Bush ally Suspends Constitution and Fires Chief Justice in Pakistan

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The move appeared to be an effort by General Musharraf to reassert his fading power in the face of growing opposition from the country’s Supreme Court, political parties and hard-line Islamists. Pakistan’s Supreme Court had been expected to rule within days on the legality of General Musharraf’s re-election last month as the country’s president.

The emergency act, which analysts and opposition leaders said was more a declaration of martial law, also boldly defied the Bush administration, which had repeatedly urged General Musharraf to avoid such a path and instead move toward democracy. Washington has generously backed the general, sending him more than $10 billion in aid since 2001, mostly for the military. Now the administration finds itself in the bind of having to publicly castigate the man it has described as one of its closest allies in fighting terrorism.

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Militants behead 13 hostages in nuclear armed Pakistan as curfew imposed in northern and Bush Blusters about Iran

While Chimpy McFlightsuit Fiddles New Photos Show Secret Pakistan Plutonium Plant; Fear of More Weapons Being Made

"With large stocks of plutonium, Pakistan can build a new generation of lighter, more powerful weapons that can more easily be launched via missiles and can cause far more damage," said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which, along with DigitalGlobe, provided the satellite image to ABC News.

The image, taken on June 3, indicates the new reactor is a replica of a second heavy water reactor, also under construction, at Khushab, approximately 109 miles south of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

US warned over backing for Musharraf

When Boucher comes, the US must make a strong statement demanding the return of democracy. It’s not possible for the US to continue justifying a uniformed president heading a democracy. It’s a joke on democracy.”

Although this week’s searing heat, at times topping 50°C (122°F) in Lahore, has kept the crowds off the streets, the government remains shaken by the scale of recent protests against Gen Musharraf’s March 9 suspension of Iftikhar Chaudhary, the chief justice.

Analysts have warned that any signal from Washington of unconditional support could encourage Gen Musharraf to impose a state of emergency.

“Should this happen, Pakistanis would perceive the US as an impediment to, rather than a supporter of, democracy, and it would lose all remaining vestiges of credibility in the country,” the International Crisis Group, an advocacy group, warned.

US Ally Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm, BBC has learned

These events took place in and around the mining town of Mongbwalu, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Pakistani battalion of the UN peacekeeping mission deployed there two years ago and helped bring peace to an area that had previously seen bitter fighting between the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups.

Locals welcomed them, but the lure of the rich alluvial gold mines proved too much to resist for some, recalls the head of the miners' association, Liki Likambo.

"I saw a UN Pakistani soldier who came to buy gold from one of the gold negotiators here in Mongbwalu. I was there in the shop. I saw it with my own eyes."