From the News, Nation, Dawn, Pakistan Observer, Daily Times, Frontier Post, Nawa-i-Waqt (Urdu), Jang (Urdu) and daily Express (Urdu) newspapers                                                                            

19 March 2010

Local News

Culture

• Islamabad (By Saadia Khalid) Students of Pakistan, Japan paint ‘Peace Mural’    (The News, p- 14)

• Islamabad (PR) The Chairman of National Language Authority Mr. Iftikhar Arif has said that they are grateful to Professor Soyamane of Osaka university for the promotion of Urdu language in Japan (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, p- 3)

International News

   Political

• Washington (AFP) The United States said on Wednesday that it needs to maintain a base on the Japanese island of Okinawa to defend the region, as the new government in Tokyo considers scrapping a previous plan (Dawn, p- 11)

   Economic

• Tokyo (By Correspondent) The Japan government has agreed to provide $250 million to Pakistan under the official development programme for strengthening transmission line and grid stations in different cities of the country (The News, p- 15)