Miranshah, February 24
A top commander of the Pakistani Taliban was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Monday in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan, security sources and family members said.

Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani was on the Pakistan army's list of 20 most-wanted Taliban commanders and had had a $120,000 bounty placed on his head since 2009. He was appointed as interim chief of the Pakistan Taliban following the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud, the previous leader, in a US drone strike on November 1. He also headed the Taliban's supreme 'shura' or council.

Bhittani's killers ambushed his car as it passed through Dargah Mandi, a village 5 km northwest of Miranshah, the regional capital of North Waziristan. "Unidentified gunmen in another car shot and killed Shaheen as well as the driver and guards," a family member told Reuters. Security sources also confirmed the deaths. No group claimed responsibility for the killings.

Bhittani belonged to the Bethni tribe of South Waziristan. The Bethni tribesmen live in Jandola area of South Waziristan Agency and in Tank district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

North Waziristan is one of seven semi-autonomous regions regions in Pakistan's tribal belt governed by tribal laws. US and Afghan officials say the region is a safe haven for Taliban and Al- Qaida elements.

The Pakistani Taliban insurgency is fighting to topple Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's democratically elected government and impose Sharia law in the nuclear-armed nation. Attacks have been on the rise since Sharif came to power in May, promising a negotiated end to violence.

Bhittani was considered one of the proponents of peace talks, according to sources close to the Taliban. The failure to reach a negotiated settlement has raised the spectre of a major military offensive in North Waziristan.

On Sunday, Pakistani fighter jets attacked suspected militant hideouts in tribal areas on the Afghan border. The army said they killed at least 38 insurgents in the third air strike in recent days. On Saturday, at least nine people were killed in similar strikes in Hangu district. — Agencies

Cairo, February 24
Egypt's government resigned on Monday, paving the way for Army Chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for President of a strategic US ally gripped by political strife.

After the July overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and subsequent crackdown on Islamists and liberals, critics say Cairo's military-backed authorities were turning the clock back to the era of autocrat Hosni Mubarak era, when the political elite ruled with an iron fist in alliance with top businessmen.

“(The outgoing government) made every effort to get Egypt out of the narrow tunnel in terms of security, economic pressures and political confusion,” Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a live nationwide speech. Beblawi, who was tasked by interim President Adly Mansour with running the government's affairs until the election, did not give a clear reason for the decision. But it effectively opened the way for Sisi to run for president since he would first have to leave his post as defence minister in any case.

“This (government resignation) was done as a step that was needed ahead of Sisi's announcement that he will run for president,” an Egyptian official said. — Reuters 

Kiev, February 24
Ukraine issued an arrest warrant today for ousted president Viktor Yanukovych over the "mass murder" of protesters and appealed for $35 billion in Western aid to pull the crisis-hit country from the brink of economic collapse.

The dramatic announcements by the ex-Soviet nation's new Western-leaning team — approved by parliament over a chaotic weekend that saw the pro-Russian leader go into hiding — came as a top EU envoy arrived in Kiev to buttress its sudden tilt away from Moscow.

Three months of unceasing protests over Yanukovych's shock decision to spurn an historic pact with the EU in favour of closer ties with its old masters in the Kremlin culminated in days of carnage last week.

Ukraine's new interim head of the federal police said he held Yanukovych and his team of feared security insiders directly responsible for the deaths. "A criminal case has been launched over the mass murder of peaceful civilians. Yanukovych and a number of other officials have been put on a wanted list," acting interior minister Arsen Avakov said.

Avakov said Yanukovych had tried to flee the country on Saturday out of the eastern city of Donetsk, his political power base and bastion of pro-Russian support, before escaping to Crimea with a team of guards and a cache of weapons. He said Yanuko-vych and his powerful administration chief Andriy Klyuev had since "travelled by three cars into an unknown direction". — Reuters

Bangkok, February 24
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the target of anti-government protests in Bangkok, has been staying outside the city and on Monday ruled out resigning despite a series of deadly attacks heaping pressure on her administration.

Yingluck, who attended a trade show in Saraburi province, 100 km north of Bangkok, called for dialogue to resolve a crisis that has dragged on for months, with key intersections in the capital blocked by protest camps. "It's time all sides turned to talk to each other," Yingluck told reporters. "Many people have asked me to resign but I ask: is resignation the answer? What if it creates a power vacuum?"

The protests have been punctuated by gunfire and bomb blasts, including one on Sunday that killed a woman and a young boy and his sister. They are aimed at unseating Yingluck and erasing the influence of her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is seen by many as the power behind the government.

Yingluck's office would not confirm how many days Yingluck had been working outside the capital. She was last seen in public in Bangkok nearly a week ago, last Tuesday, when both anti-government protesters and farmers angry about not being paid under a rice subsidy scheme were trailing her and some of her ministers. She is due to attend a corruption hearing in Bangkok on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said Yingluck would hold a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "It is highly likely that we will hold the cabinet meeting outside of Bangkok," Surapong told reporters.

The crisis, which pits the middle-class anti-government demonstrators from Bangkok and the south against supporters of Yingluck from the populous rural north and northeast, shows no sign of ending soon. — Reuters