SM Krishna, Hina Rabbani Khar address the media

Islamabad: Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, SM Krishna and Hina Rabbani Khar addressed the media in Islamabad today. Here are the highlights of the presser:

Hina Rabbani Khar:
As a part of the broader vision, India and Pakistan has decided to move forward. We will not be held hostage by history.
We will build on convergences that unite India and Pakistan.
We must learn from the past and not miss opportunities. Pakistan is committed not to miss any opportunities to normalise relations.
Pakistan has sent a strong message that we are willing to move forward to a new future which is people-centric and development-centric that focuses on the people of India and Pakistan.
We have to get out of the mindset where we view everything negatively vis-a-vis each other.
Visa agreement is the first. It is a big step. It's an effort to make the people-to-people to contact stronger.
Trade normalisation between India and Pakistan expected around December 2012.
We look forward to a peaceful future. I have talked to Foreign Minister SM Krishna to ensure talks are productive.
The aspirations of Kashmiri people must be kept in mind.
The commitment and vision that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shown must be applauded. Foreign Minister SM Krishna has led the way.

SM Krishna:

We aim to build a relationship of trust which is mutual beneficial.
Given the complexity of the relationship, we are happy with the resumed talks.
We are happy that Pakistan has given its commitment in bringing the perperators of the Mumbai 26/11 to justice.

A car filled with explosives rammed into a U.S. government vehicle,killing two people and wounding five others.

The incident occurred a short distance from the US Consulate and an office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at Aabdara Road in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. 
Police officer Pervez Khan said the vehicle was attacked in the northwest city of Peshawar on Monday after it left the U.S. Consulate.

 Khan said some of the wounded were foreigners. The identities of those killed were unclear.

A News channel reported a foreigner was among the dead but there was no official word in this regard. Witnesses said some foreigners were in the car that was targeted. The powerful explosion was heard from several kilometres away.

A delegation of Mutahidda Qaumi Movement will hold a important meeting with President Zardari.

MQM delegation to meet Zardari on Monday :

According to sources, law and order situation in Karachi and new Local Government law will come under discussion during Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) delegation meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday.
The MQM delegation will apprise the president about their party’s reservations on talks with Pakistan People’s Party on new Local Government law.

12 people have been killed and 60 injured in a Taliban attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, a truck bomb was detonated near the gate of the base in the Saidabad district of Wardak province. The bombing killed two Afghan policemen and ten civilians and injured two U.S. soldiers and 58 other people, Press TV reported.

 

A spokesman for the governor of Wardak said that the attackers had targeted the U.S. forces. 

 

"There were two heavy blasts which damaged some parts of the district chief's office and the police headquarters, and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces are also there," Shahidullah Shahid said. 

 

The blast also destroyed military and non-military buildings near the base. 

 

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. base. 

 

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of about 130,000 U.S.-led troops. 

 

In another incident on Saturday, two U.S. soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan. 

 

"Two US Forces-Afghanistan service members died following an insurgent attack in Ghazni province, Afghanistan today," ISAF said in a statement, but provided no further details. 

 

The increasing number of military casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the United States and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the Afghan war. 

 

According to the website icasualties.org, 321 foreign troops, mostly U.S. personnel, have lost their lives in Afghanistan so far this year.

 

A total of 566 U.S.-led forces died in Afghanistan in 2011. However, 2010 remains the deadliest year for foreign military casualties, with a death toll of 711. 

Rebels seized an air defence facility and attacked a military airport in eastern Syria.

The attacks in the oil-producing Deir al-Zor province come as part of an apparent strategy change by rebels who are now prioritising Syrian air force assets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says rebels seized several anti-aircraft rockets.

                                                                                 

Amateur video purportedly shows fresh shelling by government forces in Homs, the nerve-centre of the uprising.

Other footage, said to have been filmed on Saturday, shows much of the northern town of Azaz reduced to rubble. Activists there claim they have been subjected to almost daily attacks by the Syrian regime.

The ongoing violence continues to force thousands of residents to flee to the Turkish border.

Ankara has temporarily closed its checkpoint at Bab al-Salam as it struggles to cope with an influx of around 80,000 refugees. Turkey says it will open four more camps by next week.

On Saturday, the Syrian government freed more than 200 detainees from police stations in Damascus, Aleppo and Homs.

The groups had apparently been involved in anti-government activities but it is not clear if any were members of the Free Syria Army.

                                                     

Prisoners signed declarations that they would not rejoin the uprising.

Gunmen shot dead seven persons in two separate incidents in Quetta .

Gunmen shot dead seven Shiite persons in two separate incidents in Quetta on Saturday, police said.

"Four gunmen riding two motorbikes intercepted a bus near Hazarganji area, pulled five Shiite vegetable sellers off the vehicle and shot them dead," senior local police.

Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The province suffers from sectarian violence that has left thousands of people dead since the late 1980s.

At Least 5 suspected militants were killed in US Drone strike in North Waziristan.

A US drone strike targeting a militant compound on Saturday killed at least five rebels in the Degan area of North Waziristan,Pakistani officials said.

The Degan area of North Waziristan, known as a bastion of Taliban and al Qaeda.Two intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media, said U.S. drones fired seven missiles at targets in the village of Degan in an area of North Waziristan close to the Afghan border.
A drone strike a week ago in North Waziristan killed Badruddin Haqqani, one of the sons of the founder of the Haqqani network. The U.S. has blamed the group for a number of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan and considers it one of the key factors in undermining security there.
Washington considers Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt as the main hub of Taliban and al Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

Another security official confirmed the strike and casualties.

He said the area had been the target of US drone strikes in the past, which killed several foreign militants.

The district is a stronghold of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant group, he said, adding that militants from the Afghan Taliban allied Haqqani network also operate in Degan.