affront
to the military. It is the latest in a series of incidents in this escalating row between the government and army, and it's now got the media here frantically speculating about an imminent coup. Of course tensions between the two institutions were ever-present in Pakistan, but they really
boiled over
in October when a memo emerged which appeared to show Pakistan's civilian leadership asking for American help to weaken the Pakistani army.
Reports from Pakistan say 14 soldiers have been killed in an attack in the southwestern province of Balochistan. The attack on a unit of the army's Frontier Corps took place late on Wednesday. The security services in Balochistan face
insurgencies
by separatists and Islamic militants.
The militant Islamist sect in Nigeria Boko Haram has released a video seeking to justify its recent attacks on Christians. The man regarded as the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said the attacks were
in revenge for
the killing of Muslims across northern Nigeria. He warned the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan that the security forces would be no match for his group.
"Security agents who've taken up arms against us and their
accomplices
, these are the people we are at war with and of course Christians because everyone knows what they did to us."
Hours later, suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed four Christian traders in the northern city of Potiskum. Boko Haram has carried out a series of bombings, including one on a church outside the capital Abuja on Christmas Day, which killed 37 people.