DINA for the issue of August 20, 2012

	Monday, August 20, 2012 | Shawwal 1, 1433
The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.
Cellphones go silent in cities By Syed Irfan Raza ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Millions of people in the country, who were busy exchanging greetings through SMS, received a rude shock on the eve of Eidul Fitr when mobile phone service in some of the main cities was suspended on the direct orders of the federal government...	For suggestions and comments: Email: webmaster@dawn.com Website: http://dawn.com Fax: +92(21) 35693995
PTA orders suspension By Zulqarnain Tahir LAHORE, Aug 19: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has asked telecom operators to suspend their services in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Multan from 8pm on Sunday till 11am on Monday for security reasons. A directive issued by the PTA says: “In order to help law-enforcement agencies to improve the security situation and to avoid any untoward incident in different parts of the country including provincial capitals, mobile services will be required to be closed from evening 19th Aug to morning 20th Aug. Therefore, all mobile operators are requested to be ready as the area names will be communicated at a very short notice.”...
Eight die in Waziristan drone attacks By Our Correspondent MIRAMSHAH, Aug 19: The US carried out two drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday, killing eight people and injuring one, sources said. The death toll from three drone attacks in the volatile region along the border with Afghanistan during the past 24 hours rose to 14. Six people died and six others suffered injuries in a similar strike on a compound in Shuwedar area of Shawal tehsil on Saturday...
Alert driver saves train By Our Staff Correspondent QUETTA, Aug 19: Jaffar Express escaped a disaster when security forces on Sunday foiled a sabotage attempt by defusing an explosive device planted on the railway tracks near Kolpur. Railway police said the train was going to Rawalpindi when its driver spotted a suspicious object rigged to the tracks. He stopped the train and informed the security...
Holed-up Assange asks US to end ‘witch-hunt’ LONDON, Aug 19: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange urged President Barack Obama to end the US ‘witch-hunt’ against his whistle-blowing website on Sunday, speaking from Ecuador’s London embassy where he has been holed up for two months. Mr Assange walked into the embassy in June after exhausting all legal avenues in Britain to stop being extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over sex crimes...
Pak-India ties full of promise, says envoy By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, Aug 19: The present phase of Indo-Pakistan ties is full of promise and that too without compromising on the Kashmir issue, which is not on the backburner, so to speak, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir has said. “This present phase of Indo-Pakistan relations is full of promise and hope,” The Sunday Express quoted him as telling its editorial team...
Feasts, fireworks as Muslims in Asia celebrate Eid JAKARTA, Aug 19: Millions of Muslims across Asia began celebrating the Eidul Fitr holiday on Sunday, with a month of fasting giving way to feasting, family reunions and raucous festivities. Vast crowds gathered at mosques, fireworks lit up the night sky and tens of millions headed home to villages to see their relatives and mark the end of the holy month of Ramazan...
Bashar Assad makes rare appearance for Eid prayers DAMASCUS, Aug 19: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad offered prayers in a Damascus mosque marking the start of the Eid holiday on Sunday, state television showed, his first appearance in public since a July bombing that killed four members of his security brass. Opposition activists reported anti-government protests at cemeteries and mosques around Syria including Damascus, Hama and Idlib at the outset of the three-day Eidul Fitr feast...
Pakistan denies hand in rumours NEW DELHI: Pakistan on Sunday rejected Indian charges that morphed pictures of Assam and Myanmar violence, which sparked an exodus of northeastern citizens from other states, originated in Pakistan. “Such remarks only widen the trust deficit between the two countries,” sources in the Pakistan high commission here said...
Landing, protests stoke Japan-China islands dispute BEIJING, Aug 19: Anti-Japanese protests rocked Chinese cities on Sunday after nationalists from Japan landed on an East China Sea island at the heart of a territorial dispute between the two nations, the largest flare-up of Chinese public anger over Japan in years. In several Chinese cities, thousands took to the streets, including in Shenzhen where small groups overturned Japanese cars and shouted slogans denouncing Japan’s claim over the islands, in footage carried by Hong Kong’s Cable Television...
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