English
Bush ‘approved’ Pakistan attacks
President George W Bush has authorised US military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad, the BBC has learned.
An unnamed senior Pentagon official told the BBC the classified order had been made within the past two months.
On Wednesday, the US’s top military commander said the US was shifting its strategy in Afghanistan to include raids across the border into Pakistan.
Pakistan has said it will not allow foreign forces onto its territory.
Meanwhile, security officials in Pakistan say they have killed up to 100 militants on the Afghan border. There is no confirmation.
The US say that Pakistan’s north-west tribal areas are being used as “safe havens” by militants preparing attacks on Afghanistan.
But Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said there was “no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border”.
‘Common insurgency’
A senior Pentagon official told the BBC that Mr Bush gave his approval this summer for cross-border raids into Pakistan.
The order includes the use of conventional ground troops crossing the border into Pakistan to pursue militants there.
Pages: 1 2
Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino reunited on the red carpet in New York Wednesday night for the premiere of their new crime thriller “Righteous Kill” — their first film together since making 1995’s “Heat.”
The movie also stars
The Pakistani Army has been given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based US troops inside the country.
Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the orders in a brief interview with Geo News on late Thursday night.
The
David Miliband has allegedly come in for a rather undiplomatic tongue-lashing from his Russian counterpart.
The Foreign Secretary was apparently given a furious dressing down by Sergei Lavrov over the telephone.
Mr Miliband’s criticism of Russia’s recent incursion into Georgia is believed
PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa - A South African judge ruled Friday that prosecutors were wrong to charge ANC President Jacob Zuma with corruption, effectively clearing way for the 66-year-old former freedom fighter to become the country’s next president.
Judge Chris Nicholson’s ruling
Thailand’s political turmoil deepened Friday when the ruling coalition failed to turn up to parliament to reelect leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister.
Lawmakers from the six-party coalition did not attend an emergency session of parliament called to choose a prime minister, three days after a court stripped Samak of power for accepting payments for hosting
Feeds