Hotspot: Pakistan

Taliban hang cop bodies in trees as warning to locals.

Gazak Village/Derawud district: Taliban militants tortured five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to villagers against working with the government, officials said Sunday... "The Taliban told the people that whoever works with the government will suffer the same fate as these policemen," Himat said. "This village is under Taliban control. There are more than 100 Taliban in this village."

Pakistan sends troop into Kurram to quell Sunni-Shiite fighting.

Pakistan's military said Sunday it was dispatching forces to quell fighting in the country's volatile northwest after three days of clashes between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims left 91 people dead.

Military officials said an unspecified number of soldiers and a paramilitary force were headed to the town of Parachinar, in the remote Kurram tribal area, where the government maintains limited control.

Both sides fired mortars and other heavy weapons at each other, targeting residential areas and hitting mosques, an intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press.

Violence between Shiites and Sunnis is common in Parachinar. (Violence among MUSLIMS seems to be common the world over!)

The push continues into Swat and Shangla.

We know that Musharraf is visiting Saudi Arabia tomorrow - it is now rumored that he will also be meeting with opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif. (Sharif is in exile - his rule of Pakistan ended with a Musharraf led coup d'etat back in 1999)

Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, will be in Saudi Arabia tomorrow to meet with King Abdullah and he may hold talks with former Pakistani premier and leader of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif, who lives in exile in the Kingdom. The visit has been announced in Riyadh by the official Saudi news agency SPA. This will be Musharraf's first visit abroad since he announced the state of emergency on 3 November. In the Pakistani media, a possible encounter between Musharraf and Sharif was announced with Saudi mediation. Collaborators of the ex-premier have announced that the only purpose for the meeting could be the finalization of a strategy for the unconditional political retreat of the Pakistani president. Sharif has indicated that he has already refused the request to meet Musharraf twice.

The Saudis don't sound too happy having Sharif as a guest.

Sharif has remained in Jeddah since he was put on a flight to Saudi Arabia in September after Pakistani authorities blocked his attempted return from exile.

Unlike Pakistan's other main opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, Sharif has steadfastedly refused to have any negotiations with Musharraf.

Saudi unhappiness at being asked to keep Sharif in exile was heightened by Musharraf's readiness to allow Bhutto to return to Pakistan last month without fear of prosecution in old corruption cases, according to diplomats and Pakistani officials.