Pakistan

Pakistan's Supreme Court Aug. 5 approved controversial new military courts set up to hear terror cases, rejecting an attempt to have them ruled illegal.

Lawmakers approved a change to the constitution in January to establish the military courts, as part of a crackdown on militancy following a Taliban massacre at a school which left more than 150 people - mostly children - dead.

Pakistan has accused India of another breach of their ceasefire in the disputed Kashmir region, after reporting the death of four civilians in earlier cross-border shelling.
 

The first officially acknowledged peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the government in Kabul concluded with an agreement to meet again after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Pakistan said on July 8.

The European Parliament on Tuesday approved the allocation of EUR 1.9 M in flood relief under the European Union Solidarity Fund.

Bulgaria was affected last year by flash floods which claimed more than a dozen lives and left hundreds of houses damaged or destroyed.

Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India will start the process of joining a security bloc led by China and Russia at a summit in Russia later this week, a senior Chinese diplomat said on July 6, the first time the grouping has expanded since it was set up in 2001. 

Nearly 700 people have died in a severe three-day heatwave in Pakistan, officials said June 23, with medics battling to treat patients as a state of emergency was declared in hospitals.

More than 450 people have died from a three-day heatwave in southern Pakistan, officials said June 23, as medics battled to treat victims after a state of emergency was declared in hospitals.

Pakistan?s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has issued a notice to the country?s former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to return a necklace donated by the Turkish president?s wife after the 2010 floods in the country, Pakistan Today reported on its website on June 21. 

A Pakistani investor is building a textile factory in Bulgaria, according to Deputy Economy Minister Lyuben Petrov.

Speaking at the opening of a Bulgarian-Pakistani business forum, Petrov made clear that the investment amounted to EUR 28 M and the implementation of the project was ongoing.

Pakistan's interior minister June 12 said the government was ready to throw out more foreign aid groups, a day after Save the Children were expelled for "working against the country".