Pakistan 9 most famous issues

Indonesians are voting in the country’s second direct presidential election since the overthrow of the Suharto regime in 1998. Opinion polls have given incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a comfortable lead over his rivals. He faces challenges from former president Megawati Sukarnoputri and outgoing Vice-President Jusuf Kalla. More than 250,000 police and 20,000 soldiers have mobilised across the Indonesian archipelago. Security is reported to be especially tight in the provinces of Aceh, in the far west, and Papua, in the far east, both of which have experienced unrest in recent years. About 176 million people have registered... read more >>

The security presence has been stepped up in Urumqi Chinese President Hu Jintao has cut short a visit to Italy for the G8 summit amid ongoing unrest in Xinjiang. Troops are on the streets after a curfew in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s provincial capital, where ethnic riots on Sunday left 156 people dead. A BBC correspondent in Urumqi says the security forces are now mounting a show of force after fresh clashes on Tuesday between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. More than 1,400 people have been arrested over Sunday’s violence. Map showing protest area in Urumqi President Hu was expected to join G8 talks taking place in Rome on Thursday. Instead... read more >>

Mr Ocampo said Mr Bashir, above, remained a wanted man The African Union’s (AU) decision not to help arrest Sudan’s president will not affect the International Criminal Court’s work, its prosecutor says. Luis Moreno Ocampo told the BBC Omar al-Bashir was still a wanted man and that it was up to each African state to decide whether to arrest him. Mr Bashir was indicted over alleged atrocities in Darfur in March. But on Friday an AU meeting in Libya agreed a resolution saying they would not co-operate in his arrest. In a statement, the AU pointed out that its request to the UN Security Council to delay Mr Bashir’s... read more >>

North Korea has test-fired a series of missiles in an apparent act of defiance on 4 July, American Independence Day. Reports say at least seven Scud-type ballistic missiles were fired, with a range of about 500km (312 miles). South Korea and Japan called the latest tests, which follow several others in recent weeks, an “act of provocation”. North Korea is banned from all ballistic missile-related activities under UN sanctions imposed after a second underground nuclear test in May. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missiles were fired from one of the North’s east coast launch sites on Saturday morning. All... read more >>

The US army says it has launched a major offensive against the Taliban in south Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The US military says about 4,000 Marines as well as 650 Afghan troops are involved, supported by Nato planes. Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said the operation was different from previous ones because of the “massive size of the force” and its speed. The offensive is the Marines’ first major operation since their recent deployment to Afghanistan. It is also the first such operation under President Barack Obama’s presidency. The operation – codenamed Khanjar or Strike of the Sword – began... read more >>

AP – FILE– In this undated photo released by Airbus Industries, one of its A310 passenger planes, the same … SAN’A, Yemen – A passenger jet from Yemen with 153 people on board crashed in the Indian Ocean early Tuesday en route to the island nation of Comoros, a Yemeni aviation official said. Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said there were 142 passengers and a crew of 11 Yemenis on board when the plane, which had set off from the Yemeni capital of San’a, went down before landing in Moroni, on the main island of Grand Comore. The majority of the passengers were from the Comoros islands, returning... read more >>

US troops are due to withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of June At least 69 people have been killed by a bomb blast in the eastern Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. Police said the device went off in a market place in the predominantly Shia area of the Iraqi capital. More than 130 people were also reported to have been injured in the blast, one of the worst in Iraq this year. It comes less than a week before US soldiers pull out of all Iraqi cities, a move the US said would not be affected by a recent surge in violence. ‘Horrific’ An interior ministry official told the AFP news agency the blast struck the market... read more >>