VATICAN CITY, March 13: In a surprise choice, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected to be the new leader of the troubled Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, and said he would take the name Francis I.

Pope Francis, 76, appeared on the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica just over an hour after white smoke poured from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signal he had been chosen to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics...

By Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD, March 13: In the face of opposition filibuster, the government managed to get a new bill through the National Assembly on Wednesday, accepting almost all their amendments that may have weakened some provisions of what was promised to be more stringent law to curb terrorist violence.

Law and Justice Minister Farooq H. Naek accepted about 15 amendments, including the omission of a couple of clauses, mostly coming from the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), and a couple from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in the hope of a smooth sailing for what was originally a 25-clause Anti-Terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill, 2013 aimed to make perpetrators of various acts punishable under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997....

Dawn Report

QUETTA/ISLAMABAD, March 13: The governor’s rule in Balochistan will be lifted on Thursday or early Friday morning upon completion of a two-month period since its imposition on Jan 14, according to sources in Quetta.

The sources said that after the end of the governor’s rule fate of the suspended provincial government of Aslam Raisani would be decided...

By Our Staff Reporter

KARACHI, March 13: Parveen Rehman, the Director of the Orangi Pilot Project, was shot dead in Orangi Town when she was returning home on Wednesday evening.

The city’s leading social worker, who worked for Orangi Town, said to be Asia’s largest slum project, was attacked near the office of the research and training institute of the project located in the Qasba Colony, reportedly by four gunmen who started firing when her car had slowed down at a speed-breaker. Hearing gunshots the car of the deputy director which was ahead of Ms Rehman’s car sped away...

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, March 13: The Election Commission of Pakistan disclosed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the federal government was not happy with an amendment it had proposed in the Representation of People’s Act, 1976.

The amendment seeks to appoint monitors to check violations of the code of conduct by contesting candidates on a daily basis for a constituency or a group of constituencies. It is to be made by inserting Section 104(b) in the act...

By Saleem Shahid

QUETTA, March 13: Police claimed on Wednesday to have arrested, after a brief encounter, 11 children who were allegedly lured and used by militants of an outlawed Baloch organisation to plant bombs and trigger blasts at various places in the provincial capital.

The chief of Quetta police, Captain (retd) Mir Zubair Mehmood, accompanied by DIG Investigation Mobin, told journalists at a press conference that police, on a tip-off that militants of a little-known outfit, the United Baloch Army, headed by Abdul Nabi Bangulzai, raided the Kalli Khli Angoori Bagh area. The raid triggered an armed encounter with members of the organisation...

By Mubarak Zeb Khan

ISLAMABAD, March 13: When the PPP-led government departs this weekend, energy crisis and high prices of oil and increases in gas and electricity tariff would be among the defining legacies of its five-year rule.

Despite difficult circumstances under which the PPP-led government had taken over, analysts point out that domestic factors and poor policies contributed greatly to oil price and tariff hike...

QUETTA, March 13: Some gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped two women tourists from the Czech Republic in Balochistan, officials said.

Local government officials said the women entered the province from Iran as tourists and were abducted from an area some 550km west of Quetta...

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, March 13: US intelligence agencies have informed Congress that the coming general elections will be a milestone for Pakistan and must be held by May 2013.

In a report sent to Congress on Tuesday, James R. Clapper, Director US National Intelligence, also notes that “Islamabad is intently focused on Afghanistan” in anticipation of the withdrawal of American and Nato forces...

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, March 13: The Foreign Office rejected Indian allegations on Wednesday that Pakistani militants were behind an attack in Srinagar on a paramilitary force compound, saying imprudent reactions from Delhi could affect normalisation of ties.

“We feel that this trend of making irresponsible statements and knee-jerk reactions by senior Indian government functionaries have the potential of undermining the efforts made by both sides to normalise relations between the two countries,” FO spokesman Moazzam Khan said...

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, March 13: Shocking disclosures were made on Wednesday in the Supreme Court during the hearing of the Badami Bagh arson attack case when the Punjab police confessed about the disappearance of complainant Imran along with two witnesses who had implicated a Christian in a blasphemy case.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed was informed that the local station house officer (SHO) had been compelled to register an FIR on blasphemy charges against Sawan Masih despite his reluctance and that too without mentioning in the report the derogatory remarks. The complainant fled because he had been implicated in another FIR for his involvement in the mob attack on the Christian neighbourhood...

SRINAGAR, March 13: Militants disguised as cricketers killed five paramilitary police in an ambush in the main city of Indian-held Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said, in the deadliest attack for nearly five years.

Two gunmen from the local Hizbul Mujahideen group, which claimed the attack, were shot dead after the assault on a police compound housing a barracks, school and playing field, the officials said...

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Wednesday for restraint following reports of a deadly attack in Srinagar.

Responding to a question on recent outbreak of violence in Indian occupied territory, UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the secretary-general was aware of the situation and called on all concerned to exercise restraint and resolve their issues peacefully.—Correspondent...