Siachen tragedy: US, Norway, China teams reaching site today

SKARDU: The search and rescue operation for retrieving Pakistan Army soldiers and civilians trapped in the Gayari sector avalanche is continuing at full speed.

Rescue teams from the US, Norway and China will be arriving in Siachen on Sunday as the weather is said to be clear.

German and Swiss experts had pointed out three preferential spots, where rescue work is underway. The experts have advised using traditional digging tools instead of deploying heavy machinery at these probable points.

Over 550 persons including Army soldiers, locals and foreign experts are participating in the search and rescue operation, while eight US experts besides Norway and China rescue teams arriving in Sunday would join in the operation at Gayari sector providing their professional expert assistance.

US mulling to apologise on Nato attack: NYT

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is considering to tender an apology on the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in Nato attack on a border post in November, The New York Times reported.
A senior American military commander is expected to travel to Pakistan this month in what Obama administration officials say is the first step toward thawing a strategic relationship that has been in effect frozen for more than two months.

Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military's Central Command, will meet Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, to discuss the investigations of an exchange of fire at the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode.

General Mattis's visit, the first by a high-ranking American official since the cross-border confrontation in November, was to have begun Thursday, but has been postponed by at least a week pending what is expected to be a spirited debate in the Pakistani Parliament over a new security policy toward the United States.

Pakistani and American officials are quietly optimistic that both events will trigger a chain of public engagement and private negotiations that will reboot the two nations' frayed strategic relationship, although along more narrowly defined lines than before.

Pakistani officials say they will probably reopen NATO supply lines running through their territory, which have been closed for more than two months. The State Department is supporting a proposal circulating in the administration for the United States to issue a formal apology for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in the Nov. 26 air strike by American gunships.

"We've felt an apology would be helpful in creating some space," said an American official who has been briefed on the State Department's view and who spoke on the condition of anonymity as internal discussions continued.

PAF RECEIVES F-16 AIRCRAFT FROM US

ISLAMABAD: THE LAST OF 18 F-16 D BLOCK 52 AIRCRAFT HAVE ARRIVED IN PAKISTAN FROM THE US. THE PLANE IS PARKED AT THE PAKISTAN AIR FORCE BASE SHAHBAZ IN JACOBABAD.

THE F-16 C/D BLOCK 52 AIRCRAFT IS A HIGH-TECH FIGHTER AIRCRAFT EQUIPPED WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART AVIONICS SUITE AND LATEST WEAPONS WITH NIGHT PRECISION ATTACK CAPABILITY.

TWO OTHER F-16 AIRCRAFT OF THE BLOCK 15 CATEGORY ALSO ARRIVED ON MONDAY. THESE PLANES WERE EARLIER SENT TO THE US FOR A MID-LIFE UPGRADE MLU.

A SIMPLE CEREMONY WAS HELD AT THE PAF BASE, WHICH WAS ATTENDED A BY LARGE NUMBER OF PAF OFFICIALS.