Gunship helicopters hovered over the mountains surrounding the small town of Wana, cannons fired and explosions echoed as smoke billowed out of mud houses. Against the backdrop of this clamour, a teenaged tribal boy explained to me the difference between the sounds of hand grenades, rockets and automatic weapons...............detail

In a bid to foil any attempt by Al-Qaeda fighters to escape by sea in the wake of the latest offensive launched against them in Afghanistan and the Pakistani tribal areas, Pakistani authorities have allowed coalition ships to patrol and monitor its coastal areas in the Arabian sea within the 12-nautical mile limit. ,.........detail

Filling the vacuum between high-end expensive jewellery and the ordinary unexciting stuff flooding jewellery stores, comes The Mandarin Collection. An eclectic range of jewellery crafted from carved jade and a vast array of semi-precious stones, set in matte, burnished gold. The concept behind the line is to create high-impact pieces at prices that don't break the bank.h.......detail

The PPP's Central Executive Committee met in London recently, triggering speculation back home in Pakistan that this might be the moment millions of Bhutto supporters had been waiting for: Benazir Bhutto might be coming home. "I don't know why there was speculation that Ms Bhutto might decide to go back at this point in time," said a CEC member on condition of anonymity.....detail

"Catch the magic," said the young lady who briefed me on what she wanted me to write. Magic is an illusion and not a mood. But I had a pretty good idea of what she meant. No one expected cricket matches between India and Pakistan to turn into carnivals, no one expected that such inveterate foes would put aside their deeply ingrained hostility and party together, all sorrows forgotten, the moment to be celebrated. ......detail

Art, long relegated to the backburner, is now beginning to acquire some semblance of a profile, and attractive, stimulating art publications are contributing their share to the forces catalysing this change. A substantial amount of writing is going into monographs, and hardbounds - anthologies and reference books on art..........detail