Pakistan has accused the U.S. of deliberatelysabotaging its efforts to start peace talks with thePakistani Taliban by killing their top commander in adrone strike. Reports say the militants have buriedtheir leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a secret location in the tribal region of northwest Pakistan.Here's our world affairs correspondent Rajesh Mirchandani.
When Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited president Obama in Washington last week,the two leaders spoke of the resilient nature of the relationship between their countries. It hasbeen severely tested now. Mr Sharif raised the issue of drone strike during his visit, yetdespite Mr Sharif's demands for the U.S. to stop using drones. Soon after he returned homefrom his visit, America struck again on the eve of dialogue with the Taliban. However pleased thePakistani government may be, the vicious killer has been removed, it's tampered by anger ofabout how it was done.
The French Foreign Ministry has confirmed that two French journalists working for thebroadcast Radio France International had been killed in northern Mali,the bodies of GhislaineDupont and Claude Verlon were found after they have been kidnapped by armed men in thetown of Kidal. Mark Doyle reports from Bamako.
The two journalists were seized by four armed men after they interviewed a senior regionalpolitician at his house in centre Kidal. Well-informed sources in Kidal said the men bundled thetwo into a yellow pickup truck as they left the house and drove them at speed into thesurrounding desert.The journalists' employer Radio de France international said they werereported to have been killed shortly afterwards on a desert truck that leads eastwards out ofKidal. This incident took place in broad daylight very close to a base housing several hundredFrench soldiers and United Nations' peacekeepers.
