DINA for the issue of September 19, 2012.

	Wednesday 19th September 2012 | Ziqa'ad 1, 1433
The DAWN Internet News Alert (DINA) is a free daily news service from Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, the Daily DAWN.
Swiss letter to be written, after all By Nasir Iqbal ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: After almost 30 months of legal squabbling with the Supreme Court over NRO implementation, the government finally blinked. To the surprise of the five-judge bench, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf authorised his law minister on Tuesday to withdraw the famous letter that led to the closing of alleged graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.	For suggestions and comments: Email: webmaster@dawn.com Website: http://dawn.com Fax: +92(21) 35693995 Karachi Stocks Up 118.51 Points: KARACHI, Sept 18: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 15517.19, up 118.51 points. Forex Update : The Pakistani Rupee was traded at 94.9 to the US Dollar in the open market.
Three MQM men among six shot dead By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Sept 18: As Karachi braced itself for a strike called by the Jamaat-i-Islami and backed by the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) for Wednesday, at least six people, including three workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were gunned down in a matter of a few hours on Tuesday night. Six people were injured when gunmen on motorbikes lobbed a grenade near an office of the MQM in Baldia Town and started firing indiscriminately. The injured were taken to the Civil Hospital where the condition of two of them was said to be critical.
Twin blasts hit Bohra community in Karachi By S. Raza Hassan KARACHI, Sept 18: At least seven people, including a three-month-old baby, a 12-year-old girl and a woman, were killed and 22 others injured — the victims predominantly belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community — when twin blasts rocked a neighbourhood in North Nazimabad on Tuesday evening. It was perhaps the first such targeted attack against the community to have taken place in the city’s chequered history.
Bomb attack on bus kills three pilgrims in Mastung QUETTA, Sept 18: A car-bomb exploded on Tuesday when a bus carrying Shia pilgrims got close to it, killing three people and injuring nine, official sources said. Outlawed Jaish-i-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack that took place on RCD highway in the Mastung district. “Three persons were burnt alive as the bus caught fire after the powerful blast,” the sources said.
Allies wrong-footed by PPP’s U-turn By Khawar Ghumman ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: The meeting with the government coalition partners became tense on Monday night when President Asif Ali Zardari broke the news that he had decided to write the letter to the Swiss authorities, withdrawing the previous letter sent by former attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum. A leading member of a coalition party sprung up to ask why he and others had been encouraged to attack the judiciary verbally if the president was going to capitulate on an issue he had initially taken a strong stand on.
NA panel takes officials to task over oil prices By Mubarak Zeb Khan ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: In what appears to be the last attempt to force the government to reduce prices of oil products, members of a National Assembly committee from both the treasury and opposition benches threatened on Tuesday to submit a privilege motion in the house against the secretaries for finance and petroleum if they failed to bring the prices down to the July 31 level. “This is our third unanimous recommendation to the secretaries for revision of the prices to the level of July 31,” the chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Re-sources, Tariq Khattak, said at the conclusion of its meeting.
Kasab files mercy petition By Our Correspondent NEW DELHI, Sept 18: The Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab has formally pleaded for mercy and his petition has been sent to the President's office, the United News of India said, quoting prison authorities in Mumbai where he is lodged. Last month, India's Supreme Court rejected a plea by Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008, to commute the death sentence handed to him by the Bombay High Court to life imprisonment.
Afghan woman bomber kills 12; attack termed revenge for film KABUL, Sept 18: A woman suicide bomber attacked a van in Kabul on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including eight South Africans, in an assault militants said was revenge for an anti-Islam film made in America. The bombing on a highway to Kabul airport was the second suicide attack in the city in 10 days, reviving questions about stability as Nato accelerates a troop withdrawal and hands over responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
Degree needed to visit UAE as tourist DUBAI, Sept 18: Tourists from the South Asian countries exporting labour to the UAE would require a university degree to get a visa as the Gulf state fought an illegal influx, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Electricians, masons, farmers, drivers and cleaners from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines were now banned from obtaining a tourist visa, Gulf News daily said citing a senior immigration official.
Number of missing persons declining, UN mission told By Amir Wasim ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: Riaz Fatiana, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights, informed a UN mission on Tuesday that incidents of enforced disappearances had declined sharply since the issue became the focus of the judiciary, parliament and media. Talking to Dawn after his meeting with the two-member UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Mr Fatiana said he had informed the mission that most of the cases of the missing persons had been lingering on since the time when Gen Musharraf was in power.
PIA chief resigns for health reasons By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Sept 18: The Chairman and Managing Director of Pakistan International Airlines, Air Chief Marshal (retd) Rao Qamar Suleman, has resigned and Deputy Managing Director Capt Junaid Yunus has been asked to look after the affairs of the corporation till the appointment of a new chief. Air Chief Marshal (retd) Rao Qamar Suleman has resigned on health grounds because he had been twice hospitalised in the past couple of months and had to undergo surgical procedures, including those relating to cardiac ailment. He held the top PIA post for about six months.
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