Latest Punjabi people Stories

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, an avid baseball fan, on Saturday tried his hand at a sport hugely popular in parts of the old British empire -- cricket -- and was pronounced "not bad" for a first-timer.Bush bowled and batted several times on a practice cricket pitch set up on the grounds of the U.S. embassy in the capital of cricket-mad Pakistan, as students from the Islamabad College for Boys and the private school Schola Nova, who included girls, looked on...

By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations, under pressure from Pakistani diplomats, barred an interview with a rape victim from Pakistan while the country's prime minister was at U.N. headquarters, her sponsors said on Friday. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a news conference he was unaware of the controversy and had supported the campaign waged by Mukhtaran Mai. "I have no idea," he said. "I have no idea how the place functions." Mai, a 33-year old peasant woman...

By Jeffrey Hodgson TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off its 30th edition on Thursday with movies about violence, sexuality and the stress of a post-9/11 world set to share a stage with some of Hollywood's biggest stars. The 10-day event, which film critic Roger Ebert calls the start of Hollywood's "Oscar season," will screen more than 250 features on subjects as diverse as female miners, gay cowboys, would-be suicide bombers, child brides and Japanese...

BANGALORE, India -- India and the United States have resolved a dispute over intellectual property, enabling them to sign an agreement on scientific collaboration next month, India's science minister said Friday. The dispute prevented the nations from signing the accord during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington in July. "We have now agreed upon the language and the finer points," Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said at a seminar on the future of...

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani police are hunting a dozen men in connection with the gang rape of a woman, including two set free this week by a lower court in the southern city of Karachi, police said on Wednesday. The case has parallels with that of Mukhtaran Mai, a village woman who became an international symbol for women's rights after speaking out against her gang rape ordeal three years ago. Mariam Bano, 35, says she was raped by five men last month near her house in a poor area...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani man and some of his relatives chopped off his wife's feet after accusing her of being promiscuous, police said on Saturday. The woman survived the gruesome attack, the latest in a wave of assaults that have raised international concern about the plight of women in Pakistan, particularly in conservative rural areas. "It is a shameful act of cruelty against a woman and we are taking it seriously," said Talat Ali, a senior police official in Punjab province....

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani police have arrestedfive men on charges of kidnapping and gang-raping a woman inthe latest of a string of so-called honor crimes. The married woman was attacked because one of her malecousins had an affair with a women whose father disapproved ofthe relationship, police said on Wednesday. "The accused say they carried out this horrible act as anact of honor," said police official Mohammad Mumtaz. The incident took place in the central Punjab...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan wants to ensure gang-rapevictim Mukhtaran Mai finds justice, President Pervez Musharrafsaid on Wednesday, as he invited women from around the world tocome and tell of their abuse and recommend solutions. Mai, 33, was gang-raped on the orders of the traditionalvillage council in 2002 after her brother -- who was 12 at thetime -- was judged to have offended the honor of a powerfulclan by befriending a woman from the tribe. The rape and subsequent acquittal of...

By Zeeshan Haider ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesdayordered the re-arrest of 13 men accused of involvement in thegang-rape of a woman in 2002, pending the outcome of the rapevictim's appeal in the high-profile case. The rape of Mukhtaran Mai and the subsequent acquittal offive of the six men convicted of attacking her provoked aninternational outcry and focused attention on the plight ofwomen in rural Pakistan. Mai is appealing in the Supreme Court against the...

By Zeeshan Haider ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani woman gang raped in 2002on the orders of a village council said on Monday she hoped thecountry's Supreme Court would reimpose death sentences on themen who attacked her. The Supreme Court began hearing an appeal by the woman,Mukhtaran Mai, against the acquittal of five of six menconvicted in the assault. "I expect the same decision as was given by the specialcourt," Mai told reporters in the Supreme Court before thesession began, referring...