Search results for

In Pakistan on Saturday, pro- and anti-government demonstrators clashed in the city of Karachi, leaving 30 people dead and more than 100 wounded. Gunfire erupted in several parts of the city. The violence was prompted by a visit to Karachi by Pakistan's chief justice, a man President Musharraf suspended two months ago in what critics of the government say is a battle over judicial independence. Jacki Lyden talks with Phillip Reeves.

One of India's most squalid slums sits on extremely valuable property. The government has a plan to let private developers build projects for the rich in exchange for free housing, schools and health clinics for the poor. But many long-time residents oppose the plan.

There are more protests against Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf over his suspention of the nation's chief justice. Security forces detained hundreds of activists even before the rallies.

Pakistanis angry over President Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the country's chief justice hold their largest demonstration yet.

India launched its first moon mission in October amid a great gust of patriotic excitement about securing membership in the world's tiny lunar explorers' club — which includes its regional rival, China. Despite the mission's technical problems — and the space program's huge costs — Indian scientists' ambitions are high.

India's government is preparing to launch a big offensive to drive Maoist insurgents out of their jungle strongholds. The world has heard much about India's reputation as a thriving democracy and its rising economic power; less attention has been paid to the thousands of armed leftist rebels, who are active in about one-third of the country. This year alone, they have killed more than 250 security officials. The insurgency has now hit the headlines, after the rebels beheaded a police inspector.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in Sri Lanka to discuss how to handle the quarter-million people displaced by that island nation's 25-year civil war. The government said more than 6,200 of its forces were killed and almost 30,000 wounded in the final three years of its war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended last weekend.

After a month of voting, the governing Congress party has won decisively in India, defying expectations.

President Obama is scheduled to hold bilateral talks Thursday with India's prime minister, who's also in London for the meeting of the G-20. The White House says the talks will aim to strengthen relations between the United States and India. But developments in Pakistan and the Taliban problem in Afghanistan also are likely to be on the agenda.

Newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, gave his first speech as president before the Pakistani parliament on Saturday. Barely settled into his new job, Zardari has already been engulfed by a political crisis triggered by American military strikes inside Pakistani territory.