United Nations, Sept 26 : World powers are meeting today at the UN aiming to support security and stability in Pakistan in the wake of the fresh spate of suicide bombings in the strife-torn country, German Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

Speaking to media persons at the UN last evening on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Steinmeier said that leaders or ministers from the US, Britain, the Gulf States and other European countries along with Germany would gather at the meeting to decide help for war-ravaged Pakistan.

“We will together discuss how we can achieve stability in Pakistan,” The News quoted him as saying.

Peshawar, Sept 26 : Five civilians, including women and children, were killed and several others injured when Pakistan military launched air strikes at the fleeing tribal families, mistaking them for militants at Gang village in Salarzai Tehsil of Bajaur Agency, last evening.

Two gunship choppers started shelling the fleeing tribal families after militants fired missiles on Civil Colony in Khar where the political administration had convened a tribal Jirga, The News quoted tribal sources as saying.

They said that the missiles on the colony were fired from Baba picket in Khar Tehsil and the choppers started shelling on tribesmen who were fleeing their homes via a road in Gang area of the almost militant-free Salarzai Tehsil.

Karachi- Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi after police raided their hideout on Friday, foiling a major plan to bring carnage during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, officials said.

On a tipoff police raided a house in the Baldia Town area where Islamic militants from a banned group, Lashkare Jhangvi, were holed up in the western part of the city, mostly inhabited by Pukhtoon laborers from restive North West Frontier Province.

The rebels opened fire at the law enforcers with assault rifles and hurled five hand grenades, spreading terror in the city's congested area.

After running out of ammunition, they blew themselves up.

Peshawar, Sept 26 : In an attempt to save innocent civilians from being killed in a military action on the Taliban hideouts, a tribal Lashkar comprising more than 3000 armed volunteers set all the three main Taliban hideouts afire and chased the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants out of their area in Jamrud Tehsil of the Khyber Agency.

“Yes, we successfully purged the area of the militants. Had we not evicted them from the area, the military would have launched an operation which would have taken the lives of hundreds of innocent people, as is the case in other areas,” the paper quoted Haji Abdul Manan, the head of the Jirga, as saying.

Islamabad, Sept 26 : Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Russia was willing to provide defence equipment to Pakistan to help it fight terror.

"Russia is willing to provide equipment to bolster Pakistan''s counter-terrorism capabilities. It is also keen to enhance bilateral relations with Pakistan," Qureshi said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei V Lavrov, on the sidelines of the ongoing 63rd United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Peshawar, Sept 26: The Afghanistan Government has refuted Pakistan’s claims that the kidnapped Afghan Ambassador-designate Abdul Khaliq Farahi didn’t take enough security measures to protect himself.

Sultan Muhammad Baheem, the spokesman for Interior Ministry of Afghanistan, said that Farahi was an experienced diplomat and that he had not shown any carelessness in ensuring his security.

Baheem said the Afghan Government didn’t blame any group or individual, and that neither they have received any demand nor had been contacted by the kidnappers.

Both the governments wanted to resolve the matter amicably and recover the abducted envoy safe and sound, The News quoted him as saying.