Islamabad - Pakistani journalists on Thursday held rallies across the country to protest the overnight killing of a local reporter in the troubled Swat district of North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). Musa Khankhel, a correspondent for the Geo TV and English-language daily The News, was seized by gunmen in the Matta area on Wednesday when he was covering a peace rally by Islamic cleric Sufi Mohammad, the father-in-law of Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.

Islamabad, Feb. 19 : Delegations from Pakistan and Afghanistan are due to arrive in Washington next week to conduct a strategic review of the Afghan war effort and to fine tune the Obam administration's policy toward Pakistan and the region.

The foreign ministers of the two countries will head the delegations and they will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke, among others.

Holbrooke, who set up the visits during a tour of the region last week, said Wednesday that the administration expected two things from the meetings.

Islamabad, Feb. 19 : The controversial peace agreement designed to end Taliban violence in the Swat Valley hung in limbo on Wednesday amid criticism in Pakistan and rising concern in Washington.

According to the Washington Post, neither the Pakistani government nor the Taliban were willing to formalize the accord that was announced on Monday.

The proposed pact marks an unprecedented and risky attempt to disarm about 2,000 Taliban fighters, who have invaded and terrorized 1.5 million people in northwestern Pakistan, by offering to install a strict system of Islamic law in the surrounding district.

Islamabad, Feb 19 : Pakistan media on Thursday said it would protest against the murder of Geo TV journalist Musa Khan Khel, who was killed while covering a rally organized by extremist group Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) in Swat.

The media vowed to stand up to the Taliban's life threatening acts.

According to Geo TV, Musa Khan's body was peppered with 32 bullet.

Geo News executive editor Hamid Mir made it clear that such brutal acts would not deter journalists from reporting the truth.

Islamabad, Feb. 18: There seems to be a lack of communication between Pakistani authorities as demands and denials for the handing over Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai terrorist, from India were made almost simultaneously during the last 24 hours.

Contradictory statements first came-in when the Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan, Sardar Muhammad Ghazi, claimed that Islamabad has formally requested the Indian Government to hand over Kasab so that it could initiate trials of the suspects it has captured.

Islamabad - Thousands of people on Wednesday held a peace rally in Pakistan's militancy-plagued Swat valley, two days after a radical cleric signed a controversial deal with the government to end violence in the region, locals and police said.

"More than 15,000 people joined our peace march," said Amir Izzat, the spokesman of cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who led the rally. A local police official put the numbers at around 10,000.

The marchers, carrying black and white flags, paraded through Mingora, the main town in Swat, where jubilant crowds lined the streets to greet them.