Lahore

All but two of the 99 people on board a Pakistan passenger plane were killed when it crashed into a residential neighborhood of Karachi, officials said on May 23, as rescue workers toiled through the charred and twisted wreckage strewn across the street.

A jetliner carrying 98 people crashed in Friday in a crowded neighborhood near the airport in Pakistan's port city of Karachi after an apparent engine failure during landing.

Officials said there were at least two survivors from the plane, and it was unknown how many people on the ground were hurt, with at least five houses destroyed.

The 8th Lahore Literary Festival, hosted in Pakistan's second-largest city, kicked off on Feb. 21 with special guest Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's only Nobel laureate in literature.

Speaking to journalist Ahmed Rashid at the festival, considered one of South Asia's premier cultural events, Pamuk expressed his love for his hometown Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.

It was not a usual flight by any sense of the term. More than half the seats on the Airbus A321 were taken by police officers. They were not armed and all wore yellow vests over their civilian clothes. They were accompanying 69 men.

Pakistan on Jan. 30 said a plan is under consideration to sign an agreement with Turkey regarding providing dual nationality to the citizens of two countries.

This came during a meeting between Pakistan Interior Minister Ijaz Ahmad Shah and Turkish Ambassador to Islamabad İhsan Mustafa Yurdakul, according to a statement issued by Pakistan's Interior Ministry.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of northern India today, France Press and Reuters reported.

The epicentre of the earthquake was 51 km southwest of Jurm, northern Afghanistan, at a depth of more than 200 km, according to the US Geological Survey.

At least 65 people died this morning in a fire that broke out in a passenger train in Pakistan, Yasmin Rashid, who heads health authorities in central Punjab, told AFP.

According to her, there are also more than 40 injured who are being transported to hospitals in the region. So far, only 18 of the dead have been recognized.

A 50-year-old Canadian national was arrested at Athens International Airport on Monday on drug trafficking charges.

The suspect, who arrived in Athens on a flight from Lahore, Pakistan, via Qatar, was found in possession of two packages containing 6.1 kilograms of heroin hidden in his luggage.

He appeared before an Athens prosecutor later in the day.

A 43-year-old Pakistani national who was arrested on Tuesday evening at Athens International Airport while trying to smuggle more than 11 kilograms of heroin into the country is part of a wider international drug ring bringing drugs into Greece from Asia, police said on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old reportedly flew into Athens from Lahore in Pakistan via Doha in Qatar.

"Unfortunately (...) the negative tints regarding Pakistan are exaggerated, which has the unpleasant consequence of creating some reservations at the level of the Romanian business community in connection with the security of some possible businesses or cooperation projects with Pakistani companies," Ambassador of Romania in Islamabad Niculaie Goia said in an interview with AGERPRES, underscori