Pakistani woman reaches Pole

Pakistani woman Namira Salim won laurels for her country when she hoisted the green-and-white Pakistani flag at the North Pole this month. Namira, who also awaits her space flight during the next couple of years, is the first Pakistani to reach the top of the world - the geographic North Pole. “It is a great honour to represent my country as the first Pakistani citizen at the Geographic North Pole,” she said.

Ugly video

Media in Pakistan have condemned a video in circulation that appears to show Taliban fighters urging on a boy of around 12 as he beheads a Pakistani militant accused of being a US spy. The footage dubbed with jihadi songs and tributes to Taliban leaders shows the last minutes of a man identified as a Taliban traitor. Executed as a warning to others, the man was said to have given information to US forces that later killed senior Taliban commander Akhtar Mohamed Osmani in an air strike in Afghanistan in December.

Mosque march

Hundreds of women and children are taking to the Pakistani capital streets to urge the government to act against a fundamentalist mosque for promoting a Taliban-style justice system. The protests are against the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad, which has launched morality patrols targeting video shops.
 
Mill clashes

Over 100 people were injured in clashes in southern Bangladesh triggered by the closure of four state-run jute mills affecting thousands of workers. The four mills employed 22,000 workers and had incurred a combined business loss of 450 million taka. Jute is one of Bangladesh’s main exports, fetching around $500 million annually. The losses were mainly due to lack of adequate power supply to the mills, a senior official of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation said.

TV threat

Popular Pakistan TV channel Aaj fears government closure for its coverage of the growing controversy over the suspension of the country’s chief justice. The public furor stems from last month’s suspension of Chief Justice Ifthikar Chaudhry by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf allegedly for abusing his position.