PAKISTAN

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened on Wednesday to lead a mass protest march to the capital unless President Pervez Musharraf quits as army chief, holds elections and restores the constitution.

Pakistani police beat and arrested lawyers protesting for a second day on Tuesday against President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule, while officials under U.S. pressure said an election would be held in early 2008. Opposition politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, have spoken out but there has been no real action on their part so far, and the struggle has been left to the lawyers.

The Pakistani government said on Monday it would hold a national election by mid-January, as it came under pressure from the United States for imposing emergency rule and detaining lawyers and opposition politicians.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday the United States would review billions of dollars in financial aid to ally Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule.

Gold drifted lower on Monday tracking weaker oil but held above $800 an ounce, with an ailing dollar and positive fundamentals seen helping the metal to touch a record high set in early 1980.

The United States and Britain heaped pressure on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, urging him to hold elections on time, as police detained hundreds of lawyers angry at his imposition of emergency rule.

Asian stocks eased on Monday with financial shares extending their slide as persistent credit worries offset a positive U.S. employment report, which showed twice as many jobs as expected were added last month.

Pakistan braced for protests against emergency rule on Monday, while President Pervez Musharraf faced mounting pressure from the United States to hold parliamentary elections in January.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has decided to impose emergency rule, state-run television said on Saturday, in a move expected to put off elections due in January.

A suicide attack on an Air Force bus killed eight people on Thursday as security forces said they wiped out up to 70 militants in northwest Pakistan, fuelling talk President Pervez Musharraf would invoke emergency powers to put off elections.

The twin blast which killed 133 people as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto drove through masses of supporters in Karachi has been blamed on Islamist militants.

A suspected suicide bomber killed 115 people on Friday in an attack targeting a vehicle carrying former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto through Karachi on her return from eight years in exile.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's end to self-exile could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan's Supreme Court the President could stand for a re-election vote but his eligibility was still in question.

Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said on Wednesday power-sharing talks with President Pervez Musharraf had stalled and she expected her party's members of parliament to resign.

Pakistan's military leader, President Pervez Musharraf, filed nomination papers on Thursday to run for re-election on October 6, while the Supreme Court prepared to rule on the army chief's eligibility to stand.

In a new video released by dreaded terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda's media arm As-Sahab, Thursday, September 20, Osama Bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri has urged war against Pakistan and said the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf plans to quit as army chief to become a civilian leader, removing a main objection to his proposed re-election in October, a senior ruling party official said on Monday.

Standing next to piles of exquisitely hand-woven Persian carpets, Hossein Ghaseminia is confident his rugs, which cost up to $50,000, can see off cheaper Asian rivals and ride out threatened U.S. sanctions.

Fueled by last year's Nobel Prize for a man nicknamed banker to the poor, microlending to small businesses in the world's poorest countries is booming as individuals discover they can be their own mini World Bank.c

Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif was arrested and deported to Saudi Arabia on Monday within hours of arriving home from exile, vowing to end the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.