Pakistan Hunts for Missing Diplomat

Pakistani officials are hunting for their ambassador to neighboring Afghanistan, and the country's president believes he was abducted, Reuters reports. "The Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan has been kidnapped while traveling to Afghanistan," Hamid Karzai said. The diplomat went missing yesterday while traveling through the Khyber Pass, a region notorious for its smugglers and bandits.

Tariq Azizuddin was en route from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar to Kabul when he and his bodyguard and driver disappeared before reaching the border. A spokesman said the interior ministry is hopeful searchers will "trace and recover him soon." The Khyber tribal region, one of Pakistan's most dangerous areas, is relatively free of al-Qaeda and Taliban influence. (More Afghanistan stories.)