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Pakistan our only all-weather friend: China
ISLAMABAD: With no signs of an improvement in strained Pakistan-US relations, Islamabad and Beijing on Tuesday warmed to each other with rhetoric loud enough to be heard across the Atlantic. “China categorically supports Pakistan‘s efforts to uphold its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” said visiting Chinese Vice Prime Minister Meng Jianzhu at a meeting with Prime Minister…
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60 dead, four million affected in India floods
BHUBANESWAR, India: Sixty people have died and four million have been affected by flooding in eastern India that has led to a major relief effort from local and international aid agencies, officials said Monday. “It’s tough to cope with two successive floods within a week,” Disaster Management Minister Surya Patra from the state of Orissa…
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Gun attack at Kabul ‘CIA compound’, 2 hurt
KABUL: A compound in Kabul used by the US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) came under attack Sunday, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults in the Afghan capital. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui said police had heard “a couple of minutes” of gunfire from inside the Ariana Hotel compound at around 9.15pm…
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Iranian leader Ahmadinejad set to visit Sudan
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will start on Sunday a two-day official visit to Sudan, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said. During the visit, Ahmadinejad will hold talks with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir “on bilateral ties and regional issues of common concern.” Despite the Sunni-Shiite divide between the two countries, Sudan and Iran have increased their…
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Russian naval task force starts visit to Japan
A Russian Pacific Fleet’s task force led by the missile cruiser Varyag will arrive on Sunday to Japan on a five-day friendly visit, the fleet’s spokesman said. The task force, which also includes the Irkut tanker and a salvage tugboat, will arrive at the port of Maizuru during the first leg of its Pacific tour…
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Sea Launch resumes operations after 2-year break
International consortium Sea Launch resumed its operations on Saturday with a launch of a Russian-Ukrainian Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a European telecoms satellite, the company said. The rocket put the Atlantic Bird 7 satellite into a high-perigee transfer orbit at 21:25 GMT. The 4.6-ton satellite was built by Astrium for Eutelsat Communications to provide digital broadcasting…