Contradictory reports regarding the Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud once again surfaced, as a Taliban source confirmed that their chieftain Hakeemullah has died. According to the militant source, the Taliban leader was critically injured and being taken to Karachi from South Waziristan Agency; however, he succumbed to injuries near Multan. However, Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq brushed aside the report saying Mehsud is all right and doing well.

The MQM forcefully pleaded what it called “Karachi’s case” on Monday, demanding more federal resources, in the face of some sniping both from opponents and allies as the National Assembly debated last week’s violence in Pakistan’s commercial capital with calls for strong action against terrorism. At least two members of the Awami National Party (ANP) and one from the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) seemed to be pointing fingers at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) during the heated debate that arose on the first day ...

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday said he has no clash with the judiciary and will not take any step to risk the stability of the institutions. "I want to make it clear. Remove this misunderstanding that I am not at good terms with the judiciary," the Prime Minister told reporters after a surprise visit to a local girls school. "Whenever I say something, there is some weight behind it," he categorically said, and added that he never changed stance after a statement. ...

Avatar might have tied The Hurt Locker for most Oscar nominations last week (with nine apiece), but the sci-fi epic is winning in at least one category: The film once again was the most-pirated movie on the Internet last week, thanks to a DVD screener that leaked onto file-sharing networks. Oscar buzz also seems to have compelled pirates to check out "Locker," which jumped to the fourth most-pirated film last week. Here's the entire Top 10 list of most-pirated movies on BitTorrent, according to TorrentFreak: 1) ...

In view of the national cricket team’s pathetic performance in international cricket as well the growing menace of indiscipline and player-power, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has once again decided to hire a foreign coach with hard-nosed Australian legend Greg Chappell topping the list of candidates in running for the post. Well-informed sources told Dawn that PCB chairman Ijaz Butt had discussed the idea with his think-tank and it was decided to give Chappell top priority, given his high credentials as a tough task ...

India’s economy should expand by 7.2 per cent this fiscal year, the government forecast Monday, as growth heads back to the robust levels seen before the global financial crisis. The projection for the 12 months ending March 2010 was contained in an estimate by the statistics office for use in drafting next year’s budget to be presented at the end of February. The economy “has clearly turned,” said chief government economic advisor Kaushik Basu while finance Secretary Ashok Chawla said growth this year could be even ...