Karachi Pakistan

A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday in the middle of a Shiite Muslim procession in Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan, killing at least 20 people, wounding dozens more and heaping further pressure on the nation's already beleaguered government. The attack was the third in as many days in Pakistan's most populous city, a major South Asian port that has emerged as a significant logistics hub for supply trucks headed to Afghanistan in support of U.S. and NATO-led forces.

Rome dominated the ancient world. Paris starred as the cultural diva of the 1800s. And New York soared as the steel-and-glass incarnation of the American Century. So what metropolis best defines our restless, rickety present age — Shanghai; Mumbai, India; São Paulo, Brazil? In his first book, "Instant City," Steve Inskeep , co-host of NPR's "Morning Edition," constructs a compelling case for bestowing the title on Karachi, Pakistan, a destination that usually rates higher among battle-hardened news correspondents than pleasure-hunting tourists.

A bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque here during evening prayers Monday, killing at least 16 people, wounding 38 and sparking mob violence a day after Sunni Muslims had rioted over the slaying of a Sunni cleric. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said the bombing might have been a reaction to Sunday's slaying of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was a supporter of neighboring Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and had met Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

In Karachi's Baldia neighborhood, a working-class mix of Pashtun and other Pakistanis, it took an accidental explosion amid piles of suicide vests and grenades to unearth a cell of Taliban militants in a house that neighbors believed sheltered a quiet Pashtun family. "We thought they were fruit sellers," said Mohammed Zahid, 24, who lives across the path from the heavily damaged house. Police said the Jan. 8 blast killed seven Taliban militants who had been planning to attack a Baldia police training center.

Gunmen opened fire on worshipers in two Shiite mosques early today, killing at least 18 men and wounding many more, police and witnesses said. The massacres were part of the escalating feud in Pakistan between Sunni and Shiite Muslims that has left hundreds dead, mostly in the southern port city of Karachi. The latest killings brought the overnight death toll to 25. Seven people were gunned down Friday night, including two men shot at a Sunni mosque.

This city's long slide into anarchy has left its people too exhausted to even pity the dead. At the Jinnah Medical Center, the burned and mutilated corpses that arrive many nights prompt little more than the lighting of a cigarette. "In the beginning, it affected me," Shahab Junejo, an emergency room physician, said between puffs. "Not now. You get used to it. Not even the families cry anymore."

In this throbbing metropolis on the Arabian Sea, the grass used to grow lush and green on the cricket pitches in Jinnah Garden, and a mother didn't worry particularly if her daughter stayed out past 2:30 a.m. Those were the good times in Pakistan's biggest city. But they are now fading memories in this seething tandoori oven of humanity whose high-rises and fetid squatter colonies have become the uneasy home to more people than New York and Chicago combined.

The day two employees of the U.S. Consulate were ambushed and murdered, the Karachi Stock Exchange's KSE-100 index dropped 29 points, or 1.5%. But the average rebounded the next day, after traders had time to reflect. The slaying of the Americans, they concluded, might not be all bad. "Finally we may get some honest people here," said broker Yasin Lakhani, the exchange's immediate past president. "Finally, something may be done."

It was a typical Thursday night in one of the strangest, most deeply troubled cities in Asia. Half the city was under curfew, as it often is these days, yet thousands of people flooded into the sprawling, seaside amusement park called Funland for a few hours of healthy recreation. Fundamentalist Muslim women clad in black from head to foot squealed with glee as they were whipped around on a ride known as the "Red Baron."

A powerful bomb ripped through a crowded Shiite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 100. The blast was believed to be the work of a suicide bomber who hid himself in the midst of the worshipers, and a senior police official in Karachi labeled it a terrorist attack. He said no group had claimed responsibility for the bombing, the worst act of violence in Karachi since mid-2002 when separate bombing attacks at the U.S.

In most places, newspaper headlines about a cease-fire between rival political parties tend to be about policy squabbles. In Karachi, such references are more often literal. More than 40 people have died here in the last five days in so-called targeted killings, most of the victims slain because of their political affiliations. Some were executed with shocking brutality -- three of the bodies found Sunday had been decapitated. "Think of Chicago or New York a century ago," said Ikram Sehgal, a political analyst and longtime Karachi resident.

A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday in the middle of a Shiite Muslim procession in Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan, killing at least 20 people, wounding dozens more and heaping further pressure on the nation's already beleaguered government. The attack was the third in as many days in Pakistan's most populous city, a major South Asian port that has emerged as a significant logistics hub for supply trucks headed to Afghanistan in support of U.S. and NATO-led forces.

Shiite Muslims enraged by a mosque bombing that killed 20 worshipers battled police and burned American fast-food restaurants Tuesday as the government struggled to contain a third day of violence in Pakistan's largest city. Mass funerals for the victims of Monday's attack sparked what appeared to be orchestrated rioting as hundreds of youths rampaged near the wrecked Imam Bargah Ali Raza mosque, throwing stones at police and setting fire to shops and buses.

A bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque here during evening prayers Monday, killing at least 16 people, wounding 38 and sparking mob violence a day after Sunni Muslims had rioted over the slaying of a Sunni cleric. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said the bombing might have been a reaction to Sunday's slaying of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was a supporter of neighboring Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and had met Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Thousands of Sunni Muslims rampaged through this southern Pakistani city Sunday, ransacking property and stoning vehicles after unidentified gunmen killed an influential pro-Taliban cleric. Enraged by the drive-by shooting of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, rioters set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast-food restaurant, and traded gunfire with security forces, leaving more than a dozen people injured.

A powerful bomb ripped through a crowded Shiite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 100. The blast was believed to be the work of a suicide bomber who hid himself in the midst of the worshipers, and a senior police official in Karachi labeled it a terrorist attack. He said no group had claimed responsibility for the bombing, the worst act of violence in Karachi since mid-2002 when separate bombing attacks at the U.S.

Thousands of Sunni Muslims rampaged through this southern Pakistani city Sunday, ransacking property and stoning vehicles after unidentified gunmen killed an influential pro-Taliban cleric. Enraged by the drive-by shooting of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, rioters set fire to banks, shops, a police station and a KFC fast-food restaurant, and traded gunfire with security forces, leaving more than a dozen people injured.

The garrulous, mustachioed man sipping tea at the breakfast buffet in the Pearl Continental Hotel is without a doubt the highest flier among the leaders of the world's major cities. Literally. After all, one reason (probably the reason) Faheem Zaman got the job was his experience piloting Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto around Pakistan in a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter. Modestly, he notes on terra firma, he was not her first choice.

Pakistani police defused a large bomb inside a parked van Monday less than five minutes before it was timed to detonate outside the U.S. Consulate here. It was not clear who was behind the thwarted attack in Karachi, the scene of several anti-Western bombings since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. But suspicions immediately focused on Islamic extremists blamed for previous bombings. In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said an investigation was underway.

When Daniel Pearl's search for the underbelly of international terrorism led him last month to this Arabian Sea port, the Wall Street Journal reporter found himself in one of South Asia's most volatile cities, where lawlessness and sectarian warfare have become part of life. "It's the only city in Pakistan where real, Western-style organized crime thrives," said Aamer Ahmed Khan, editor of the Herald, Karachi's liberal monthly magazine.