KHAR, PAKISTAN // Pakistani security forces killed 10 more suspected insurgents as part of a major military offensive near the Afghan border that has spawned retaliatory attacks by the Pakistani Taliban.
More than 700 suspected militants have been killed since the operation in Bajur tribal region launched in early August, the army said.
The offensive has earned praise from US officials at a time of tense relations between the two anti-terror allies and rising violence in the Muslim nation, including a massive weekend bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed 53 people.
Iqbal Khattak, a government official, said the latest casualties came early today, when the 10 suspected militants died in an intense shootout with security forces on the outskirts of Bajur's main city of Khar.
He said some security forces were wounded, but he would not say how many.
The US said the operation in Bajur - a rumoured hiding place of the al Qa'eda leader Osama bin Laden - appears to have reduced violence across the border in Afghanistan. Washington has pushed Pakistan to crackdown on the tribal areas, which militants use as bases to prepare for attacks on American and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's chief army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas has said Bajur had turned into a mega-sanctuary for militants and that it simply had to be cleared out.
Still, a rash of US cross-border operations in neighbouring tribal regions, including suspected missile strikes and a ground assault, underscore Washington's concerns that Pakistan is either unwilling or incapable of rooting out extremists on its own.
Pakistan has officially protested the strikes, calling them violations of its sovereignty. But its civilian leaders have called for diplomatic measures to resolve the dispute.
The Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari was expected to bring up the issue in a meeting with President Bush today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban have taken credit for a string of suicide bombings in recent weeks, saying they were revenge for the Bajur offensive and ongoing military actions in the volatile northwest's Swat Valley.
However, the top Pakistani Taliban commander has denied a role in the hotel bombing, which also wounded nearly 270 people on Saturday. Experts and officials said the explosion bore the hallmarks of al Qa'eda, but that the Taliban may still have assisted in its execution.
Late yesterday, the Dubai-based TV channel Al Arabiya said it received a tape from a shadowy group calling itself "Fedayeen Al-Islam" - claiming responsibility for the Marriott bombing and calling on Pakistan to end co-operation with the United States.
*AP
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.