SERIOUS THREAT: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has given the president until Thursday to quit the army, end the emergency and set a date for elections by January
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf vowed yesterday to hold general elections by Jan. 9 and indicated the state of emergency he imposed a week ago could stay in place until then.

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TEXAS TALKS: German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived on Friday for a visit to Bush's ranch, where the leaders' talks spanned the globe, from Afghanistan to the UN
US President George W. Bush and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they will continue to take a diplomatic approach in dealing with Iran's defiance of international demands that it halt its uranium enrichment program.

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Norman Mailer, the pugnacious prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song, has died at the age of 84.

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PARKING PLAN: Officials said they will clamp down on illegal parking and are mulling banning roadside parking to encourage the use of underused facilities
By Shelley Shan
Motorists around the nation will soon be asked to park their vehicles at multi-story parking lots rather than on the roadside, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said recently.

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