Pakistan News: Eid ul Azha will be celebrated across the country today with a religious zeal and fervor and a renewed pledge for peace and brotherhood. Special prayers will be offered after Fajr prayers for peace, progress and prosperity of the country. The day will dawn with exchange of felicitations among the Muslims as they will share their sentiments of brotherhood, love and respect for one another while moving to the congregation places. Then they would gather at mosques at open places (Eidgahs) to offer prayers and commemorate the great sacrifices of Hazrat Ibrahim, the beloved Prophet of Allah Almighty. Special sermons are delivered at congregations to highlight the importance of the Day and spirit behind the sacrifices of the animals to the will of God. This festival reminds us the commitment of Hazrat Ibrahim, who on the will of God, offered the sacrifice of his dear son Hazrat Ismail. This act of Hazrat Ibrahim was so graciously liked by Allah Almighty that He made sacrifice obligatory to those Muslims who afford it. After offering prayers and hearing to the sermons of the preachers, they sacrifice their animals and share happiness and meat with their relatives, neighbors and friends in a gesture of love and brotherhood. Yesterday, Eid ul Azha was celebrated in Middle Eastern and European countries; where as in some areas of NWFP, including Mehmund Agency, Khyber Agency and Nowshehra, Eid was celebrated yesterday.

CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela’s ties with nations like Russia and China have gained importance as the U.S. moves to expand its military presence in Latin America.

Chavez says there are now “much more significant reasons to accelerate cooperation plans with allied countries.”

The U.S. is negotiating an agreement with Colombia to use seven bases there for anti-drug operations. Chavez calls the plan a threat to the region, but Colombian and U.S. officials say there is no reason for concern.

Chavez said Saturday he plans to visit Russia and the former Soviet republic of Belarus within the next month. He added that Venezuela hopes to triple oil shipments to China over the next four years to 1 million barrels a day.

UK, LONDON: A British soldier wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan died Saturday, the defense ministry said, bringing the country’s military death toll there to 200.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the grim milestone “deeply tragic news.” It is sure to raise more questions about Britain’s increasingly perilous mission in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defense said the soldier from 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh died Saturday at a military hospital in England.

He had been wounded in a blast while on vehicle patrol Thursday in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Three other British troops were killed by roadside bombs in a separate incident in Afghanistan the same day.

Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, most based in Helmand, a center of Taliban insurgents.

The British military suffered 22 fatalities in July, its bloodiest month since the invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Nine British troops have been killed so far this month.

The rising toll — more than the 179 personnel who died in Iraq — has reignited a debate in Britain about its role in the war and the quality of its military equipment. The Afghan campaign has long been divisive, with polls showing Britons about evenly split between supporters and opponents of the mission.

The prime minister said the mission to defeat the Taliban was essential to British security because “three-quarters of terrorist plots against Britain come from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

“British troops are fighting bravely there to protect us,” Brown said. “The best way to honor the memory of those who have died is to see that commitment through.”

Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth said it was a “grim day” but that Britain must stay focused on its mission in Afghanistan.

“This is a difficult time but we must all take solace from the fact that, although sometimes slow, we have been making good progress in Afghanistan,” Ainsworth said. “We must all stay focused on the mission, on why it matters and what is at stake.”

Afghans are due to vote Thursday in presidential elections, seen by the international community as a key marker of the country’s progress towards becoming a stable democracy.

YANGON: An American imprisoned in a trial with Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi looked forward to being deported from the military-ruled country Sunday after a U.S. senator secured his release in an unprecedented meeting with the junta chief.

Sen. Jim Webb was also allowed to hold talks with Suu Kyi — the first foreign official permitted to see the Nobel laureate since she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest on Tuesday.

The impending deportation indicates “good relations between the two countries and hope (that) these will grow,” Yettaw’s lawyer Khin Maoung Oo said. Webb echoed the sentiment.

“It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future,” Webb said in a statement from his Washington office.

Webb said he would accompany American John Yettaw on a military flight to Bangkok on Sunday.

Yettaw, who had been sentenced to seven years of hard labor for swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi’s lakeside house in Yangon, was being held at Insein prison, notorious for torture of political prisoners and ordinary criminals. Yettaw’s lawyer said his client, who suffers from epileptic seizures and other ailments, had been well treated.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, and a global groundswell of international pressure to release the 64-year-old opposition leader has kept the impoverished military-ruled country under sanctions in recent years.

The regime has shown no sign it will release Suu Kyi before next year’s general elections, which critics say will perpetuate the military’s decades-old rule, but Webb’s visit appeared to show the junta is sensitive to international censure.

Suu Kyi was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house in Yangon for her 40-minute meeting with Webb. She was later driven back to her rundown, lakeside home.

Webb described his talk with the democracy icon as “an opportunity … to convey my deep respect to Aung San Suu Kyi for the sacrifices she has made on behalf of democracy around the world.”

Earlier Saturday, Webb held talks with junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the reclusive military council chief who had never met a senior U.S. official.

Webb may have been given the green light for the meetings to mitigate the torrent of international criticism against Myanmar following her trial. In July, authorities barred U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from meeting with Suu Kyi during a two-day visit.