ISLAMABAD—Declaring recently concluded local bodies polls 90 percent transparent and fair the federal cabinet on Wednesday linked success of ruling party backed candidates in the polls as go-ahead stamp with regard of policies initiated by the incumbent government >> >>
 

1,000 Iraqis crushed to death in bomb panic
Foreign Desk Report

BAGHDAD—Up to 1,000 Iraqi Shi’ites might have died in a stampede on a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday, panicked by rumors a suicide bomber was about to blow himself up, government officials told reporters. Most victims were women and children who “died by drowning or being trampled” after panic swept a throng of thousands as they headed to a religious ceremony, an Interior Ministry official said. “An hour ago the death toll was 695 killed, but we expect it to hit 1,000,” said Dr Jaseb Latif Ali, a general manager at Iraq’s Health Ministry. Interior Minister Bayan Jabor and two top Shi’ite officials blamed >> >>

Indian PM invites APHC for talks
From Meerza Iqbal Baig

NEW DELHI—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other leaders for talks on September 5. This will be the first interaction between the moderate separatist group and the UPA dispensation as part of the dialogue process. “The Prime Minister has invited Hurriyat Chairman and other leaders for talks,” the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru said. Manmohan has been maintaining that he was ready to hold talks with any group that eschewed violence. The PMO has been in touch with the Kashmiri leaders through various interlocutors for quite some time now. The Hurriyat >> >>