Islamabad - Pakistani security forces repelled overnight militant attacks on their positions in the troubled north-west, killing at least three insurgents, an official said Monday. The clashes occurred Sunday when rebels targeted checkpoints in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The area is the stronghold of top Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who has been blamed for dozens of deadly attacks, including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Vilseck, Germany - The final trial of a group of US servicemen who were accused of murdering four blindfolded Iraqi men and dumping their bodies in a Baghdad canal began Monday in Germany. Master Sergeant John Hatley, 40, the highest-ranked of five accused, has been charged with premeditated murder by the military court in Vilseck, Germany, where their unit is based.
Kabul - An Afghan district chief said Monday that a NATO airstrike killed six civilians and wounded more than a dozen others, but the alliance said that "multiple intelligence sources" suggested that four to eight insurgents were killed in the air raid. Zelmai Yousifzai, the district chief of Watapur district in the eastern province of Kunar claimed that six civilians, including two children, one woman and three men, were killed when their house was bombed by an aircraft under NATO command.
After coming into criticism in 2006 when she adopted 13-month-old David Banda in Malawi, Madonna still wants to adopt a child. The pop-star was very keen on adopting a second child from Malawi, despite a court in the country refusing to grant her permission.
Islamabad, Apr. 13: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has said that it would prefer to be an opposition party at the centre "in democracy's interest."
