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ISLAMABAD--An estimated 30,000 people were killed in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir by a massive earthquake, the region's Minister for Works and Communication Tariq Farooq told Agence France-Presse Sunday. "Our rough estimates say more than 30,000 people have died in the earthquake in Kashmir," he said. Pakistan's military said earlier that at least 18,000 died in the 7.6 magnitude quake that hit Saturday. "There are cities, there are towns which have been completely destroyed. Muzaffarabad is devastated," he added, referring to the capital of Pakistan's sector of disputed Kashmir.

The Iraq War did not Force Gadaffi's HandThe Financial Times, March 9, 2004Martin S. Indyk, Director, Saban Center for Middle East Policy Martin S. Indyk Embarrassed by the failure to find Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, President George W. Bush is trying to find another WMD-related justification for his pre-emptive war on Iraq. Bush administration spokesmen have been quick to portray Libya's December decision to abandon WMD programmes as the direct result of the US invasion of Iraq or, as Mr. Bush himself put it in his State of the Union address: "Nine months of intense negotiations succeeded with...

Sources: Equipment stolen from Pakistan's nuclear weapons lab went to Iran, North Korea, Libya and Malaysia ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The father of Pakistan's nuclear program smuggled out high-tech centrifuges used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and other equipment to Iran, Libya, North Korea and Malaysia through an international black market network, officials said Tuesday. "In some cases, chartered planes were used to smuggle out centrifuge machines and other sophisticated equipment to these countries," a senior government official told The Associated Press. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two "individuals" from Sri Lanka and Germany...

Iran, Libya Aided Via Black Market, Investigation Finds KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 27 -- Pakistani investigators have concluded that two senior nuclear scientists used a network of middlemen operating a black market to supply nuclear weapons technology to Iran and Libya, according to three senior Pakistani intelligence officials. Abdul Qadeer Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and Mohammed Farooq provided the help -- including blueprints for equipment used to enrich uranium -- both directly and through a black market based in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, the officials said. The middlemen, from South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands, Sri...

Pak sleuths trace foreign bank accounts of two nuke experts Press Trust of India Islamabad, January 25 Foreign bank accounts of two senior Pakistani nuclear scientists, who allegedly received money for passing nuclear technology to Iran, have been traced by investigators even as the government ordered all ministries and departments not to invite Dr AQ Khan, the father of the country's atomic bomb, to any official function. The foreign bank accounts in which the proceeds from the transfer of some nuclear technology to Iran have been deposited were traced back to at least two senior nuclear scientists, unnamed officials were...