Islamabad, Sept 22: Both former and current Pakistani security officials have indicated that Saturday’s hotel blast in Islamabad was a joint handiwork of Al Qaeda and Taliban. They said that Waziristan was fast developing into a terror zone where tribals were giving refuge to terrorists, including Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Az-Zawahiri.

Islamabad, Sept 21: In the aftermath of Saturday’s suicide attack on Marriott Hotel killing around 60 people, foreigners living in Pakistan fear for their lives and are said to be planning to leave for their respective home countries.

Many who had dismissed these smaller attacks are now considering leaving. “I’ll be speaking to my boss tomorrow,” said an unidentified Briton who has worked in Islamabad for a Pakistani firm for several years.

New Delhi, Sept 22: Officials from India and Pakistan will meet here today to discuss the modalities for launching cross Line-of-Control (LoC) trade and other Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) related to Jammu and Kashmir.

In an effort to ensure early start of new measures, the Joint Working Group on cross-LoC and CBMs, comprising senior officials, will seek to exchange ideas of the two sides.

Issue like the launch of commerce on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route will be discussed during the talks.

Kathmandu - At least five people were killed and another 15 missing after flash floods and landslides hit several districts in western Nepal, official reports said Saturday.

Government-owned Nepal Television said at least six districts in western Nepal had been hit by heavy rains since Friday night causing landslides in several mountainous areas and flooding farmland and villages in the plains.

It said at least four people were killed when their houses were buried by landslides in Gulmi and Kalikot districts, about 300 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu.

Islamabad, Sep 20: A report presented to President Asif Ali Zardari has suggested that the recent air strikes in tribal areas by US forces had been carried out on the basis of wrong CIA intelligence, and that no ‘high-value’ targets had been hit in these attacks.

President Zardari is reported to have said that national sovereignty would get precedence over everything else and it would not be compromised.

According to sources, he made the statement while discussing important national and international issues with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani who had called on him at the President’s House here on Friday.

Peshawar, Sep 20: At least five people have been killed and 10 were injured in an explosion at a madrassa (religious school) run by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in Quetta.

Television footage on Friday showed a gaping hole in the seminary’s external wall. The seminary is located on the outskirts of Quetta.

“The madrassa people say that someone threw explosives into the madrassa, but we are investigating,” said police official Wazir Khan Nasir.