BBC News
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VIDEO: How does Rio cater for disabled people? September 8, 2015
With exactly one year to go until the Paralympics begin in Brazil, how is the city preparing and what is it like for disabled people living there?
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VIDEO: Meeting the Syrian refugee pen seller September 8, 2015
Fiona Bruce meets the Syrian refugee who was photographed selling pens in Beirut, sparking a massive fundraising campaign.
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VIDEO: Fears for future in tense Yemen September 8, 2015
People in Yemen fear for future as the country's tense security situation means supplies of basic necessities are not getting through.
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VIDEO: Fatal fight for land rights in Brazil September 8, 2015
Indigenous leaders in Brazil have accused the government of pursuing a "deliberate policy of genocide", after a Guarani Indian leader was killed in the west of the country.
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VIDEO: Old stadium to process Lesbos migrants September 8, 2015
The BBC's Jonny Dymond reports from an old football stadium that is being used as a processing centre on the Greek island of Lesbos.
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VIDEO: Lavish parade to mark Tibet's 50th year September 8, 2015
China has marked 50 years since it established Tibet as what it calls an "autonomous region", by holding a large parade in Lhasa.
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VIDEO: El Salvador baby-swap family reunited September 8, 2015
A British father and his wife have been reunited with their newborn son after accusing a doctor at a hospital in El Salvador of swapping him.
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VIDEO: Fury as lion killer returns to work September 8, 2015
There were angry scenes in Minnesota on Tuesday as the US dentist who sparked an international outcry by killing a lion in Zimbabwe returned to work.
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VIDEO: Migrants' desperate search for family September 8, 2015
Thousands of children who have migrated to Europe after fleeing war zones have become separated from their families during the process, reports the BBC's Ben Brown.
– THE PAKISTANI ARMY
Since the Lal Mosque crisis of 07/2007 Pakistan is actually in a state of CIVIL WAR between the Pakistani military regime and the Taliban, especially in the North and the tribal era on the border with Afghanistan, known as Waziristan. The civil war is characterized with almost daily Suicide attacks, roadside bombs, ambushes, artillery and rockets shelling, raids and air sticks.
That civil war bears also the hallmark of an ethnic war as the Taliban is a Pashtu movement supported by the Pashtu population. The south of Pakistan and about half the population are Punjabis speaking Punjabi, the rest are speaking mainly Urdu and the Pashtu language has no official status in Pakistan, although the language is spoken by about 10 million people, 12% of the population of the country.
In the last days of 10/2007 fierce fighting is waged in North Waziristan which, according to Pakistani military spokesmen, claimed the life of more then 150 militants and about 50 soldiers. During the fighting the Pakistani Air Force bombed suspected pro-Taliban positions near the Afghan border and claimed to kill about 50 militants. Access for journalists to the tribal areas is restricted and it is impossible to verify how many were, indeed, killed and if they were really militants. The Pakistani aircraft targeted the village of Mir Ali and the surrounding area. There are many reports of a large number of civilians killed too in a local bazaar. (No worry – an UN commission to investigate the abuse of human rights and the ‘massacre’ of innocent civilians is not expected).
So far the performance of the Pakistani army is poor. The official number of army casulties, since the Lal Mosque crisis, is about to reach 1000. Unique to this civil war is the many hundreds captured soldiers who “went missing” during military operations in the era. Just recently another batch of more than 200 soldiers was captured, apparently without a fight.
Some of the captured soldiers were later shown by the Taliban in video footages posted in the web. Few dozens Pakistani army soldiers were executed but the fate of most of the missing soldiers is unknown.
The phenomenon of large number of Pakistani soldiers who “went missing”, very often without a fight, suggests that the army suffers from desertion and low moral. The common Pakistani drafted soldier is a devoted Muslim, generally with sympathy to the idea that he is fighting his fellow Muslims in behalf of the USA rather then fighting the true enemies of Pakistan and Islam.
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