The Muslim-majority state of Pakistan occupies an area which was home to some of the earliest human settlements and where two of the world's major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, were practised.

The modern state was born out of the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 and has faced both domestic political upheavals and regional confrontations.

Landlocked and mountainous, Afghanistan has suffered from such chronic instability and conflict during its modern history that its economy and infrastructure are in ruins, and many of its people are refugees.

After the fall of the Taleban administration in 2001, adherents of the hardline Islamic movement have re-grouped and are now a resurgent force, particularly in the south and east. A fledgling democratic government faces the challenges of extending its authority beyond the capital and of forging national unity.

RAWALPINDI,May3:A woman was flogged during the presence of high rank officials in the Civil Line Police Station Faisalabad. The officers present at the scene were laughing.

GUJRANWALA,May3: Security has been beefed up in Gujranwala on the tip- off that Al-Qaeda activists have entered the city on  Monday.

ISLAMABAD,May3: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Monday categorically stated that anybody involved in assassination of Benazir Bhutto would be brought to justice.

NEW YORK,May4: A law enforcement official says the man accused of driving a bomb-laden vehicle into Times Square was arrested onboard a flight set to leave a New York airport for Dubai.

By Kashif Jahangiri

The grievances of those living in Hazara division, the Hazarewals, are not over the name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, since a large population of Hazara is of Pakhtun origin, myself included. The renaming of NWFP merely triggered expression of their frustration against the treatment meted out to them. The name issue is just a symptom, the root lies elsewhere.