Pakistani troops kill 2 militants in raid near Afghan border
Pakistani troops kill 2 militants in raid near Afghan border
ISLAMABAD -
Pakistani troops on Friday raided a militant hideout in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban militant group, in the country's northwest and near the border with Afghanistan, the military said. The raid triggered a shootout that killed that killed two militants.
The shootout in North Waziristan, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, came days after a suicide bomber attacked a mosque within a police and government compound in the city of Peshawar, the provincial capital, killing 101 people and wounding at least 225. The attack was one of the deadliest in years in the volatile region.
The military said the militants killed in the raid had been involved in past attacks on security forces, without providing details. Such raids, most often against the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are routine in the country's northwest.
Also on Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said he invited his predecessor and now opposition leader, Imran Khan, to talks next week about how the country should respond to the surge of violence.
Sharif's government has blamed the TTP for the Peshawar bombing on Monday, when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside the mosque in the police compound. Most of the casualties were police. The bomber wore a police uniform and the guards at the site assumed he was a police officer -- their colleague -- and did not search him, authorities said.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but are allies of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks since November, when they ended a cease-fire with the government.
There was no immediate response to Sharif's invitation for talks from Khan, who was ousted in a no-conference vote in Parliament in April last year.
During his term in office, Khan had approved peace talks with TTP and even released some of the group's members held in Pakistani jails in a gesture of goodwill. The talks, hosted by the Afghan Taliban, collapsed in November.
On Friday, more than 2,000 supporters of Khan's opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, rallied in Peshawar to denounce the surge in violence and demand peace. Similar rallies were also held elsewhere, organized by civil society groups.
--------
Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned six per cent increase.
The federal budget shows the government's proposed dental-care insurance program will cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, driving it up by another $7.3 billion over five years.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
The federal Liberal government is committing $8.7 million to hold more consultations on Indigenous resource sharing, in a budget that offers relatively little new spending on its reconciliation agenda.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
Montreal police say they have identified two more victims found in the rubble of a fire in Old Montreal 12 days ago. Charlie Lacroix and Walid Belkahla, both 18, are the sixth and seventh victims of the fire.
Rima Rifai thought her furnace had exploded Monday when the house across the street burst into a ball of fire, sending 10 people to hospital with serious injuries.
New Brunswickers suffering from a mystery neurological disorder are calling for an investigation into potential environmental causes of the health problems they've been living with for more than two years.
Authorities are asking witnesses to come forward after security at Simon Fraser University discovered the head of the school's Mahatma Gandhi bust had been removed.
An influx of asylum seekers into Canada via unofficial border crossings has prompted the federal government to relocate refugees from Quebec as far as Atlantic provinces, some more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) away, and hire a risk mitigation company to deal with the record surge.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Tuesday said his country's intelligence agency Mossad helped Greece prevent a terrorist attack planned against at least one Jewish site in Athens.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
Six people were killed at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building containing about 200 students, police said.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put his contentious judicial overhaul plan on hold this week, he vowed to pass the package through parliament eventually, but he may have a hard time keeping that promise.
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
The Liberal government has continued to fulfil its promises to the NDP within its second federal budget since the parties struck a confidence-and-supply agreement in March 2022.
Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. is moving away from its medical cannabis distribution business and preparing to transfer patients to a platform run by biopharmaceutical company Avicanna Inc.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
An Australian company lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.
It's a surreal moment in an already surreal war: the grave but calming baritone of actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of 'Star Wars,' urging people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.
Five-time Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell and Estonian composer Arvo Part have won the 2023 Polar Music Prize, a Swedish music award.
Prince Harry returned to a London court Tuesday for a second day of hearings to see if the phone hacking lawsuit he brought with Elton John and other celebrities can withstand a challenge from the publisher of The Daily Mail.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank's management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems.
Flair Airlines said Monday it has reimbursed virtually all 1,900 passengers whose flights were cancelled after the seizure of four of the carrier's planes earlier this month, but some customers say they are owed more money.
Last week's fatal blast at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory highlighted the combustibility of food plants in general and chocolate making in particular.
It may seem improbable - even impossible to some - but each day for the last three years, a 71-year-old Toronto woman has laced up her shoes, put one foot in front of the other, and headed out for a run
Alex Jung found his way back to the water in 2018 and began instructing other trans swimmers. But, he says, it was a 'challenging pursuit' without a community. Now creating that sense of support is becoming more mainstream at local fitness centres.
The brother of the late New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez is facing criminal and motor vehicle charges in Connecticut, accused of throwing a brick onto the ESPN headquarters campus and eluding police during brief pursuits in other towns.
Shohei Ohtani is among several players going into their final seasons before they are eligible for free agency. There is still time for signatures and press conferences before opening day, but history shows a new contract becomes less likely once the real games begin.
U.S. highway safety regulators have opened yet another investigation into problems with Teslas, this time tied to complaints that the seat belts may not hold people in a crash.
California lawmakers on Monday approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump, voting to give regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from the type of gas price spikes that plagued the nation's most populous state last summer.
Craig Pollock's latest project, Formula Equal, would be the first team in the sport that's 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women, he says, with that equal split applying across the whole organization -- from the cockpit to the engineers to the boardroom.
