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Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world, home to 17-million people, give or take a million. It is the economic engine of Pakistan, responsible for three-quarters of its economy. It is the bellwether for a precarious nation -- as Karachi goes, so goes Pakistan, they like to say here. It's also, according to a recent report from global human resources consulting firm Mercer, South Asia's lowest-ranking city for personal safety and the sixth most dangerous city in the world. It has had no elected government for more than 18 months, after the last one dissolved in bickering...

Karachi Woman Murders, Seeks to Cook Husband Pakistani police say a woman tried to cook her husband after murdering him for planning to take a second wife. By Gavriel Queenann Pakistani police on Thursday arrested a woman they say killed her husband and was attempting to cook his body parts, after he planned to take a second wife without her permission. According to family law in Islamic Pakistan, a man must get permission from his first wife before his second marriage, but the law is rarely observed. Police arrested Zainab Bibi, 32, and her nephew Zaheer, 22, in the Shah...

excerpt- St. Peter's of Karachi, which opened its doors this month and can fit around 5,000 people, is a sign of the resilience of a faith that has long suffered from state discrimination and attacks by extremists allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

In Karachi, jihadists plot war against Mumbai Praveen Swami Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley's testimony could cast light on who carried out the bombings in the city — and why. Four weeks after a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone ended his life on May 21, 2010, Said al-Masri's spoke to his followers from the grave, through a posthumous audio tape his followers posted online. “I bring you the good tidings,” al-Qaeda's third-in-command declared, “that last February's India operation was against a Jewish locale in the west of the Indian capital [sic., throughout], in the area of the German bakeries...

Taliban gunmen armed with rockets and explosives stormed a major naval air base in the heart of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, destroying two US-made surveillance aircraft and killing 12 personnel. It was the worst assault on a military base since the army headquarters was besieged in October 2009, piling further embarrassment on the armed forces three weeks after US troops killed Osama bin Laden under their noses. Up to 20 militants crept into the base in the teeming port city of Karachi from three sides under the cover of night late Sunday, officials said, triggering gunbattles and a series of...

Dr. John C. Drew, a grant writing consultant in Laguna Niguel, Calif., tells Newsmax he met Obama in 1980 when Obama was a sophomore at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Drew had just graduated from Occidental and was attending graduate school at Cornell University. Drew’s then girlfriend, Caroline Boss — now Grauman-Boss — knew Obama because she shared classes with him at Occidental.... During Christmas break, Drew says he was at Grauman-Boss’ home in Palo Alto when Obama came over with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo, his roommate from Pakistan. “Barack and Hasan showed up at the house in a BMW, and...

Sarkozy is asked to explain Pakistan bomb mystery By Thierry Leveque PARIS | Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:30pm IST PARIS (Reuters) - Victims' families on Thursday demanded that President Nicolas Sarkozy be called for questioning about a 2002 bomb attack in Pakistan that killed 11 French people. A new line of inquiry into the bombing has brought up possible links to a murky affair of commissions paid for a Pakistani submarine order when Sarkozy was budget minister. Presidential immunity means Sarkozy can refuse to be questioned while in office, and he has already publicly dismissed any link between the attack...

The Taliban took credit for a deadly suicide assault on a police headquarters in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi today. Sixteen people were killed in the attack and more than 100 were wounded. A Taliban assault team attacked the Crime Investigation Department headquarters in a secured area of Karachi. Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles attack the building and battled with police before a massive truck bomb was detonated inside the CID compound. The truck bomb, which is estimated to have carried more than 2,000 pounds of explosives, destroyed the building. Police have confirmed that 18 people have been killed...

At least 15 people have been killed and 100 injured in a massive explosion that ripped through the centre of Pakistan's largest city. A local journalist has told Sky News that a police station close to the US consulate in Karachi was the prime target and has collapsed. The explosion struck in a high-security area of the city that is also home to two luxury hotels and the offices of government leaders. According to Sindh province home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, a gang of around six gunmen first opened fire on the office of the Crime Investigation Department before detonating a...

Clashes that killed at least 45 people overnight in Karachi scared residents off its streets on Tuesday as Pakistan's largest city was on alert for more violence after the shooting of a leader in a dominant political party. Officials said more than 100 people were wounded and dozens of vehicles and shops torched by mobs who took to the streets after Raza Haider, a member of the provincial Sindh Assembly from the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was gunned down on Monday along with his bodyguard while attending a funeral. The government blamed the Taliban and the banned militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba...

''Human rights are gay rights," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently, "and gay rights are human rights, once and for all." That's a touchy-feely liberal talking point, but don't tell it to the Muslims. Eventually, the Obama administration might have to decide to which radical group it's most important to pander: homosexuals or Muslims. There is some friction between these two Obama constituencies.... Given the Obama administration's fawning outreach to Muslim majority states, this drive for homosexual equality seems something of a disconnect. The Democratic conundrum illustrates an aspect of the clash of civilizations Mr. Obama is willfully...

NEW DELHI: A Pakistan-bound cargo vessel carrying a "huge quantity" of explosives and other weapons has been detained by the authorities at a harbour in eastern India, police said on Saturday. The vessel was heading for the Pakistani port city of Karachi and was detained Friday on an intelligence tip-off at Diamond Harbour, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kolkata, capital of the West Bengal state, police said. "The Indian Coast Guard and navy personnel have found a huge quantity of explosives, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and some bombs in two large containers," West Bengal police director general Bhupinder Singh...

Pakistani officers arrested a man at Karachi airport after batteries and an electrical circuit were found in his shoes as he tried to board a plane for the Middle East, an official said. The 30-year-old civil engineer allegedly told interrogators he came from Pakistan's northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Taliban and Islamist militants have a presence, and had been scheduled to travel to Muscat by Thai Airways. Mohammad Munir, Airport Security Force spokesman, said the bearded man, whom he named as Faiz Mohammad, was arrested when a scanner sounded an alarm. The suspect was not found in possession of explosives,...

'Man Arrested' in Karachi Airport Security Alert A man has been held at Karachi airport after batteries and an electrical circuit were found in his shoes as he tried to board a plane, reports say. Mohammad Munir, spokesman for the airport security force, said the civil engineer was arrested when a scanner sounded an alarm at the airport. He was scheduled to travel to the Omani capital Muscat on Thai Airways. The suspect was not found in possession of explosives, but Mr Munir described the circuit discovery as "worrying". He told AFP news agency: "After the machine gave the alarm,...

Times Square Is Evacuated in Bomb Scare The scene at Times Square on Saturday night after police found a suspicious package inside a Pathfinder on West 45th Street. RAY RIVERA and KARIN HENRY May 1, 2010 A bomb in Times Square led to the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening, the police said. There was no explosion. “It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. The device, he said, contained “explosive...

Faisal Shahzad, Times Square bomb suspect in custody -- Live Updates 12:16 p.m. Two arrested in Pakistan ISLAMABAD -- An intelligence official who was not authorized to speak on the record said two arrests had been made in Karachi in connection with the bombing attempt. One arrested is named Tausif Ahmed, and he is believed to have traveled to the United States recently to meet with Shahzad, according to this official

Nine people including one foreigner were killed and 45 injured in a suspected bomb blast in the German Bakery at Koregaon Park which also houses a Jewish prayer house and the Osho Ashram here this evening. Pune Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said there were five women among the victims. The blast took place at the German Bakery, an old business establishment, at around 7:15pm. Initial reports have suggested that the Indian Mujahideen is being suspected to be behind the blast. "There was a bomb blast. There have been eight deaths and 33 people were injured", said Pune joint commissioner...

SNIPPET: "KARACHI: Pakistani security forces along with help of US intelligence arrested Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al- Adam, who is a close associate of Osama Bin Laden. Abu Yahya was arrested on Sunday from an area surrounding the super highway, on the outskirts of Karachi." SNIPPET: "Pennsylvania-born Abu Yahya is a US citizen and assumed to be a commander of foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan against the US. He was living with Osama Bin Ladin after 9/11 attacks in New York. His name is included in the top ten wanted on the CIA list. - DawnNews."

<p>KARACHI: Pakistani security forces along with help of US intelligence arrested Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al- Adam, who is a close associate of Osama Bin Laden. Abu Yahya was arrested on Sunday from an area surrounding the super highway, on the outskirts of Karachi.</p>

U.S. intelligence officials appear to have obtained access to what could turn out to be a significant trove of phone numbers, photographs and documents detailing the links between Al Qaeda's leaders in northwest Pakistan and the terror group's increasingly menacing affiliate in Yemen, two counter-terrorism sources tell Declassified. In late January, an Al Qaeda operative headed from Pakistan on his way to Yemen was arrested in the Persian Gulf country of Oman, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed. There has been no public announcement of the arrest. But in a possible indication of the operative's importance, just a few days later,...

WASHINGTON – The Taliban's top military commander has been captured in Pakistan in a joint operation by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence forces, The New York Times reported. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the No. 2 behind Taliban founder and Osama bin Laden associate Mullah Muhammad Omar, has been in Pakistan's custody for several days, ... Baradar was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in a raid by Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, with CIA operatives accompanying the Pakistanis, the Times reported. Pakistan has been leading the interrogation of Baradar, but Americans were also involved, it said. ... If confirmed, Baradar's arrest...

NEW DELHI: SNIPPET: "The US national, identified as Winston Marshal Carmichael, was detained late last night after CISF personnel found knife in his hand baggage during the security check when he was to leave for Doha in a Qatar Airways flight, official sources said. ( Watch Video ) Reminiscent of the case of terror suspect David Headley, arrested in Chicago in October last for allegedly plotting terror strikes in India, Carmichael is a convert from Christianity to Islam. The New York resident changed his religion some 40 years ago. Carmichael, who was flying to Doha in a Qatar Airways flight,...

<p>May 3, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The recent capture of several major al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan has unearthed a terror plot to fly a plane or helicopter into the U.S. embassy in Karachi, sources said yesterday.</p> <p>An alert to U.S. pilots said, "This [terror] group has a fair-sized pilot cadre and the use of small aircraft requires far less skill and training than some larger aircraft."</p>

SNIPPET: "The premier English-language jihadi forum has members in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad..."

KARACHI (AFP) – Eight suspected insurgents were killed Friday when explosives intended for a bomb attack accidentally blew up, destroying a militant safe house in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi, police said. Guns, grenades and suicide vests were recovered from the house in a poor Karachi neighbourhood, which officials said was a den for Islamist insurgents involved in the escalating campaign of violence in the nuclear-armed nation. Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmad said that early intelligence suggested the militant cell had been planning to attack a court in the city, possibly when Interior Minister Rehman Malik was due to appear. In...

A blast flattened a house being used by militants in Karachi on Friday, with eight people killed when explosives apparently detonated accidentally, police said. Guns, grenades and suicide vests were recovered from the house in the poor Baldia Town neighbourhood, while bodies were buried under the rubble as bomb disposal experts worked cautiously to clear the site.

The militant insurgency that has taken an enormous human toll in many regions of Pakistan in recent months assumed a sectarian dimension last week as it turned its fury on the country's minority Shiite Muslims. In so doing, the militants added Karachi, the country's largest city, a major port and the financial center, and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir province, to its list of targeted cities for spreading mayhem. Prior to that, Karachi and Muzaffarabad had been spared the worst of the violence of the past four months in which hundreds have died, with civilians from all walks of life...

Karachi, 28 Dec. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Riots erupted in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Monday when a suicide attack killed at least 30 people and injured at least 80 during a Shia Muslim procession to mark the Ashura festival. It was the third and largest attack on a Shia congregation in Pakistan in the past three days. Hundreds of people had been part of the procession at the time of the bomb attack. Immediately after the explosion, marchers turned their anger on security forces and emergency workers. Pakistan's security forces had been on high...

Here is video showing the bomb blast of a suicide bomb attack in Karachi, Pakistan during a parade marking one of the Shiites key holidays. At least twenty-five people were killed and dozens wounded...(Video)

Fearing that Taliban supremo Mullah Omar might be targetted by US drones, Pakistan's ISI has helped him to flee from the border town of Quetta to the mega port city of Karachi, where he has established a new Shura council. One-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban recently found refuge from potential US attacks in Karachi with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) assistance, the Washington Times reported quoting US intelligence officials. "Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so...

Fashionistas defied militant threats to celebrate couture culture in a Taliban-troubled conservative nation plagued with Islamic extremism as the Pakistani fashion fraternity gathered in the country's largest city for Karachi Fashion Week (KFW) that started on Wednesday. Intricate and colourful fabrics lit up the catwalk as bold models shrugged off all security fears as well as local social norms. The fashion week has attracted 35 top Pakistani designers including Deepak Perwani and Maheen Khan, who recently attended Milan Fashion Week. But staging the fashion week in Karachi was not trouble-free. It was postponed by almost a month due to the...

SNIPPET - Quote: Pak raids unravel Taliban-drugs link ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities arrested 13 Islamist militants in separate raids that police said on Monday foiled major terrorist attacks and provided clues to how drug sales help fund the Taliban.

Note: The following text is a quote: LAHORE: Twenty-five explosive-laden vehicles have reportedly entered various major cities of the country, as the intelligence services launched search operations across all four provinces, a private TV channel reported on Monday. According to the channel, the vehicles could target sensitive government installments and other important buildings. The channel cited a notification issued by the Interior Ministry stating that suicide bombers along with the vehicles had entered Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi. The ministry ordered provincial authorities to immediately conduct search operations and impound the vehicles before any terrorist incident took place....

Note: The following text is a quote: June 14, 2009 Taliban shoots 11 year-old Christian boy in head Meanwhile, the Pakistani embassy in D.C. considers such stories "exaggerated." "Pakistan: Christians ready to die for their faith," from Spero News, June 14: An 11-year-old boy was shot in the head while attending church near Karachi. Christians live in dread of the Taliban, which is demanding conversion to Islam or death. ‘I am sorry I could not speak to you then because we were just about to begin the funeral service for Irfan, an 11 year-old boy who was shot in the...

The high-profile arrest of a group of Pakistani militants in mid-April in the restive Afghan province of Helmand by the Afghan army and their subsequent handover to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for grilling exposed a jihadi network running to the heart of urban Pakistan. In the course of interrogation, the militants confessed to being recruited, trained and then launched into Helmand after spending some time in places such as the southern port city of Karachi and Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. They also gave details of their Pakistani leaders and their activities, including how these leaders could...

Irfan Masih, the 11-year-old boy wounded on 22 April during a Taliban attack against Christians in Tiasar Town near Karachi, has died. In critical conditions from the start, the boy slipped away after five, agonisingly long days. Fr Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, the director of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), led a delegation to the site of the attack. The group, made up of clergymen and lay people, visited the wounded in hospital and then met leaders of the Muttahida Quami Movement(MQM), the only Pakistani party that is opposed to the introduction of Sharia in the Swat Valley....

Pakistan: Karachi churches vandalized with "Long live the Taliban," "Long live Islam," and "Christians, convert to Islam" Karachi (AsiaNews) – SNIPPET: "Fr Pervez Khalid, assistant parish priest at St Jude’s Parish Church, told AsiaNews that no one was killed in the attack but that six people had gunshot wounds. The situation is now under control, he added. Rangers and police and were patrolling the streets. Still people are very scared and dare not go out, especially after police advised them to stay in-door. Father D’Souza, parish priest at St Jude’s, visited the area where the attack took place. There, he...

Tonight (Friday a.m. US time) Pakistan gave its official answer to India on the request to turn over to India ASAP Islamic terrorists based on Pakistan soil and operating out in the open. Our friend and good ally India has ramped up the pressure and now banned the entry of Pakistani nationals into it's country by land, sea or air.The massive terrorist attack in Mumbai had a strong element of not only India being targeted, but the United States as well. Our fellow Americans were sought out, and some were killed.All intelligence points to Pakistan as the base for these...

Mumbai: The group of 11 terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks had boarded a fishing boat near Karachi in Pakistan five days earlier, a senior investigating official revealed on Sunday. According to the investigation, the terror group loaded their arms and ammunition and boarded the boat on November 21 from a location near Karachi, said the official who declined to be identified. All the terrorists - in their 20s - are said to be members of the Lashker-E-Taiba (LeT), he said. They all had undergone rigorous training in terror camps in which they learnt all ways to create terror, especially...

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

Azam Amir, the terrorist who was held by the Mumbai Police, has made some striking revelations regarding the Mumbai terror attacks. Azam has disclosed that the Pakistan Navy had trained the terrorists in boating and swimming to carry out the attacks in Mumbai. Azam was arrested on Wednesday from Girgaum Chowpatty in an encounter with the police. Ismail Khan, an accomplice of Amir, reportedly died in the gunbattle.

The arrest of three Pakistani nationals hailing from Multan in connection with Mumbai siege has once again revealed the role of Lashkar-e-Tayiba in terror strikes in India after the Akshardham attack in 2002. Police and central security personnel have arrested at least three Pakistanis, including Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot near Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province. All the three belong to the suicide squad of Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The terrorists told interrogators that 12 of them had left in a merchant vessel from the port city of Karachi, which was on its way to Vietnam, from which they got down...

Karachi, 26 Sept. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - A militant Al-Qaeda satellite cell linked to Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and other jihadi organisations was targeted in a major raid by security forces in Karachi on Friday. Three key militants died during the raid on the cell, which was allegedly planning a campaign of destruction. Their targets are believed to have included the bureau of the country's intelligence services (ISI), NATO supply lines from two Karachi ports and anti-Taliban politicians. The satellite cell had direct links to Baitullah Mehsud and Qari Zafar, the alleged mastermind of the...

KARACHI: On average, 100 women are raped every 24 hours in Karachi city alone, and a majority of them are working women, said Additional Police Surgeon (APS) Dr Zulfiqar Siyal. A majority of them are working class women or those working as domestic help and are mostly up to 20 years old, he said. “I am saying with full authority that such a large number of rape cases happen in the city,” he told Daily Times on the sidelines of a discussion on sexual violence organised by the Aurat Foundation on Monday. “But very few rape survivors have the courage...

War On Terror: After 9/11, Pakistan promised to close its radical madrassas as part of anti-terror reforms. Now we learn they're not only still open, but also recruiting and brainwashing American boys.All told, 600 American children are being indoctrinated into jihad in 22 madrassas across Pakistan. A U.S. filmmaker stumbled on them while tracing the path of the London suicide bombers. He discovered they attended the same radical Islamic schools. A congressional delegation has confirmed his findings. One particularly radical school in Karachi freely displays a banner at its main gate urging Muslims to join the Taliban. At least 80...

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...

KARACHI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Security forces in the Pakistani province of Sindh have been issued orders to shoot violent protesters on sight as disturbances over the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto flared, an official said. "Yes, shoot on sight anybody who wants to damage the life of innocent citizens and public property," provincial Interior Minister Akhtar Zaman told Reuters on Friday. (Reporting by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)

via translation - Mrs. Bhutto accuses supporters of the former military regime PARIS-Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused the supporters of the former military regime of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq to have instigated the attack have referred Thursday in Karachi, in an interview broadcast Friday by online french weekly Paris Match. "I know exactly who wanted to kill me. These are the dignitaries of the former regime of General Zia who are now behind extremism and fanaticism, "said Mrs. Bhutto in the interview given in the night from Thursday to Friday Karachi and published on the website of the journal...

Excerpt - DUBAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was heading home on Thursday to end eight years in self-exile, making a comeback that could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf. Waved off by supporters in Dubai, and accompanied by her sister, Sanam, Bhutto was due to land around 2:00 p.m. (0900 GMT) in Karachi, where al Qaeda-linked militants have threatened to assassinate her. For years Bhutto vowed to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for General Musharraf, the army chief who took...