I don’t mean to pick on the Los Angeles Times

More meaningless statements written by presumably intelligent people make it past the presumably watchful eyes of presumably well-informed editors:

The three men being questioned were picked up in Punjab province, where several major Pakistani militant groups are based.

<sarcasm>I have also learned through my sources that in the United Kingdom the region known as England is the main center of Islamic militancy, while in the US most Islamist organizations seem to be based in the near-lawless frontier which stretches from the Mississippi River East to the Atlantic.</sarcasm>

Perhaps the author meant to make some point about the very real regional issues behind all of this. Maybe they realized it was impossible to actually provide the amount of background needed to bring the average reader up to speed in an article like this. Maybe they wanted to just drop a hint. My advice for the future – just leave it out. It looks ridiculous, and it can only serve to confuse and mislead people.

3 men detained in Karachi bombing – Los Angeles Times