Despite nationwide protests by hard-liners, Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf today signed into law an amendment to the country’s controversial rape laws to make it easier to prosecute sexual assault cases.

Muslim groups today reacted with a mixture of shock and scepticism at the announcement by police that they had broken up a major terrorist plot to bomb airliners.

Islamic terrorists killed a teacher and his two sons today in the latest attack on civilians in Indian-controlled Kashmir, provoking angry protests by hundreds of terrified villagers.