A Pakistani commission probing Osama bin Laden’s presence in the country has directed the interior ministry and ISI to ensure that the slain Al Qaeda chief’s wives and children do not leave the country without its permission.

India has to play a “more positive and accommodating role” and respond to Pakistan’s “legitimate security concerns” in order to resolve outstanding issues, including Kashmir, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday.

A Russian-made Ilyushin-76 cargo plane chartered by the US military crashed into a mountaintop in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday, as fears rose for the fate of its nine-member Azerbaijani crew.

Japan’s embattled Premier Naoto Kan took another blow on Tuesday as his disaster reconstruction minister quit, having caused a furor with scathing remarks to leaders of tsunami-hit regions.

Eleven members of an Afghan family were killed by a roadside bomb that struck their minibus in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, a local official said.

If provinces had been given autonomy, then East Pakistan would not have been split to become an independent Bangladesh, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said.

Former cricketer Imran Khan’s political career and his complex relationship with his ex-wife Jemima are the focus of “Kaptaan”, an independent Pakistani film that is expected to be released later in 2011.

Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul’s landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties or security threats after an overnight assault by at least six Taliban suicide bombers killed 10 Afghan civilians.

Pakistan sincerely desires peace in Afghanistan and supports an Afghan-led reconciliation, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said.

Pakistan’s nuclear capability was purely for peaceful purposes, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said while declaring that the country would build more power plants to meet its growing energy needs.