Three suicide attackers killed at least nine civilians, most of them children, in a botched attack on the Indian consulate in an eastern Afghan city near the border with Pakistan, security officials said.

Pakistan will allow Indian airlines to resume flights in its airspace, the president said today in the latest sign of a thaw in relations between the south Asian nuclear rivals.

Pakistan raised the stakes in nascent peace overtures with India today, saying it would destroy its nuclear arsenal if its South Asian rival did the same.

India today claimed that one of its diplomatic staff has been abducted in Islamabad by Pakistani intelligence personnel, apparently in retaliation for the arrest of a Pakistani diplomat earlier in the week.