Free Republic

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. has terminated funding for a $20 million project to develop a Pakistani version of Sesame Street, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday. The decision came as a Pakistani newspaper reported allegations of corruption by the local puppet theater working on the initiative. The organization in question is the Rafi Peer Theater Workshop, a group in the city of Lahore that jointly developed the show with Sesame Workshop, the creator of the American series. The show, which includes Elmo and a host of new Pakistani characters, first aired in December and was supposed to run for...

US forces were given permission to conduct unilateral raid inside Pakistan if they knew where Bin Laden was hiding, officials say The deal was struck between Pervez Musharraf and George Bush in 2001 and renewed during the 'transition to democracy' – a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected. The US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week's raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned. The deal was struck...

LAHORE: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ruled out the possibility of an undemocratic or military government coming into power in Islamabad, saying that a weak government in Pakistan will be harmful for India too, an Indian TV channel reported on Monday. “There is no appetite, at least as we speak today, to return to a non-democratic, military government,” she said in an interview with the channel. Talking about Pakistan’s nuclear assets, Clinton said that at this time, the nuclear command-and-control structure was well managed. “Now that is something that we are all concerned about. It’s one of the...