Narabet (Gujarat), Jan. 3 :Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has said that his state, which shares its border with Pakistan, needs a strategic airbase for security reasons.

After meeting Border Security personnel at the Narabet check post along the India-Pakistan border and reviewing security arrangements, Modi said he would urge the UPA Government at the Center to focus on developing more strategic airbases in the state.

Poonch, Jan 3 : A Special Police Officer (SPO) was killed in an encounter between militants and security forces in Bhati Dhar forest area of Mendhar in Jammu and Kashmir''s Poonch District on Saturday.

According to official sources, SPO Naresh Kumar was killed in an encounter, which was resumed around midnight.

An encounter has been going on for the last two days in the area.

JCO Rakesh Kumar and Naik P K Singh, and four militants were killed in a gunbattle, which started on Thursday evening.

Islamabad, Jan. 3 : Pakistan has arrested a former Taliban spokesman, who was released by Afghanistan in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

The Dawn quoted security officials as saying that Ustad Mohammed Yasir was detained in Peshawar, near the Afghan border.

Yasir was Taliban leader Mullah Omar''s spokesman after the regime''s fall in Afghanistan in 2001, an official said Saturday.

He said Pakistan first arrested Yasir in 2005 and sent him to Afghanistan, where he was released along with four other Taliban figures for journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

Larkana (sindh, Pakistan), Jan.

Shillong (Meghalaya), Jan. 3 : Following Pakistan's rejection to extradite any Pakistani national to India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Pakistan to hand over "criminals" responsible for the Mumbai attacks so that they can face trial in India.

Singh hoped that "some sense" would prevail in the Pakistani leadership and that it would recognise that those behind the "horrible acts" in Mumbai should to be brought to justice.

Lahore, Jan. 3 : The political game in Pakistan's Punjab Province is taking a new turn, with neither the PPP nor the PML-N willing to compromise or budge on their respective stances.

The Nation quotes political observers as saying that the distance between PPP Governor Salman Taseer and PML-N Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is widening with the passage of time and warns that a direct confrontation between them may create a new problem, especially for the province and for the country in general.