Sri Lankan Navy today rescued about 138 Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals from a sinking fishing vessel off the island’s eastern coast, officials said.

Militants attacked an isolated army checkpoint in Pakistan’s restive north-west on Saturday, with at least 31 people killed in the initial assault, subsequent crossfire and a rocket attack on a house, officials said.

A petition filed by a retired colonel challenging the unprecedented three-year extension given by Pakistan government to army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was today dismissed by a court here.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has expanded his cabinet adding five new ministers to his team.

A senior anti-graft investigator, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances while probing corruption charges against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, had apparently committed suicide, Pakistani police has told the Supreme Court.

Shops, businesses and schools shut Friday across Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, braced for further unrest after the murder of a politician and a night of sporadic shootings.

A case officer investigating a corruption scandal involving Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was found dead on Friday in Islamabad, officials said.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday imposed governor’s rule in the troubled Balochistan province after victims of the recent terrorism staged a 4-day sit-in along with the dead bodies of their loved ones seeking sacking of the provincial government.

A group of Sri Lankan lawyers today appealed to the high court judges not to recognise any successor of the country’s first woman Chief Justice Shirani Bandarnayake, ahead of a Parliamentary vote which will formalise her impeachment and her imminent removal.

The Pakistani military today rejected India’s contention that its troops had attacked an Indian patrol and killed two soldiers, claiming that it had carried out ground verification and “found nothing of this sort happened”.