Pakistan’s drive to overcome its chronic energy shortages received a boost when France expressed willingness to transfer civilian nuclear technology to the South Asian country to meet its energy requirements. This was decided during the talks between the visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy here Friday. Briefing media about the meeting, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the negotiations regarding the transfer of civil nuclear technology will be held in July this year and a new framework agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is …

I wanted to share with linkmuslims readers the following informative article by  Asghar Ali Engineer.
RECENTLY I read a news item datelined Riyadh that said that Saudi Arabia was contemplating banning the marriage of girls under 18. This became necessary because a case of a girl aged eight years came to light. She was married off to a man over 40 years her senior. Many Saudi jurists and ulema, however, uphold such marriages. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh endorses the practice of marrying underage girls, arguing that in doing so …

Will Pakistani government and army be able to win heards of minds of people in northern areas of Pakistan?

Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old dual Iranian-American citizen, met her parents outside Evin prison Monday evening after the court cut her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the U.S to a two-year suspended sentence.  ”She was reunited with her father and mother. They left for their house,” her lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told The Associated Press. He said Saberi was free to leave Iran immediately.
On Sunday, a court heard an appeal of Saberi’s conviction and sentence and her lawyers emerged saying they were able to defend her and were optimistic her …

Ottawa Muslims Association has been in the local news due to a number of issues related to Muslim community in Ottawa, Canada. It is always very painful to see such kind of behaviour on part of the people who have been entrusted with huge responssiblity of keeping the Muslim community united. The issue of Immam of Ottawa Mosque has created so much rift between the officials of the Ottawa Muslims Association that a large majority of the officials has decided to resign.
I do beleive that their resignation is not going to make …

Three quarter of British Muslims strongly relate themselves to UK.

“Women to Reclaim Public Space” Women’s Action Forum held a program of defiance and resistance at Karachi-Pakistan Press Club on 8th May 2009. Arundhati Roy was the closing speaker.
Taliban boy’s interview who asked the interviewer that government can ban the plastic shopping bags by making law then why can’t government of Pakistan ban women to not to come out of the houses? The point is that the plastic bag was made in a factory but so was the boy. He was made in a factory that is producing this kind …

The House Committee on Appropriations has approved $1.9 billion for Pakistan for the next fiscal year, $591 million above the request. This also includes $597 million to help address the economic crisis, about $100 million above the request.
The fund to address the economic crisis will be used for agriculture and food security, strengthening national and provincial governance, expanding the rule of law, and improving access to and quality of education. The amount also includes assistance for more than a million people displaced in the fight against terror and now …

The U.N. refugee agency announced recently that half a million people have fled the fighting between Pakistan Army and Taliban in Swat in the past few days bringing the total displaced in recent months to 1 million.
A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the fighting has led to massive displacement in the area. Ron Redmond said up to 200,000 people have arrived in safe areas in the past few days and that another 300,000 are on the move or are about to flee.
Redmond told reporters in …

The Pakistan army has started operation against the Talibans in Sawat area after the agreement between TNS fell apart. 
The military spokesman Major-General Atthar Abbas told a news briefing at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, ”Approximately 143 militants have been reported killed in Swat valley.” 
He further said, “On the directive of the government, the army is now engaged in a full-scale operation to eliminate the militants. They are on the run and trying to block exodus of civilians from the area.”  The helicopter gunships, fighters and troops were all involved in Swat …