Timeline Refresh
PTI: On the eve of Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf's visit to Ajmer Sharif, Pakistan today said the only way to overcome problems in its relations with India is through "building trust and confidence".
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar spoke about India-Pakistan ties today while addressing the passing out ceremony of a specialised course for officers of the Foreign Service of Pakistan.
Talking about Pakistan's foreign policy objectives, she said the country has been single-mindedly focussing on improving ties with all its immediate neighbours, including Afghanistan and India.
"Regarding India, the Foreign Minister noted that despite difficult relations in the past, Pakistan strongly believed that the only way forward was through building trust and confidence," said a statement issued by the Foreign Office. Pakistan is committed to resolving all outstanding issues between the two countries through a meaningful dialogue, Khar said.
Photograph: Reuters
BBC: The US state of South Dakota has enacted a law allowing school districts to arm teachers and other school staff. The law's backers say it will prevent mass school shootings like a December massacre in Connecticut that killed 26.
Amid a push by the White House to strengthen gun laws, the bill reflects a growing divide in the US over whether more or fewer guns keep people safe. The measure does not force school districts to arm teachers and will not require teachers to carry guns. But it allows each school district to choose if staff could be armed. It takes effect in July.
Venezuela's Supreme Court says Vice President Nicolas Maduro became acting president the moment Hugo Chavez died, and can run for president. The decision comes just hours before Maduro is to be sworn in as acting president before the National Assembly and it was issued during the state funeral for Chavez.
National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello had earlier announced the planned swearing-in, which the opposition says it is boycotting. In a tweet, opposition leader Henrique Capriles called Friday's court ruling "a constitutional fraud."
With everyone's attention on the funeral of the late President Hugo Chavez, politics in Venezuela is seemingly on hold. But even while the official mourning period is still under way, both supporters and opponents of Mr Chavez are gearing up for an election.
In fact, they have been doing so for weeks, ever since it became apparent that Mr Chavez's health was deteriorating to the point where he was unlikely to return to office. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of his supporters queued to get a last glimpse of "Comandante Chavez" at his lying in state.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson: On Thursday night, I returned to Caracas, Venezuela, to participate in the funeral and mourning of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela from 1999 until his passing this week. Chavez's death has captured the world's attention front and center with renewed vigor and interest.
He first burst onto the world scene with his presidential victory in 1999. Since then, through his fourth re-election in January -- and while he was in Cuba fighting the cancer that would take his life -- his focus was on forging a new socialist Venezuela. This won many friends and advocates at home and abroad, especially among Venezuela's and the hemisphere's poorest populations. Other world powers demonized Chavez and sought to ostracize him, a la Cuba's Fidel Castro, on a global scale. Read more on CNN
The state funeral for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been taking place in his nation's capital, Caracas. About 30 heads of state were attending the ceremony in the military academy, while tens of thousands of his supporters had gathered outside.
The BBC's Tim Willcox spoke to BBC Mundo's Lourdes Heredia about the ceremony.
Leaders from Latin America and beyond were in Venezuela's capital for the state funeral of late president Hugo Chavez. Hundreds of thousands of mourners attended Friday's funeral, which was to be followed by the swearing-in of his handpicked successor Vice President Nicolas Maduro.
Thousands of busses brought people from all over the country to the capital, Caracas. Fifty-five world leaders were expected at the funeral, including Cuba's Raul Castro, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, shunned by the West but long courted by the anti-US Chavez.
Ahmadinejad expressed his condolences as he arrived in Venezuela early on Friday, calling Chavez "a symbol for all those who seek justice, love and peace in the world".
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