The reported movement of troops toward Pakistan’s border with India on Friday raised the threat of war between the two nuclear-armed rivals and will distract Pakistan from fighting Taliban-led militants, security analysts said.
The specter of war also may be exaggerated to reduce international pressure on Pakistan to crack down on a militant group blamed for the deadly Mumbai attacks last month, analysts said.
Regardless, even the reports of troop movements made the crisis much more serious than before and could undo most of the progress the two countries had made in …

WASHINGTON: Due to India’s war rhetoric and potentially dangerous military moves, Pakistanis must be reassured that the country, though committed to fighting terrorism, is prepared to defend itself against any aggression, Islamabad’s envoy in Washington told CNN on Saturday.
Hussain Haqqani said Pakistan wanted to pursue terrorists in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan rather than go to war with India, adding the country also wanted to work with New Delhi to capture terrorists who were responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
“That said, over the last few days, we have reason …

New Delhi, India (AHN) – Indian military is ready for an operations against “precision” targets in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, if the neighboring country fails to cooperate in pinning down the terrorists in its country, according to a report by a U.S. private intelligence company.
Pakistan is under pressure from the West and the Indian government to dismantle terrorists cells and crack down on Islamic militants, who seeked safe haven in the country.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Apprehensive about potential reprisals by India over the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Pakistani government insisted Saturday that it had not been involved. It pledged to take action against Pakistan-based militants if they were found to be implicated.
“Our hands are clean,” the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said at a news conference. “Any entity or group involved in the ghastly act, the Pakistan government will proceed against it.”

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel said on Friday it will maintain its closure of the Gaza Strip despite international concern over a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent Palestinian territory.
“This decision was taken because of the continuation of Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel,” said Peter Lerner, a defence ministry spokesman.
A rocket fired from Gaza exploded near the port city of Ashkelon early on Friday without causing casualties or damage, army radio said.

South Korean activists have sent another batch of propaganda leaflets across the border into North Korea, ignoring calls from the South Korean government to stop the airdrops which it says are inflaming already tense relations on the peninsula.
Activists said the latest batch of 100,000 plastic-covered leaflets was carried across the heavily-fortified border by unmanned helium balloons on Thursday.

BRUSSELS — The European Union said Monday that it would resume negotiations with Russia that it had halted following Russia’s invasion of Georgia, in a significant step toward normalizing ties with Moscow.
On Sept. 1, the European Union froze talks with Russia on a strategic partnership agreement until Russian troops withdrew to positions they held before Aug. 7, the day hostilities broke out in South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia. The decision was presented as a rare and bracing show of European unity.

TAIPEI (Reuters) – A Chinese official left Taiwan on Friday after a turbulent visit that produced landmark trade agreements but also sparked angry protests by thousands opposed to China’s claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island.
Chen Yunlin, China’s top negotiator on Taiwan affairs, completed the highest-level visit to the island by a Communist leader since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Libya has paid $1.5bn into a US compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department says.
The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US.
The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200