13 killed in Lahore shopping mall fire

Boxer Amir Khan visits Peshawar school attack site
Peshawar: British boxer Amir Khan visited the school in Peshawar where Taliban militants massacred scores of children. Khan went to the school as part of a multi-day visit to Pakistan. He said he wanted to pay his respects to those who died in the attack and help encourage children who were scared to return to school. Khan was born in Britain but is of Pakistani-origin. During his trip, Khan announced that he would be building a boxing academy in Lahore.   
ISIS militants shoot down warplane, capture pilot
Beirut: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) shot down a warplane of the US-led coalition over northern Syria, a monitoring group said, with the jihadis claiming to have captured a Jordanian pilot. “We have confirmed reports that ISIS members took a (non-Syrian) Arab pilot prisoner after shooting his plane down with an anti-aircraft missile near Raqa city,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A senior Jordanian military official later confirmed the pilot was seized, saying his plane went down in Syria's Raqa region. The ISIS branch in Raqa published photographs on jihadist websites purporting to show its fighters holding the captured pilot, with a caption identifying him as Jordanian and giving his name.
Mullah Omar hiding in Pak, says Afghanistan spy chief
New York: Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Muhammad Omar is alive and hiding in the Pakistani city of Karachi, a top Afghan intelligence official has said, echoing a similar assessment by Western intelligence officials. “There is a lot of doubt whether he is alive or not. But we are more confident that he is in Karachi,” acting Afghan intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil was quoted as saying. An European official that there is a “consensus among all three branches of the Afghan security forces that Mullah Omar is alive.” “Not only do they think he's alive, they say they have a good understanding of where exactly he is in Karachi.” The report said that Mullah Omar has always functioned more as the spiritual and ideological leader of the movement than as an operational commander.
Saudi women drivers to be tried by terrorism court?
Dubai: Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said. Activists said it marks the first time that women drivers have been referred to the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, and that their detention is the longest of female drivers in Saudi history. Four individuals close to Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa al-Amoudi, 33, said they are not being charged for defying the driving ban but for opinions they voiced online. The individuals declined to elaborate on the specific charges due to the sensitivity of the case. They said that the women's defence lawyers immediately appealed the judge's decision to transfer their cases to the court, which was established to try terrorism cases, but has also been used to try peaceful dissidents and activists.
UN drops Hafiz's `sahib' tag
United Nations: A UN panel has regretted the use of the salutation `sahib' for the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and issued a “revised” letter removing the word after India objected to it. The chair of the Security Council's al Qaida Sanctions Committee issued a revised letter in which it has “regretted the mistake” in the previous letter dated December 17. The committee's chair is Gary Quinlan, who is the Permanent Representative of Australia to the UN. Quinlan had made the reference to Saeed in the communication regarding banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and its founder. The new letter clearly mentions the correct primary name of the Pakistani terrorist as Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. Saeed himself is a UN-designated terrorist. The resolution entails freezing of funds and assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities, and prevention of entry into or transit through their territories by designated individuals.