U.S. proposes $2 billion security package for Pakistan
The Obama administration announced a $2 billion,
multiyear security assistance package Friday to help Pakistan fight extremists
taking refuge in safe havens along its border with Afghanistan.
The five-year package would pay for military hardware and equipment
Pakistan needs for the counterinsurgency fight, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said. It is subject to congressional approval, and complements the $7.5
billion in civilian projects approved by Congress last year.
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Bombings in northwestern Pakistan kill 9
Bombings rippled through northwestern Pakistan Friday, killing six soldiers in the tribal region and three people outside a mosque in Peshawar, authorities said.
Military officials said an explosive detonated near a military convoy close to a village in Orakzai - one of seven districts in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border.
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District governor in Afghanistan is slain
A government official in eastern Afghanistan was killed in an IED attack Friday, officials said.
NATO's International Security Assistance said the district governor of Dur Baba in Nangarhar province was among the three people killed when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.
The official is Khorshad Khan Khogianiwal.
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US concerned over Afghan ban of security contractors
Some U.S.-funded development organizations,
fearing a worst-case scenario as a result of the Afghan government's ban on private security guards, are beginning to implement contingency plans that could result in those organizations' pulling out of the country, U.S. officials
tell CNN.
The Afghan government decree set a December 17 deadline for unregistered companies to shut down.
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