. But instead of killing militants, the campaign is largely executing common … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says Islamabad is still ready to facilitate the revival of stalled peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The spokesman, Qazi Khalilullah, made his remarks at a news conference Friday shortly after Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani prime minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs, traveled … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Foreign Islamic militants have been able to secure Pakistani national identity cards for years in exchange for bribes as low as $100, giving them vastly greater freedom to operate, according to a report by Pakistan’s top intelligence agency obtained by The Associated Press. The issue of foreign jihadis operating so easily in … Continue reading
HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Dizzying temperatures caused water shortages in thousands of Indian villages and killed hundreds more people over the past day, driving the death toll from a weekslong heat wave to at least 1,826, officials said Friday. Meteorological officials called the heat wave “severe” and warned that it would continue for at … Continue reading
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — As hundreds of mourners on Saturday protested the killing of 22 people in deadly bus hijackings in western Pakistan, the assaults raised new fears that a long-simmering insurgency there could be growing more violent. The country’s restive Baluchistan province has seen two major attacks in the span of a month, including … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has expressed “shock and sorrow” over the inadvertent deaths of an American and an Italian hostage held by al-Qaida in a U.S. drone strike in January near the Afghan border. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs extended Pakistan’s condolences in a statement Friday, saying the deaths of hostages Warren Weinstein and Giovanni … Continue reading
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen on a motorcycle killed a prominent women’s rights activist in Pakistan just hours after she held a forum on the country’s restive Baluchistan region, home to a long-running insurgency, police said Saturday. While investigators declined to speculate on a motive for the killing of Sabeen Mahmud, friends and colleagues immediately … Continue reading
