The Londoner

By Romail Kenneth KARACHI: Mobilink fiber optic project is expected to be completed by the second half of the current calendar year. Presently it is 6,500 kilometer long. The third phase of expansion for another 2000 km is currently underway, which will provide a third redundant link. The current deployment already has two redundant links, Mobilink official spokesperson told Daily Times here Friday. He said Mobilink has a state of the art fibre optic network starting from Peshawar to Karachi covering all major cities. “Our fiber optic network would be one of the best in Pakistan and after the completion of this phase we will be the only service provider to have three levels of protection.” The Mobilink spokesperson said: “We have introduced latest technology, which automatically shifts traffic to the redundant link in case a link goes down.” This all happens in milliseconds and there is no performance degradation of the voice or data traffic. With a capable technical team avai...

By Nick Thorpe BBC News, Pristina One week since the declaration of independence, Serb authorities in north-western Kosovo are pushing hard to eradicate all institutions with any connection to the new state. And they are telling a cautious and already weakened UN mission, in its last months in office, that it should allow this - or face dire consequences. There is genuine Serb grief over the loss of Kosovo, but there is also a carefully calibrated plan to win important parts of it back, and to sabotage Kosovo as an independent state. The tools available include violence against property - grenades thrown at UN, EU, and Kosovan justice ministry buildings, and the carefully planned and executed burning down of two border and customs posts on 19 February. Privately, Serb leaders in the north say this is just the beginning. United Serb front The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is awaiting instructions from the UN secretary general in New York, and from the so-called "C...

By KATHY GANNON The Associated Press PESHAWAR, Pakistan Fed up with violence and economic hardship, voters in the deeply conservative northwest have thrown out the Islamist parties that ruled this province for five years a clear sign that Pakistanis are rejecting religious extremism in a region where al-Qaida and the Taliban have sought refuge. Instead, voters in turbulent North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, gave their support to secular parties that promised to pave the streets, create jobs and bring peace through dialogue and economic incentives to the extremists. That may conflict with U.S. pressure to step up the fight against armed militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban. "They didn't do anything for the people," Bokhari Shah, 65, said of the religious parties. "They have done nothing to help the people, and we are afraid to even come out from our homes because of all these bomb blasts." Five years ago, voters in this ...

By Anil Varma Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's rupee had the biggest weekly gain in more than six years after the opposition parties that won the most seats in this week's national elections decided to form a coalition government. The currency snapped a four-week losing streak on speculation overseas investors will return to the local financial market amid easing concern about political instability. The nation's benchmark equity index rose to a record yesterday, after recouping all its losses since the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. ``Investors clearly liked the election result,'' said Callum Henderson, head of foreign exchange strategy at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. ``Investors appear to be coming back, encouraged by the relatively low poll violence and the seemingly smooth political transition.'' The rupee gained 1.8 percent to 61.965 per dollar this week in Karachi, according to data compiled by Bloomberg....

I believe that Pakistan must stop arguing for the remaining part of Kashmir to become part of Pakistan. People living in Indian Kashmir have suffered enough already and they should be allowed to have some peace in coming years. Pakistan must hold talks with India and declare the Cease Fire line as an international border. Give provincial status to Azad Kashmir and create two more provinces out of Northern Areas.

The journey of Civilization in Pakistan…Mehrgarh Era The origins of human beings on the earth are one of the most mysterious and intriguing questions in the human consciousness. The search for the origins of the human endeavors and any traces of the activities is considered to be a step forward in the solution of the jig saw puzzle of the human endeavors. The knowledge developed for the search of the origins of the humanity is called anthropology and it has a diverse mosaic of tools and branches developed to assist in the understanding of the basic question of the humanity. The range of subjects and techniques applied in tracing and understanding the bases and origin of humanity in the universe and earth is exhaustive. But on the earth the archaeology is the most potent field in understanding the remnant and footsteps of the ancestors of the human beings. The land of Pakistan is the epitome and zenith of diverse cultures and harmonized expressions of human creative influenc...