KARACHI/LAHORE: A complete shutter down strike is being observed all over the country today in connection with Tahafuz-e-Namose-e-Risalat. Routine life was suspended as shops and markets throughout the metropolis and in major cities remained closed and traffic remained thin, with public transport largely absent.

A delegation of three West African presidents who met with incumbent Cote d’Ivoire leader Laurent Gbagbo to deliver an ultimatum to step down or face force has left saying more meetings were needed.

Another US-led soldier has lost his life in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, taking the foreign forces’ death toll to 709 in this year. The soldier reportedly belonging to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan — known as ISAF — was killed in a bomb blast on Tuesday, according to an ISAF statement.

The Taliban movement is disputing a U.N. report that asserts the number of civilians killed by them has risen but those slain by the invaders has dropped. The group said in a statement that the recently-issued quarterly report is part of an “effort to cover up the brutal actions of Americans.”

The U.S.-led coalition violated a security agreement in Kabul when its troops raided a private security company in the capital and killed two guards, the Interior Ministry spokesman in occupied Afghanistan said Sunday.

The death toll from two non-UN-sanctioned US drone strikes in the troubled northwestern Pakistan has risen to 22. The unmanned US plane fired five missiles at a vehicle and a house in Pakistan’s North Waziristan.

The second largest party in Pakistan’s coalition government has announced that its two ministers are quitting the federal cabinet.The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said its ministers would resign on Tuesday due to differences with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Four dead bodies of missing persons have been found from different areas in Balochistan. The deceased have been identified and Baloch Nationalists protested against the continued recovery of the bodies of abducted Baloch political activists.

At least three people have been killed and many more injured after a car bomb exploded near a crowded bank in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Kabul, the capital, said that the blast took place near Kabul Bank at a time of the month when many police officers […]

MIRAMSHAH: A US drone strike in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt killed 15 militants on Monday, destroying a vehicle and a compound in North Waziristan, local security officials said.