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Strikes this year are estimated to have killed up to 271 people, down from 2012 figure of between 505 and 532 Spencer Ackerman ...

t) Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them a few questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?"...

s been 22 months now and we have no way of knowing how his captors treat him. I just want him back." Staff and students from London Met have not spoken out until now in the hope that the authorities in Italy, where Lo Porto was born, would be able to negotiate his release. But after almost two years without news, they have decided to break their silence. "When Giovanni was abducted we hoped that he...

Warren Weinstein, 72, was seized two years ago while advising the Pakistani government on economic development Dan Roberts ...

Drone fired two missiles at a home in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said ...

The images that defined 2013, selected by the Guardian's features picture editor, Sarah Gilbert Sarah Gilbert ...

s motorists in the 1990s, the alternative to petrol seemed like a wonder fuel. Getting motorists to convert their cars to run on cleaner, cheaper gas would cure urban pollution and lower demand for the imported oil that was gobbling the country's foreign currency reserves. Car owners loved it and today 80% of all cars in Pakistan run off compressed natural gas (CNG), according to the Natural and Bio...

s residence in the Islamabad suburbs. A lawyer for Musharraf, Anwar Mansoor Khan, told the court his client could not attend because of a "serious threat to his life". The chief judge directed Musharraf to attend court again on 1 January. The brief hearing held Tuesday at an auditorium at the National Library was expected to be largely procedural, but the significance of having a former army chief...

s MPs and some ministers pay no taxes, according to a study that may endanger billions of dollars in International Monetary Fund and other loans and aid to Pakistan. Cracking down on rampant tax evasion is a main condition of a $6.7bn (£4.1bn) IMF programme aimed at stabilising the country's economy. Big donors such as Britain, which has committed more than £600m to Pakistani education, are considering...

s snapshot of what he calls the "precision" RPA is presented in the same week as the latest drone atrocity, with at least 15 Yemeni people slaughtered in what turned out to be a convoy of wedding guests , not al-Qaida terrorists. Hammond says it's wrong to suggest that "the government's use of unmanned and remotely piloted aircraft is shrouded in secrecy". Yet his government (with several taxpayer-funded...

s five deadliest countries for the media. They were joined by India and the Philippines, which replaced Mexico and Brazil, although the number of journalists killed in Brazil, five, was the same as last year. Almost 40% of the deaths occurred in conflicts zones, defined as Syria, Somalia, Mali, the Indian province of Chhattisgarh, the Pakistani province of Balochistan and the Russian republic of Dagestan....

s shadow by launching festival in Pakistan People's party's Sindh heartland The heir to Pakistan's grandest political dynasty has seized on kite-flying, livestock races and Valentine's Day concerts in a bid to stake out an identity for himself as a defender of traditional culture against the rising tide of religious extremism in the country. The activities are among more than a dozen events that will...

s presence at a compound in the city. An assistant and a colleague in Peshawar said the lawyer, Samiullah Afridi, who is not related to his client, had travelled to Dubai. "Samiullah Afridi before leaving for Dubai told me that he has received death threats from militants," Afridi's assistant said. The assistant and the colleague said Afridi had told them he was leaving the country to save his life....

s fraught relationship with Pakistan during a rare visit to the country – the first by a US defence secretary in more than three years. With Pakistan running dangerously low on foreign exchange, and the US wanting Islamabad's assistance to help wind down the 12-year war in Afghanistan, both sides are keen for strong ties. But Hagel's trip was overshadowed by yet another row over CIA drone strikes,...