...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
oil tankers stranded in southwest Pakistain for the second time in days as Islamabad warned it could enforce its blockade of the US lifeline into Afghanistan for weeks.
The attackers rubbed out a driver and destroyed seven tankers in a blaze of fire late Sunday, the second attack in four days in Pakistain's volatile region of Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, which is rife with separatists and Talibs.
There was no claim of responsibility but Pakistain's fragile alliance with the United States crashed to new lows after November 26, when NATO air strikes killed 24 Pak soldiers in what Pakistain said was a deliberate attack.
Islamabad sealed its Afghan border to NATO convoys, closures that entered a 17th day on Monday, forcing trucks back to the Arabian Sea port of Bloody Karachi.
Sunday's convoy was targeted in Dadar town, 90 kilometres southeast of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, police said. Last Thursday, gunnies destroyed at least 34 trucks in a gun and rocket attack at a temporary NATO trucking terminal in Quetta.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
told the BBC that Pakistain's blockade of the border, already the longest since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, will not be lifted until new "rules of engagement" were agreed with Washington.
"We are working together and still we don't trust each other. I think we have to improve our relationship," he said in the interview aired Sunday.
"We want to set new rules of engagement and cooperation with United States," he added.