PRESS DIGEST - Pakistani Newspapers - Nov 18

These are the leading stories in Pakistan's newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy:

DAWN

-- The United States wants China to help improve relations between India and Pakistan and to work with it to ensure that neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan is used as a base for terrorism, says U.S. President Barack Obama.

-- Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has been given permission by President Asif Ali Zardari, on behalf of the PPP's central executive committee, to go ahead with a much-awaited reshuffle in the federal cabinet.

THE NEWS

-- Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said being the chief executive of the country, he enjoyed all the constitutional powers and emphasised that "President Asif Ali Zardari had already shown his desire to surrender his presidential power to prime minister".

-- The security forces have captured most main Taliban bases in their offensive in South Waziristan and will soon fan out into the rugged countryside to hunt for militants there, commanders said.

DAILY TIMES

-- President Asif Ali Zardari is ready to relinquish the powers to appoint services chiefs and dissolve parliament under Article 58 (2b) of the constitution, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said.