China envoy arrives for N Korea talks

Pak PM to visit Iran for pipeline talks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will visit Iran next week apparently to finalise a deal on gas pipeline after New Delhi agreed to consider the project. Aziz will be accompanied by Petroleum Minister Amanullah Jadoon during his three-day visit beginning on February 22.

Ahead of his visit, top Pakistan petroleum officials have already left for Tehran to prepare the groundwork. The visit will take place after the return of Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazzi from New Delhi.

UN team to probe Hariri’s killing

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will send an investigative team to Beirut in the next few days to probe into the circumstances that led to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The team will be led by Peter Fitzgerald, a deputy police commissioner of the Irish national police force.

S Africa reports a rise in AIDS cases

JOHANNESBURG: In an implicit but devastating account of the havoc AIDS is causing here, the South African government reported on Friday that annual deaths increased 57 per cent from 1997 to 2003, with common AIDS-related diseases like tuberculosis and pneumonia fuelling much of the rise. Rise in mortality spanned all age groups, most pronounced among those between ages 15 and 49, where deaths more than doubled. Working-age adults are more sexually active than the rest of the population. The opportunity for transmitting HIV is greatest among members of this group. — Agencies