BBC News with Iain Purdon
The BBC has learned that the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has decided that the British general election will take place on 6 May. Mr Brown will go to Buckingham Palace tomorrow Tuesday to ask Queen Elizabeth to
dissolve
parliament, and then make a formal announcement of the election date. That will start the official election campaign, which, a BBC correspondent says, will be
dominate
d by issues of taxation and spending
in the wake of
the global recession.
Pakistani militants have launched their first attack in five years on a United States facility in the country. The local Taliban say they carried out the assault on the US consulate in Peshawar. Seven people including all four attackers were killed. The White House has strongly condemned the attacks. The Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi rejected suggestions that Pakistan wasn't doing enough to prevent suicide bombings.
"If somebody
is determined to
kill and get killed in the process, it's very limited what you can do. We have deployed 150,000 troops on the western border. We are
doing our utmost
, but this is a challenge that Pakistan cannot face alone."
Earlier, at least 43 people were killed and dozens wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in Lower Dir district in northwestern Pakistan.
The event, which was attended by hundreds of people, was organized by the