Taliban claims to recapture large parts of Kunduz city

Armed group says it controls most parts of city after it was briefly taken by government forces backed by US strikes.

The Taliban has reportedly regained control of large parts of the northern city of Kunduz, after days of intense fighting against Afghan troops backed by US air strikes, Al Jazeera has learnt.

Earlier on Sunday, government forces, which have been trying to take control of the city, said they had made gains, but those appear to have been shortlived.

Al Jazeera’s Qais Azimy, reporting from Puli Khumri just south of Kunduz, said that at around 1200 GMT, Taliban fighters launched counter-attacks, driving back government forces from the areas, where they had earlier made gains.

Read more » Aljazeera
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US lawmakers voice concern over human rights situation in Pakistan

By PTI

WASHINGTON: Influential American lawmakers have expressed concern over deterioration of human rights situation in particular those of the minority Hindus in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

“Sindh’s Hindu community lives in constant fear of their women being forcibly converted to Islam,” Congresswomen Loretta Sanchez alleged during a briefing on human rights situation in Sindh held in US Congress this week.

Sanchez, Co-Chair of Sindh Caucus in US House of Representatives, said that Sindh is now in “humanitarian crisis” due to terrible human rights violations and other crimes like disappearances and assassinations of political activists and dissidents, forced conversions of Hindu women and religious extremist violence is on rise in Sindh.

“Political activists or dissidents are specifically targeted and Islamic extremism continues to grow in the Sindh province. The madrassa network is constantly going against the Sindhi population,” she alleged.
Read more » THE ECONOMIC TIMES
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/us-lawmakers-voice-concern-over-human-rights-situation-in-pakistan/articleshow/49214334.cms

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Lahore: Mubarak Centre project relaunched

By Jawwad Rizvi

THE commercial landmark that was earlier scrapped at its foundation stage is back on track as both the Punjab government and Abu Dhabi Group have managed to launch it again though with some modifications in its main plan.

The Mubarak Centre, a complex under construction in Lahore, was scrapped by the current government of Punjab in 2009. Initially, the project included towers having residential apartments and offices, conference halls and a shopping mall and it would have the tallest building in Pakistan.

An audit and accounts committee, consisting of representatives of both the Punjab government and Abu Dhabi Group, was established to make the feasibility report and finalise it before the next Board of Directors meeting scheduled to be held in January 2012.