Karachi

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of ousted Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was arrested yesterday in Karachi on charges of kidnapping a British businessman in April and extorting $800,000 from him.Mr. Zardari was denied bail by the Sind High Court, according to news agency reports.Mr. Zardari, a polo-playing businessman from a relatively obscure family in Sind province, where the Bhuttos are a powerful landowning clan, has emerged over the past year as Ms. Bhutto's gravest political liability.

The news that the Central Intelligence Agency had been running a fake vaccination program in Pakistan first surfaced in 2011 and quickly ignited fears that the covert operation could compromise the global campaign to eradicate polio. Late last month, a handful of vaccine workers, including a teenage girl, paid the price for the CIA's deceit: They were gunned down as they tried to give the polio vaccine to children living in the Pakistani city of Karachi and other areas. No one has taken responsibility for the attacks, although the Pakistani Taliban has threatened vaccine workers in the past.

Exploratory surgery isn't necessary on most abdominal gunshot and stabbing victims, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins . Surgery increases the risk of complications, researchers said. “Managing gunshot and stab wounds without exploratory surgery prevents complications, saves money and keeps 80 percent of patients from getting operations that end up being unnecessary,” said trauma surgeon Dr. Adil H. Haider, an associate professor of surgery, anesthesiology and critical care medicine and senior author of the study, in a statement.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- An international team of poll-watchers said yesterday it found serious irregularities in Wednesday's national election but nothing to warrant Benazir Bhutto's charge that the vote was massively rigged against her party."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- After weeks of escalating battles with government troops, the Taliban declared a cease-fire yesterday - a move likely to frustrate U.S. officials who have urged Pakistan to act decisively against Islamic radicals in the country's tribal belt. The government of President Pervez Musharraf did not confirm that a truce had been struck, but Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the government was ready for "dialogue" with the militants. In the past, such announcements by the militants have signaled an imminent accord.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf expressed determination yesterday to restore law and order after the country was racked by a third day of riots and looting that have killed nearly 50 people since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Officials said at least 44 people have been killed in unrest that broke out Thursday night after the former prime minister was killed as she left a campaign rally. Much of the unrest has been concentrated in and around Karachi, the southern port city that was Bhutto's home base.

KARACHI, Pakistan --In the sixth suicide bombing in a month, a man blew himself up in a small district courtroom in the border town of Quetta yesterday, killing 15 people, including a senior judge, and injuring 35, officials said. No group claimed responsibility, but the chief elected official of the province connected it to the string of suicide attacks that have killed about 40 people and put security forces on alert across the country. The Quetta blast could be linked to earlier suicide attacks in Islamabad and Peshawar, said Jam Mohammad Yousaf, the chief minister of Baluchistan province.

WASHINGTON -- The authorities trying to track down the man suspected of killing two CIA employees believe he returned to his home town in Pakistan before fleeing from there several days ago.American officials said yesterday a man using the same last name as the suspect, Mir Aimal Kansi, had flown from Washington to Pakistan on Jan. 26, a day after the attack outside the CIA headquarters.In Quetta, a remote provincial capital in southwest Pakistan, relatives told reporters that Mr. Kansi had returned to the city last month but had departed just before he was identified as the prime suspect in the case.

NEVER was the need for a comprehensive settlement of disputes between India and Pakistan more apparent than in the air warfare over their border where a marshland called the Great Rann of Kutch meets the Arabian Sea, just below the Indus River delta. On Tuesday, India downed a Pakistani surveillance plane, killing 16, in disputed air space. On Wednesday, Pakistan fired a missile at Indian planes as they escorted helicopters carrying journalists to see the site. This could escalate into nuclear warfare.

Eight years after Pervez Musharraf came to power in a coup, Pakistan is undergoing a widening spurt of violence, dramatically underscored by the bomb attack Thursday on the convoy of Benazir Bhutto hours after the former prime minister returned from exile. Mr. Musharraf's control of the country is slipping, with al-Qaida and its allies demanding an Islamist state while millions of urban dwellers have been agitating for a return to secular democracy. Under pressure at home and abroad, Mr. Musharraf has been tentatively opening the door to the former civilian leadership.