Daily Newspaper

LONDON : The arrest of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan put a halt to secret peace talks with the United Nations, the former UN special representative to Afghanistan said Friday in an interview. Kai Eide, who stepped down from the post earlier this month, confirmed for the first time that he had held talks with senior Taliban figures but said these ended when Pakistan made a series of high-profile arrests. “Of course I met the Taliban leaders during the time I was in Afghanistan,” said the Norwegian diplomat, talking to the broadcaster at his home in Oslo

LAHORE/HYDERABAD: Severe load shedding continued across the country as prolonged power cuts made common man’s life miserable. Hyderabad, Sukkur, Khairpur, Noshehro Feroz, Ghotki, Obaro, Nawabshah, Jaccobabad, Mirpur Khas and Larkana experiencing eight-hour load shedding in urban areas and 18- hour load shedding in rural areas

ISLAMABAD: The violent protest against hike in public transport fares in Islamabad was continued on Friday as protesters at Bara Kaho burnt tyres and closed Murree and Saddar roads. The roadblocks caused traffic jam in capital city as angry protesters chanted slogans against the authorities and hurled stones on police and vehicles.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday met with Israeli President Shimon Peres who said that Israel’s policy towards construction in Jerusalem should not be changed. “For 40 years there was a certain pattern which is that we build in the suburbs which are basically Jewish, and we didn’t build in the suburbs which are basically Arabs. That was done by all governments

Rejecting American pressure, Russia announced the planned launch this summer of Iran’s first, Russian-built nuclear power plant. Russian Premier Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would start up Tehran’s first and only nuclear power plant this summer. Moscow has been helping Iran build the Bushehr facility since 1995, but work has been delayed several times

SYDNEY: Pregnant women may be far more at risk from swine flu than thought, according to a survey published on Friday that was carried out in Australia and New Zealand. An investigation carried out among American women between April and May last year, in the first month of the H1N1 virus’ outbreak, suggested pregnant women were four times likelier to develop severe illness requiring hospitalisation compared with non-pregnant counterparts.

ISLAMABAD: The polling to elect six members of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council has begun today. The Chief Election Commissioner of Gilgit-Baltistan has fixed the polling hours from 10:00 am to 02:00 pm (four hours) without interval for the elections. However, if any voter present in the premises of the polling station at the time of closure would be allowed to cast his/her vote.

WASHINGTON: An al-Qaida leader believed to have played a key role in the bombing of a CIA post in Afghanistan last December was apparently killed by an American missile strike last week, a senior US official said Wednesday. The counterterrorism official said Hussein al-Yemeni was believed killed in a strike in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.CIA director Leon Panetta said the stepped-up campaign has driven Osama bin Laden and other leaders deeper into hiding and left al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal regions in disarray.

ISLAMABAD: Dr. Abdul Hafiz Sheikh, who was Federal Privatization and Investment Minister is expected to assume the office as advisor on Finance on Friday, Geo News revealed Wednesday. After his meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, he left for Dubai.