Pakistani Muslim clerics are making a last-ditch bid to avert an assault on a besieged Islamabad mosque. As the stand-off entered its seventh day, muslim clerics said they were trying persuade the government to hold off for a little longer, while they tried to avoid a bloodbath in the heart of the Pakistani capital. The leader of the Taliban-style movement inside the Red Mosque says he and his followers would rather die than accept arrest. Hundreds of women and children remain inside the sprawling compound, which also houses two religious schools, amid fears that many are being held hostage. Feeding fears of a militant backlash, three Chinese workers were shot dead in the border town of Peshawar on Sunday, which authorities said appeared to be a response to the bloody siege in the capital.
