Islama

Kabul  - Pakistan's president-elect Asif Ali Zardari has invited his Afghan counterpart to attend his oath-taking ceremony next week, the Afghan government said Sunday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Zardari to congratulate him on his victory in the presidential poll Saturday, Karzai's office said in a statement.

"The Pakistani president invited him (Karzai) to take part in the oath-taking ceremony to be held in Islamabad soon," the statement said, adding that Karzai accepted the invitation.

Beijing  - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sunday congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on winning Pakistan's presidential election and promised that China would maintain its "all-weather friendship" with its neighbour and long-term ally.

"China and Pakistan are friendly neighbours that are joined by common mountains and rivers, and the peoples of the two countries have developed an all-weather friendship," the government's Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying in a message of congratulation to Zardari.

"In the new historical period, China is willing to join hands with Pakistan to carry forward the traditional friendship," Hu said.

Islamabad- Pakistan's president-elect Asif Ali Zardari is to be sworn in early next week amid hopes that his rise could bring stability to the crisis-ridden nation, a senior official said Sunday.

"The oath-taking ceremony will take place on Tuesday," Information Minister Sherry Rehman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Zardari secured 481 of the 702 electoral votes in Saturday's presidential elections, placing him far ahead of his rivals - former Supreme Court chief justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui and veteran politician Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who got 153 and 44 votes, respectively.

Washington, Sept. 7 : Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani has ruled out a cooling of ties between Islamabad and Washington in the wake of the recent attacks by international forces in Pakistan’s tribal regions, saying bilateral ties are resilient and would withstand the difficulties coming in the way.

Addressing the Carnegie Endowment for Peace here, Haqqani said that Pakistan expects the United States to persuade its NATO allies and Afghanistan to look upon it as a partner.

Islamabad, Sept. 7: Baloch nationalist leaders and analysts have said that President-elect Asif Ali Zardari would need to galvanise the government into reviewing its policy towards the restive Balochistan province.