Latest South Asia Stories

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan is reconsidering its plan to buy scores of new and used American-made F-16 fighter jets following the devastating earthquake that killed 53,000 people, U.S. and Pakistani sources said on Tuesday. The Bush administration was expected to formally notify the U.S. Congress next week of plans to sell the planes but Pakistani sources told Reuters the deal was being rethought. "Pakistan is at this time in a situation...

By David Brunnstrom MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO said on Friday it would send up to 1,000 troops to help hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors who have been waiting for two weeks for help in the rugged mountains of northern Pakistan. But it rebuffed a U.N. call for a massive airlift to rescue stranded survivors on the scale of the 1948-49 Berlin airlift to the beleaguered people of Soviet-blockaded West Berlin. "There is no question of the alliance doing that. That...

By David Brunnstrom MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO said on Friday it would send up to 1,000 troops to help hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors who have been waiting for two weeks for help in the rugged mountains of northern Pakistan. But it rebuffed a U.N. call for a massive airlift to rescue stranded survivors on the scale of the 1948-49 Berlin airlift to the beleaguered people of Soviet-blockaded West Berlin. "There is no question of the alliance doing that. That...

By Mian Khursheed MANSEHRA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The death toll from a huge earthquake in Pakistan and India headed toward 2,000 on Sunday as rescuers dug out the corpses of hundreds of children buried under their schools and found villages reduced to rubble. Teams labored with cranes and earth-moving equipment, or scrabbled with their bare hands in driving rain, in the hope of finding survivors trapped in shattered masonry. Scores were plucked out alive, but many more dead. Some 400...

By Simon Cameron-Moore ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A big earthquake struck northern Pakistan and India on Saturday, killing hundreds and possibly thousands, with two apartment blocks in the Pakistani capital reduced to ruins and reports of mountain villages wiped out. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake was the strongest in memory. "The deaths could be running in the thousands. We do not have an exact figure for casualties at this moment, but it's massive," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's...

By Simon Cameron-Moore ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A major earthquake shook cities and villages across the south Asian subcontinent on Saturday, "wiping out" several villages in Pakistan and leading to fears that the death toll could run into thousands. Officials said heavy damage was expected in northern Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed. "The deaths could be running in the thousands. We do not have an exact...

By Simon Cameron-Moore ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A major earthquake shook cities and villages across the south Asian subcontinent on Saturday, "wiping out" several villages in Pakistan and leaving more than 1,000 people feared dead. Officials said heavy damage was expected in northern Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed. "Casualties will be high...they could be well over 1,000," said President Pervez Musharraf's...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - More than 1,000 people might have been killed in a major earthquake that struck northern Pakistan on Saturday, President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman said. "Casualties will be high ... they could be well over 1,000," said the spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan. The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at 0350 GMT and was centered in forest-clad mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, near the Indian border, about 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad.

By Simon Cameron-Moore ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A major earthquake shook cities and villages across the south Asian subcontinent on Saturday, including the Pakistan capital Islamabad where scores of people were feared killed or trapped when two buildings collapsed. Officials said heavy casualties were expected in the north of Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed. The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at...

DHAKA (Reuters) - Security forces in Bangladesh have arrested Mufti Abdul Hannan, the alleged leader of the Bangladesh chapter of the Islamist militant group Harkatul Jihad, at a hideout in the capital Dhaka, police said on Sunday. They said Hannan had been in hiding since July 2000 after police found a powerful bomb, believed planted by Harkatul Jihad activists, near a rally that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed in western Kotalipara area. Police recovered the...