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Blast Kills 7 in NW Pakistan

   VOA News 03 February 2010

   Pakistani  officials  say a roadside explosion near a girls' school in
   northwest  Pakistan  has killed at least seven people, including three
   U.S. soldiers.
   U.S.  officials  have  not  confirmed the soldiers' deaths.  Pakistani
   officials  say  the  dead  also  include  four children.   Fifty other
   people were wounded in Wednesday's blast.
   The  attack  happened in a village in the Lower Dir district near Swat
   Valley,  a  region  the  military  largely  cleared of militants in an
   offensive a year ago.
   On  Tuesday, suspected U.S. drones fired missiles at several suspected
   militant  hideouts  in  Pakistan's  North  Waziristan  tribal  region,
   killing at least 16 people.
   North  Waziristan  is  known  as a base for the Taliban-allied Haqqani
   group, which is blamed for cross-border attacks against U.S., NATO and
   Afghan troops in Afghanistan.
   U.S.  officials  do  not  publicly comment on the drone strikes, which
   have  raised  tensions  between  Pakistan and the United States in the
   past.
   Meanwhile,  the  death  toll  from four days of violence in Pakistan's
   southern  port city of Karachi has reached at least 26, after at least
   six more people were killed Tuesday.
   The  clashes  appeared  to  be  between activists from rival political
   parties  - the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party -
   which traditionally gather support from different ethnic groups.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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