Peshawar, Sept 29: The Pakistan Government is learnt to have chalked out a decisive plan to launch a major crackdown on Taliban in the Tribal Areas. But, the actual implementation of the plan would depend on the “availability of men and material”, said a government official.

“The government understands that it is time to launch a crackdown against the Taliban before it is too late,” the Daily Times quoted an unidentified senior government official as saying. He, however, refused to give the exact date for launching the operation.

Hong Kong - Nearly half of Hong Kong women gamble regularly and 2 per cent of them are pathological gamblers, according to a survey released Monday.

Interviews with almost 1,500 women and teenage girls found that 48 per cent admitted to gambling regularly, compared to 35 per cent three years ago.

Playing the Chinese board game mahjong, card games and lotteries are the most popular form of gambling for women, researchers at a rehabilitation centre for problem gamblers found.

New Delhi, Sept 27: Within a fortni

Raghagan (Pak), Sept 27: Members of the Pashtun tribe in Pakistan’s tribal areas have given stern warnings to the US forces that they should desist from incursions on Pakistani soil, else they would retaliate giving a befitting reply and killing any invader till death.

The tribesmen told this to the reporters who were taken to the Pashtun tribal fighters in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan in a bid to show the Pakistan Army had the support of locals for a month-long operation in the area, said to be an Al-Qaeda and Taliban hotspot.

Khar (Pakistan), Sept 27: The Taliban and Al Qaeda network in Pakistan’s Bajaur Agency will be demolished within two months from now, and there has been a significant improvement in recent weeks in the fight against the insurgents and extremists in the area, said Bajaur Agency’s FC Inspector General Maj Gen Tariq Khan.

“My timeframe for Bajaur is anything from between one-and-a-half to two months to bring about stability,” Khan said while speaking to media persons on a specially orgainsed trip to the area.

Kathmandu, Sept 26: At least 250 Nepali youths have been left stranded in Kabul after their employment agent allegedly fled without providing them the promised employment.

The victims informed their relatives in Nepal about their agony just few weeks after reaching the Afghan capital.

Bishnu Prasad, one of the victims, told his elder brother Indra Prasain of Satashidham of Jhapa district, that he and many other Nepali youths have been left stranded and finding it difficult to earn a living and often hide themselves to avoid arrest.