Peshawar: Deploying helicopter gunships and heavy artillery, Pakistani forces mounted fresh pressure on Taliban fighters in the tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing nine more militants to raise the total of dead in the ongoing offensive to more than 100.
Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of LeT's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks dismisses the prosecution's application for naming Ajmal Kasab.
Sydney: Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge goes dark at the start of Earth Hour, followed by cities across Asia in a global switch-off aimed at revitalising efforts against climate change.
Kabul/Washington: US President Barack Obama makes a surprise visit to Kabul tonight and met President Hamid Karzai and also spoke to American troops, saying difficult days lie ahead in the bloody eight-year-old war.
Gothenburg/Beijing: In the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group brings US auto giant Ford Motor's ailing Swedish car unit Volvo Cars for a whopping $1.8 billion.
Washington: The Obama Administration is still trying to convince Pakistan that India is not a real threat to it and wants the country to go after terror groups like the Taliban's Haqqani network with which ISI has links, a top Pentagon official has said.
Karachi/Hyderabad: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is all set to marry Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik in April, two months after she breaks her engagement with childhood friend Sohrab Mirza.
Moscow: Terror returns to the Russian capital after five years when two suspected Chechen female suicide bombers blew themselves up on packed metro trains in central Moscow killing at least 38 people and wounding 63 others.
Islamabad: The American strategy for the region will always be to the "advantage of Pakistan, which is a strategic partner of the US", says the Obama administration.
Moscow: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin orders security agencies to "scrap out from the bottom of the sewers" those responsible for the twin attacks that killed 39 people, even as Moscow hinted that militants trained at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border could be behind the blasts.
Chicago: A US court sets April 7 as the date for preliminary hearing in the case of a Pakistani-origin cab driver, who claims to have known HuJI chief Ilyas Kashmiri for 15 years and was recently arrested on charges of providing material support and funds to Al-Qaida.
Islamabad: An Iranian diplomat abducted in northwest Pakistan in 2008 has been freed by intelligence agents from his country, in an apparent cross-border operation.
Dubai: A sophisticated US Navy surveillance plane supporting anti-terror operations in Afghanistan crashes into the Arabian Sea and one of four crew members is still missing, the US Fifth Fleet says.
Peshawar/Islamabad: Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked Pakistani security forces' checkposts at two places near the Afghan border triggering fierce gun battles which left six soldiers and 38 militants dead.
Islamabad: A Pakistani parliamentary panel finalises a landmark constitutional reforms package, which includes proposals aimed at stripping the President of his sweeping powers, after political parties overcame their differences on several contentious issues.
Moscow: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev orders security forces to adopt "harsher" and "merciless" measures to punish terrorists as he paid a surprise visit to the terror-hit Dagestan region, after a series of bombings that killed 51 people this week.
Kuala Lumpur: In a surprise turnaround, a 33-year-old Malaysian Muslim woman who was sentenced to be caned for drinking beer in public has had her sentence reduced to community service.
Beijing: Rescue teams at a flooded coal mine in China, where 153 miners have been trapped for the last five days, hear signs of life as a phone and food were sent down, sparking a glimmer of hope in the country where 33 workers were killed in different mishaps in the sector.
Moscow: Russian investigators identify a 17-year-old baby-faced widow of a Caucasus militant as one of the two 'Black Widows' involved in Monday's twin suicide attack in Moscow metro that killed 40 people.
