Security Forces Search for Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan

By Candace Rondeaux and Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 12, 2008; 2:49 PM


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 12 -- Security forces have launched a wide-ranging search for the Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Pakistani government officials said Tuesday, a day after the envoy went missing in a tribal area that has recently become a hotbed of Taliban activity.

Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin was reported missing late Monday shortly after he, his driver and a security guard left the northwestern city of Peshawar en route to Kabul, the Afghan capital. His disappearance occurred within hours of the abduction of two maintenance workers for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and their driver near the northwestern village of Mir Ali, less than 100 miles from the Afghan border.

Pakistani government officials said they believe the two incidents were unrelated. But the ambassador's disappearance and the kidnappings, only days before this politically fragile nation's Feb. 18 parliamentary elections, heightened fears of unrest. Thousands of Pakistani troops were deployed across the nation Tuesday to provide protection at 64,000 polling stations.

Government officials declined Tuesday to say whether they believed Azizuddin, a 30-year veteran of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, was abducted, but said security forces are searching for him in the Khyber Agency, a rugged tribal region along a highway that passes through Peshawar and crosses the famed Khyber Pass at Torkham to enter Afghanistan.

"We are trying to find the ambassador. We hope we will find him soon," said retired Brig. Iqbal Javed Cheema, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Pakistani officials in Kabul said that Azizuddin had just returned to Pakistan from a conference in Tokyo and decided to drive from Islamabad back to Kabul, an all-day journey. A spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul said officials there had tried unsuccessfully to contact Azizuddin on his cellphone hours after his departure around 10:30 a.m.

"At first we thought there was a problem with the signal because he was traveling through mountainous areas," said the spokesman, Muhammad Naeem. "At 3 p.m., we checked with the officials at Torkham, and they said he had not crossed. Then we became very worried."

Naeem also said local authorities in the Khyber tribal agency had reported that the ambassador's car had not passed through their territory. Cheema said security officials are looking for Azizuddin in an area close to Peshawar.

Pakistani news outlets reported that Azizuddin had been abducted by the Pakistani Taliban, and that they were demanding the release of Mansour Dadullah, a Taliban commander who was captured Monday by Pakistani forces in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Cheema said the Interior Ministry had received no such demand and rejected the suggested connection between Azizuddin's disappearance and Dadullah's capture.

Local militiamen rather than Pakistani forces patrol the tribal agencies. Several of them are virtually controlled by Taliban militants. The Khyber Agency is the most modern of the seven tribal regions, and the highway to the border is heavily traveled. But militants have been increasingly active there in the past year and are suspected to be behind the disappearance four days ago of four Pakistani workers for the International Red Cross.

A local government official from the region, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Azizuddin's vehicle had been spotted twice near the village of Bara, close to Peshawar. The official said that the envoy's disappearance was being treated as a suspected kidnapping, but that there were few clues as to who might have carried it out.

Mohammed Sadiq, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad, said Azizuddin had served as ambassador in Kabul for the past two years. Before that, he was chief of protocol in the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad and also served as ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina and as consul general in Los Angeles.

Constable reported from Kabul. Special correspondent Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...201624_pf.html

Putin Threatens Ukraine Over Possible NATO Membership

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 12, 2008; 3 : 03 PM


MOSCOW, Feb. 12 -- President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia could target nuclear missiles at Ukraine if its neighbor and former fraternal republic in the Soviet Union joins the NATO alliance and hosts elements of a missile defense system proposed by the Bush administration.

"It is horrible to say and even horrible to think that, in response to the deployment of such facilities in Ukrainian territory, which cannot theoretically be ruled out, Russia could target its missile systems at Ukraine," Putin said at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who was visiting the Kremlin. "Imagine this just for a second."

Putin's threat echoes similar statements directed against Poland and the Czech Republic. Both countries are negotiating with the United States over the basing of missiles and a radar system that Washington says is designed to defend against a potential threat from Iran.

His statement was in answer to a question posed by a reporter, following a meeting with Yushchenko that otherwise appeared to be largely friendly. The two leaders settled a dispute in which Russia had threatened to cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine unless it moved toward paying more than $1 billion in overdue bills.

Putin spoke of targeting Ukraine even though the United States has not asked the country to host any elements of the missile defense system.

Responding to Putin's remarks, Yushchenko said his country's ambition to join NATO should not be seen as a threat to Russia.

"Anything Ukraine is doing in the western direction is on no account aimed against some third country, not to mention Russia," he said.

He pointed out that the Ukrainian constitution bars the setting up of foreign military bases in the country's territory. But "certainly, we understand that there are a number of sensitive issues, which should be discussed with our friends and partners," said Yushchenko.

The Kremlin has said that Iran is incapable of developing for years the kind of missile threat that the United States says its system would counter. Russians also describe the proposed antimissile system as a Trojan horse designed to peer into their airspace and weaken their defenses.

Putin has proposed a joint antimissile system, in which Americans would make use of a Russian radar system in Azerbaijan, but U.S. diplomats have said that station could not replace the need for installations in Central Europe.

Putin said Tuesday that NATO membership leads to a loss of sovereignty, but that it was Ukraine's own business if it chose to pursue such a course.

Yushchenko has advocated membership in NATO since he became president in early 2005. A majority of Ukrainians, including many of the country's ethnic Russians and Russian speakers, are opposed to joining the military alliance, according to opinion polls.

The Ukrainian government hopes to accelerate its path to membership at a NATO summit in Romania this April. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Putin will attend the gathering, which will include a Russia-NATO meeting. Putin's presence could add a great deal of spice to the occasion.

A new Russian president will be elected March 2, but Putin will not leave office until May.

Under the natural gas deal, Yushchenko said, Ukraine will quickly pay outstanding debts to Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant. Russia, in turn, will hold prices at 2007 levels for this year. Gazprom said last week that Ukraine was $1.5 billion in arrears; Ukrainian officials have said the figure is less than that.

In January 2006, a similar dispute between the two countries led to cuts in gas supplies to Western Europe. Much of the continent's natural gas transits from Russia across pipelines in Ukraine.

The two leaders also agreed to set up a working group that will attempt to make the sale of gas to Ukraine more direct. Currently, Gazprom doesn't deal directly with Ukraine's natural gas monopoly but sells supplies through a murky company that acts as a middleman.

"We are extremely interested in making our cooperation absolutely transparent," said Putin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...201658_pf.html

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Archbishop Defends Remarks on Islamic Law in Britain

By Karla Adam
Special to the Washington Post
Tuesday, February 12, 2008;


LONDON, Feb. 11 -- The spiritual leader of the global Anglican church on Monday defended controversial remarks that Britain should consider formally recognizing aspects of Islamic law, but conceded that his choice of words in broaching the issue may have been misleading.

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, has been a fixture in the headlines here since comments last Thursday on a radio program that integration of parts of Muslim law, or sharia, was "unavoidable." Later, in a lecture to the Royal Courts of Justice, he declared that a "constructive relationship between Islamic law and the statutory law of the United Kingdom" could be considered.

Commentators called Monday the most important day of the archbishop's five years in office, following a weekend of often harsh rejoinders that recognizing sharia would undermine British values and laws, notably concerning the rights of women. There were scattered calls for his resignation.

The furor underlined the unease that many Britons of Christian heritage feel concerning the creed of the approximately 2 million Muslims who live in the country.

Sharia already figures in the lives of many Muslims here. Informal neighborhood councils provide rulings on family issues such as divorce; banks such as HSBC market mortgages compliant with sharia rules of lending.

Williams, spiritual leader of the world's approximately 80 million Anglicans, made his remarks Monday to a friendly though generally skeptical audience, the General Synod, the Church of England's national assembly. Members gave him a standing ovation when he entered.

"Some of what has been heard is a very long way indeed from what was actually said," he noted, adding that he "must of course take responsibility for any unclarity" and for any "misleading choice of words."

He called his 6,000-word lecture last week an "opening contribution" to the debate around Islamic law and said he did not advocate "parallel jurisdictions."

"I tried to make clear that there could be no 'blank checks' in this regard, in particular as regards some of the sensitive questions about the status and liberties of women," he said. "The law of the land still guarantees for all the basic components of human dignity."

Rather, he said, he was asking whether sharia could be a tool under British law for resolving disputes and regulating transactions, such as mortgages.

A poll by the Sunday Telegraph showed that 3 percent of synod members favored recognizing Islamic law. Four percent favored Williams's resignation.

Shaista Gohir, director of Muslim Voice UK, said in an interview that Williams's remarks were not greeted warmly in sections of Britain's Muslim community. Incorporating sharia in a formal way would be "impossible because Muslims wouldn't agree on one interpretation," she said, "and women would face discrimination from male-dominated councils."

"We are getting by informally, going to sharia councils if we want to. Let's keep it that way," she said.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Matthew d'Ancona, an author on Christian theology, said Williams's speech last week "showed that even the mildest-mannered intellectual can become a bulldog in the social china shop, spraying daft ideas around with a recklessness that disgraced his office."

David Blunkett, a former home secretary, said on a radio program that formalizing sharia "would be wrong democratically and philosophically, but it would be catastrophic in terms of social cohesion."

In a column in the News of the World tabloid, Williams's predecessor, George Carey, called the archbishop a "great leader" but said "his conclusion that Britain will eventually have to concede some place in law for aspects of sharia is a view I cannot share."

A spokesman for Gordon Brown said the prime minister considers Williams to be "a man of great integrity and dedication to public and community service."

"The prime minister understood the difficulty that the archbishop was facing at the moment," said the spokesman, who under standard British government rules spoke on condition of anonymity. He added that Brown was clear that British laws must be based on British values.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102783_pf.html

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Russian, Ukrainian leaders reach gas debt deal

Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:33pm EST

By Oleg Shchedrov and Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The presidents of Russia and Ukraine settled a row over gas debts in talks on Tuesday, minutes before a Moscow-imposed deadline for Kiev to pay up or face supply cuts, and agreed to axe intermediaries in gas trade.

The row between the two former Soviet states had sent jitters through customers in Europe, who feared it could escalate into a repeat of early 2006, when a pricing dispute between Moscow and Kiev disrupted shipments to EU countries.

"We have agreed that Ukraine will on Thursday start repaying the debt, amassed in November-December last year," Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told a news conference.

"Gazprom is satisfied with proposals made by the Ukrainian side," President Vladimir Putin told the same news conference.

Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom, which provides a quarter of Europe's gas, had threatened to cut 25 percent of supplies to Ukraine at 1500 GMT if there was no deal on the debt, which Russia put at $1.5 billion. Kiev put the figure at just over $1 billion.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs welcomed the deal as the basis to resolve future disputes. Most Russian gas exports pass across Ukrainian territory but both countries have assured Europe that westward gas flows will not be interrupted.

Many analysts had predicted Russia and Ukraine would clinch the deal since Putin wanted to show support for Yushchenko at a time when he is locking horns with Ukraine's new prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, who is more openly critical of Moscow.

Both presidents looked exhausted and pale after talks that lasted for four hours.

Putin, concerned about Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO, warned Kiev that Russia could be forced to redirect its missiles towards its former Soviet neighbor if it joined the Western military alliance and deployed a U.S. missile defense shield.

INTERMEDIARIES AXED

Gazprom insisted the gas dispute with Ukraine was a purely commercial one over unpaid bills, but it is likely to revive criticism that Russia is using its energy clout to exert political pressure on its neighbors.

"We firmly believe those disputes are of a political nature, so it is not a surprise that they are solved by top level politicians," said Valery Nesterov from Troika Dialog brokerage.

The row blew up less than two months after Tymoshenko returned to the prime minister's job after winning an election, replacing Viktor Yanukovich, who had warmer relations with Moscow.

Tymoshenko, who clashed with Russia over gas during her earlier stint in office, has recently been blaming Russian-imposed gas middlemen for racking up the debt.

Putin and Yushchenko said they supported transparency in gas trade and Gazprom's chief Alexei Miller told reporters later all intermediaries would be removed and replaced by direct deals between Gazprom and Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz.

Gazprom will now export gas to Ukraine and sell it inside the country via two 50/50 ventures with Naftogaz.

The previous import schemes involved RosUkrEnergo, Gazprom's 50/50 venture with two Ukrainian businessman, and a 50/50 domestic sales venture between RosUkrEnergo and Naftogaz.

Nesterov said the move, although it may appear at first glance a big win for Kiev, was in fact increasing Gazprom's presence on the Ukrainian market to 50 percent from 25 percent and would bring other political benefits to Moscow.

Putin has named Gazprom Chairman Dmitry Medvedev his preferred successor in Russia's March 2 presidential election.

"Outgoing President Putin is simply leaving fewer problems to his successor, Medvedev," Nesterov said.

Yushchenko said Russia had pledged to stick to the agreed price of $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters despite earlier demands to pay over $300 for supplies in January.

The gas Russia supplies to Ukraine is a mixture of fuel from Russian fields and cheaper Central Asian gas.

The markets in Moscow closed before the deal was announced. Shares of Gazprom, Russia's largest firm by market value, closed 3.6 percent up, in line with the broader market

(Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Anthony Barker)

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Reuters journalists are subject to the Reuters Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

http://www.reuters.com/article/world...39089820080212

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium range Ballistic Missile (BM) Ghaznavi Hataf-III, which was conducted by the Pakistan Army Strategic Force Command.

Caretaker Prime Minister, Mohammadmian Soomro, Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, senior military officers and scientists were also present on this occasion.

Hataf-III Ghaznavi, a medium range ballistic missile could hit its target at 290-kilometre and it possesses the capacity to carry nuclear weapons and warheads.

President, Prime Minister and Chief of the Army Staff have felicitated the Pak Army for this successful missile test.

http://www.geo.tv/details.asp?id=15805

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Danish papers reprint controversial cartoon

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted a cartoon Wednesday that depicts the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, a move that irritated Muslim leaders.
The papers said they wanted to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after Tuesday's arrest in western Denmark of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon.

The drawing by Kurt Westergaard and 11 other cartoons depicting Muhammad enraged Muslims two years ago when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the 12 drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, reprinted Westergaard's cartoon in its paper edition Wednesday. Several other major dailies, including Politiken and Berlingske Tidende, also reprinted the drawing, which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

"We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend," said the Copenhagen-based Berlingske Tidende.

Tabloid Ekstra Bladet reprinted all 12 drawings.

The move came in response to Tuesday's news that Danish intelligence police had arrested two Tunisians and a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin for plotting to kill Westergaard.

Intelligency police chief Jakob Scharf said the Danish suspect would likely be released after questioning, but could still face charges of violating a Danish terror law. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark because they were considered threats to national security, he said.

Danish Muslim leaders condemned the alleged murder plot, but also said reprinting Westergaard's cartoon was the wrong way to protest.

"There could have been other ways to do it without the drawing, which I personally do not like," Abdul Wahid Petersen, a moderate imam, told the Associated Press.

Imam Mostafa Chendid, the leader of the Islamic Faith Community, said his group was considering staging a rally in front of Parliament. The Copenhagen-based group spearheaded protests against the cartoons in 2006.

"We are so unhappy about the cartoon being reprinted," Chendid told the AP. "No blood was ever shed in Denmark because of this, and no blood will be shed. We are trying to calm down people, but let's see what happens. Let's open a dialogue."

Massive protests swept the Muslim world in early 2006 following the publishing of the cartoons. Danes watched in disbelief as angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked the country's embassies in Muslim countries including Syria, Iran and Lebanon. Danish products were boycotted in several Muslim countries.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...-cartoon_N.htm

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Europe sets up its first laboratory in space

From Times Online

It was a moment for which research scientists have waited over two decades, but when it finally came this afternoon it was no less glorious.

Anxiously watched by 10 orbiting astronauts and millions of observers from Earth, Europe's Columbus laboratory was successfully installed on the international space station and received its first visitor.

With the lab secured to the space station last night, the astronauts spent this morning hooking up power, fluid and data lines before French astronaut Leopold Eyharts briefly floated inside for the first time since it reached orbit.

“This is a great moment,” he declared to ground control teams watching nervously in Houston and Munich. Checking around with his headlamp, he pronounced the lab to be in good shape.
“We are very proud,” Hans Schlegel, his German crewmate, added. “It starts a new era. The European scientific module Columbus and the ISS are connected for many, many years of research in space in cooperation, internationally.”

Europe has high hopes for its £1 billion laboratory, including research to benefit a wide variety of industries. The 12.8-tonne module has room for three researchers in fields ranging from the development of advanced alloys to crop breeding. An official opening ceremony was scheduled for later today.

The visiting Atlantis crew installed the laboratory yesterday during an eight-hour spacewalk – far longer than expected. The outing had originally been scheduled for Sunday but was delayed when Mr Schlegel fell ill, leaving a replacement, rookie astronaut Stan Love, to take his place alongside fellow American Rex Walheim.

NASA has not disclosed Mr Schlegel’s ailment but he remains scheduled to join Mr Walheim for a second spacewalk tomorrow to replace a spent nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station’s coolant system.

The Columbus programme was approved by the European Space Agency in 1985 and originally scheduled to launch in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ departure for the New World. However problems with the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle led to repeated delays.

NASA is about 60 per cent finished building the $100 billion outpost. During the next shuttle flight scheduled for launch March 11, astronauts plan to begin installing what will be the station’s largest laboratory, the Japanese-built Kibo complex.

“We’re very, very much looking forward to having (Japan) join us next month,” Alan Thirkettle, the Europe Space Agency’s space station program manager, said.

The crew were glad to hear, meanwhile, that they will not have to worry about fixing a loose insulation blanket on one of Atlantis’ steering engines.

The shuttle crew made an extra inspection of the area on Sunday after finding that the thermal blanket had torn, probably during Atlantis’ climb to orbit on Thursday.

Stephen Frick, Atlantis’ commander, welcomed the analysis of engineers at Mission Control that the blanket would stand up to the intense heat of re-entry.

“It’s a relief to know we don’t have to go back there and mess with it,” Mr Frick said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3359278.ece

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Hezbollah: Top U.S. Target Killed

By Anthony Shadid and Alia Ibrahim
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, February 13, 2008; 7:25 AM


BEIRUT, Feb.13 -- Imad Mughniyeh, a senior but shadowy Hezbollah commander accused by the United States and Israel of masterminding suicide bombings, hijackings and hostage-taking that spanned 25 years, was killed by a car bomb in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Shiite Muslim group and other officials said Wednesday.

Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out the attack on Mughniyeh. A spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Mark Regev, said Olmert's office had no comment.

The elusiveness of Mughniyeh, the target of several assassination attempts and kidnappings by the United States and Israel, rivaled only that of Osama bin Laden and stretched over many more years. Until Sept. 11, 2001, the attacks for which the United States blamed him represented some of the deadliest strikes against Americans. Along with bin Laden, he was included on the list of 22 "most wanted terrorists" released by President Bush a month after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Although Hezbollah has always denied a role, the United States said he orchestrated two bombings of the U.S. embassy in Beirut -- in 1983 and 1984 -- killing 72 people, including the CIA's then top Middle East expert, Robert Ames. Even more devastating were the suicide truck bombings organized against U.S. Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut in October 1983. Together, those attacks killed 300 men.

Israel accused Mughniyeh, 45, of masterminding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 87 people and of a role in a 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in the Argentine capital that killed 28. He was wanted by the authorities there.

"With pride and honor, we announce the martyrdom of a great resistance leader who joined the procession of martyrs in the Islamic resistance," said a statement read on al-Manar, Hezbollah's television station, and published on its Web site. "The martyr, may his soul rest in peace, has been a target of the Zionists for more than 20 years."

Hezbollah planned a show of strength on Thursday in its stronghold in the capital's southern suburbs to mark his death. Its television station called on supporters to begin paying condolences in the neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon.

Mughniyeh's elusiveness over the years had given him a ghost-like aura. His whereabouts were always the matter of speculation -- in the southern Lebanese village of Teir Dibba, where he was born to peasant parents, or somewhere in Iran, whose government had reputedly issued him a diplomatic passport. Few pictures of him existed, and he was said to have undergone plastic surgery more than once to conceal his identity.

The Syrian government had no immediate comment. His assassination in Damascus, the heart of the government, marked a brazen breach of security.

Mughniyeh's name first emerged after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, then mired in civil war. He was reputed to be the commander of Islamic Jihad, a pro-Iranian group widely believed to be linked to Hezbollah, which had yet to officially emerge.

He was blamed for the kidnapping of many of the more than 50 Americans, Frenchmen, Britons, Germans and other foreigners held during the civil war's grimmest days.

He was also indicted for his role in the hijacking of a TWA flight from Athens to Rome in 1985. The hijackers killed a U.S. Navy diver after taking the plane to Beirut.

The United States had offered a $5 million reward for his capture or conviction.

His name emerged again in 2006, when he was said to have played a role in organizing Hezbollah's defenses during the war with Israel in 2006.

"This is a loss of a major pillar in resistance work. He was an expert at making victories and building fighting capacities against Israel," said Ali Hassan Khalil, a member of parliament with Amal, another Shiite Muslim group allied with Hezbollah. "He played an essential role in all resistance activities, especially the last war."

Correspondent Samuel Sockol contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...300494_pf.html

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RAWALPINDI: The two accused in the Benazir Bhutto murder case have confessed committing the crime in the judicial court here on Wednesday.

Arrested recently from different areas of Rawalpindi, the suspects, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat were produced before a Rawalpindi magestrate today.

According to sources, both the accused recorded their confessional statements before the magistrate, after which they were sent to Adiala Jail

Two other suspects Aitizaz Shah and Sherzaman are already in the custody of Rawalpindi police. They were arrested from Dera Ismael Khan.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=37390

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Pakistan tests nuclear-capable ballistic missile

ISLAMABAD: Troops on Wednesday fired a short-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile during exercises in the third such training launch in recent weeks, AFP quoted the army as saying.

Soldiers from the country’s Strategic Force Command (SFC) carried out a “successful” launch of the Hatf III (Ghaznavi) missile, which has a range of 290 kilometres, an army statement said.

With the launch, the SFC “concluded its highly successful winter collective training,” the statement read.

The launch was witnessed by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro and Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani, the statement added, saying that more details would be announced later. agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...4-2-2008_pg1_4

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.