Top international news of the week

Saturday

United Nations: Offering its wholehearted support to flood-stricken Pakistan, India vowes to do all it can to assist the country in relief efforts, apart from the $ five million in aid already extended by it.

Islamabad/Karachi: A second wave of floods inundates several areas in Balochistan even as the worst deluge in Pakistan's history leads to mass evacuation in Sindh regions where around 3.6 million people have been affected and over 600,000 displaced.

Sunday

Lahore: Pakistan, which agreed to accept  $5 million Indian aid for flood victims following prod by the US, claims that the move has enhanced its diplomatic image since refusal would have gone against its insistence on resumption of dialogue.

Kathmandu: An Indian national is arrested in Nepal for his alleged role in the abduction of a 13-year-old boy.

Monday

Peshawar: A former parliamentarian is among 20 people killed in two separate bomb attacks targeting a mosque and a tribal council in the restive South Waziristan region of northwest Pakistan.

London: The UK has no plans to erect barriers or close doors on Indian business but it wants to deliver controlled immigration with a faster and fairer system as part of its new policy.

Tuesday

Islamabad: India and Israel are the only two countries whose aid workers will not be granted special visas by Pakistan to join relief efforts for the millions of people affected by the country's worst floods.

New York: The world's top golfer Tiger Woods and his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren are divorced nine months after a car accident outside his home that led to revelations about the athlete's torrid sex scandal.

Wednesday

Houston: Indian film maker Vijay Kumar, arrested for carrying jihadi literature and brass knuckles at the airport here, is released on a $5,000 bond and ordered not to move out of the city till Friday.

Islamabad: Conflicting claims made about the visit of USAID's Indian-origin chief Rajiv Shah to a relief camp, run by a front organisation of Jamaat-ud-Dawah, in Pakistan's flood-hit Sindh province and his handing over of aid to it.

Thursday

Washington: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emerges politically stronger after the passage of the Nuclear Liability Bill which will enable the US companies to compete with state-run European rivals for USD 100 billion Indian investment in nuclear power.

Washington: The CIA fears that the growing instances of homegrown terrorists like David Headley would make other nations believe that the US is an "exporter of terrorism" and prompt them to reduce cooperations with it, according to fresh secret documents posted by WikiLeaks.

Friday

Washington: Ruling out extending support to any military coup in Pakistan, US says that it believes civilian government is the best form of governance in this South Asian country right now.

Karachi: Pakistani authorities order evacuation of 300,000 residents of one of the countries oldest towns Thatta after its flood protection defences were breached by the swollen Indus river.