Pakistan denies increasing capability to make nukes

Pakistan’s information minister denied accusations Wednesday that his country is expanding its capability to produce nuclear weapons. This week, the Institute for Science and International Security published a report with satellite imagery that the group says shows expansion of “Pakistan’s key military and civilian fuel cycle site near Dera Ghazi Khan.” “If there is any construction over there, I don’t verify it,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said of the allegations.

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U.S., Russian officials to discuss new nuclear treaty

Russian and U.S officials are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Moscow to discuss a replacement pact for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I, which is expiring in December. “The key thing is that our two countries seem to have decided that we do want to pursue very intensive negotiations between now and December 2009 to try to achieve a new treaty to replace START when it goes out of force December 5,” said Rose Gottemoeller, the U.S. assistant secretary of state

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Fawcett tells Candy Spelling: ‘I’m going to be alright’

Farrah Fawcett, the actress known worldwide for her beauty and her role on "Charlie’s Angels," is reportedly seriously ill and may be close to death after a long battle with cancer. The two are closely tied to a Brussels-based al Qaeda recruiting network, Belgian counter-terrorism officials have told CNN. They are Bassam Ayachi, 62, and Raphael Gendron, 33 — and they were detained in the port of Bari on November 11 last year after allegedly trying to smuggle three Palestinians and two Syrians into Italy in the false bottom of a camper van they were driving

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Analyst: ‘Bloody urban battle’ looms between Taliban, Pakistan

The Taliban are digging in for a "bloody urban battle" against the Pakistani army in a hotly disputed city in the western part of the country, a strategic expert warned Thursday. “The Taliban are concentrating forces in Mingora — digging trenches, laying mines, taking positions on rooftops,” said Reva Bhalla, the director of strategic analysis at Stratfor, a private firm that describes itself as a global intelligence company. “It is not clear if the Pakistani military is trained and even equipped to go into a situation like that,” she said, adding that even the United States military “would have to think twice” about such an offensive.

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Terrorism-Linked Charity Finds New Life Amid Pakistan Refugee Crisis

Just five months after Pakistan banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa over its links to the terrorist organization blamed for last November’s Mumbai massacre, the Islamist charity group’s flags are flying high over a relief effort for refugees fleeing the fighting in the Swat Valley. The banned group’s signature black-and-white banner bearing a scimitar flew in the heart of Mardan as tens of thousands of refugees poured into the northwest garrison town, fleeing the military campaign to oust the Taliban from Swat and its surroundings.

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Terrified teen surrounded by ‘shooting and shelling’

A teenage boy trapped alone in an orphanage commandeered by soldiers in Pakistan’s war-torn Swat Valley has described his terrifying ordeal. “The situation outside is extremely bad and scary,” said the boy, who is identified by his teachers using his first name Ubaid. “All the time I hear shooting and shelling.” About 50 orphans and 20 teachers and administrators escaped the Khpal Kor Foundation orphanage in the Swat district capital of Mingora over the past week.

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