MOSCOW, Feb 15: A plunging meteor exploded with a blinding flash above central Russia on Friday, setting off a shockwave that shattered windows and hurt almost 1,000 people in an event unprecedented in modern times.

Experts insisted the meteor’s fiery entry into the atmosphere was not linked to an asteroid that was expected to pass about 17,200 miles above the Earth in an unusually close approach...

By Dilawar Hussain and Syed Irfan Raza

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: Two real estate tycoons — chief of Abu Dhabi Group of the UAE and Pakistan’s Malik Riaz — have joined hands in a bid to construct the world’s tallest building in Karachi.

The parties signed a deal in Abu Dhabi on Friday, which envisages a staggering investment of $45 billion in Pakistan’s real estate. Apart from some stunning projects, it includes construction of the world’s tallest building, which would loom large over the current tallest Burj Khalifa of Dubai...

By Mohammad Jamal Hoti

MARDAN, Feb 15: Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa narrowly escaped a suicide attack on his motorcade here on Friday.

DSP Khalid Khan told Dawn that a suicide bomber aged about 23 years attacked the motorcade on the busy Mardan College Chowk when it was on its way to Mardan-i-Khas locality where Mr Hoti was to address a public meeting...

By Pazir Gul

MIRAMSHAH, Feb 15: The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) rejected on Friday the declaration adopted at an all-party conference on terrorism organised by the Awami National Party and termed it a ‘part of the party’s campaign for elections’.

“We are still waiting for serious and meaningful talks with the government and the army,” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told this correspondent on phone from an unspecified place...

By Madiha Sattar

KARACHI: As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan for the second time, Pakistan is looking for a role in Afghan politics once again. This time, though, it’s putting its eggs in more than one basket.

Reports of Islamabad attempting to control proxies in Afghanistan are nothing new. For decades Pakistan has been involved in power politics next door, from supporting the mujahideen against the Soviets and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Taliban against the Northern Alliance to allowing Mullah Omar’s presence in Pakistan and arresting Afghan Taliban who could have facilitated intra-Afghan reconciliation talks...

By Amjad Mahmood

LAHORE, Feb 15: The PPP suffered a setback in Punjab, particularly in its southern region, when its nine MPAs joined the PML-N on Friday.

The MPAs, four of them from south Punjab, announced their decision to join the opposition party after a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif...

By Wajih Ahmad Sheikh

LAHORE, Feb 15: President Asif Ali Zardari may face difficulties in handling political affairs publicly as the Lahore High Court ruled on Friday that all public activities of the President were liable to scrutiny.

A five-judge full bench of the LHC, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, gave the ruling during the hearing of a petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against Asif Ali Zardari for not complying with its May 12, 2011, judgment declaring political activities by the President unconstitutional...

By Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The killing of a Pakistani soldier who had strayed across the Line of Control (LoC) by Indian troops is threatening to undermine the bilateral peace talks which have already come under strains because of last month’s cross-LoC incidents.

“The killing of a Pakistani soldier by the Indian army yesterday in Khoi Ratta sector along the LoC … has the potential to further vitiate the atmosphere,” an FO statement said as India returned the body of soldier Sepoy Akhlaq...

By Nasir Iqbal and Iftikhar A. Khan

ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The Supreme Court was informed on Friday that the armed forces and intelligence agencies were feeling frustrated by disparaging remarks being made about their performance although they were in the frontline in the strife-torn province of Balochistan.

“They are virtually at war with a faceless enemy but their efforts are not being recognised by the press,” Advocate Shahid Hamid, the counsel for Balochistan, regretted. These were the sentiments of the military, he said...

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Feb 15: Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Friday that a name for caretaker prime minister had been finalised after intra-party consultations.

During his media talk at Model Town he did not make the name public, but unsubstantiated reports are doing the rounds here that the PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf and JUI-F have agreed on the name of Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid...

ATHENS, Feb 15: Greek police have arrested two neo-Nazi sympathisers for illegal arms possession and a third person suspected of involvement in an attack that left three Pakistani migrants hospitalised, a police source said on Friday.

The arrests come as Greece is increasingly coming under pressure by human rights groups and its European neighbours to fight its growing neo-Nazi tendencies and widespread xenophobic violence...

KARACHI, Feb 15: Ignoring the protest lodged on the issue by the MQM, the Sindh government on Friday withdrew bounty it had earlier announced for the arrest of eight suspected gangsters said to be affiliated with the banned People’s Amn Committee.

The names of Umair Katchi, Fahim, Sheraz alias Comrade, Abdul Jabbar alias Jhengo, Faisal Pathan, Rashid Bangali, Mullah Nisar and Rashid son of Ghulam Hussain Lond have been withdrawn from the list of people carrying reward money for their arrest, said a notification issued by the home department...

RAWALPINDI, Feb 15: Pakistan successfully test-fired on Friday a short-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, Hatf-II (Abdali), as part of the process of validation of land-based ballistic missile systems.

Abdali, with a range of 180km, carries nuclear as well as conventional warheads with high accuracy...