Pakistan protests missile attack well within territory
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan protested to the U.S. ambassador Thursday over a deep cross-border missile strike, and a militant group threatened to target foreigners unless the attacks stopped.
Pakistani intelligence officials say the U.S. has staged some 20 missile strikes on Pakistani territory since August, almost all of them aimed at the lawless tribal region along the Afghan border. But for the first time Wednesday, the missiles targeted militants beyond the tribal areas, deeper inside Pakistan. Six suspected insurgents were killed.
Pakistan, which called the attack a “great provocation,” said the U.S. strikes undermine public support for fighting insurgents.
U.N. to impose sanctions on Somali pirates, smugglers
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to impose sanctions on pirates, arms smugglers, and perpetrators of instability in Somalia in a fresh attempt to help end years of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa nation.
The 15-nation council endorsed a British plan for a council panel to recommend people and entities whose financial assets would be frozen and who would face a travel ban. It also reaffirms an arms embargo.
Enforcing the sanctions poses steep challenges, however, as those responsible for much of the anarchy plaguing the country are well outside any traditional finance system.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991 when clan warlords ousted a longtime dictator. The current government, formed in 2004 with the help of the U.N., has failed to protect citizens while it battles a growing Islamist insurgency.
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