Pakistan’s army has rejected a US investigation into the Nato air strikes that killed 24 of its soldiers.

An investigation into a Nato attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border has concluded that a combination of mistrust and bad maps led to the air strikes on the two outposts in Pakistan, officials say.

The Taliban released a video today showing fighters executing 16 Pakistani tribal police officers who were captured in a cross-border raid from Afghanistan earlier this summer.

PAKISTANI authorities blocked a vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan yesterday after the killing of three soldiers in two NATO cross-border incursions, officials said.

Two suicide bombers struck outside a police complex in north-west Pakistan today, killing 15 people and underscoring the relentless security threat despite army operations and US missile strikes against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

A suspected US missile strike killed at least 10 alleged militants today at a compound formerly used as a religious school in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, officials said, the eighth such attack in two weeks.

More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a ground offensive against al Qaida and the Taliban’s main stronghold along the Afghan border today in the country’s toughest test yet against a strengthening insurgency.

A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a car carrying a pro-government tribal elder and at least three other people today, killing them in the latest explosion to rock Pakistan’s militant-riddled north-west, officials said.

Suspected US missile strikes pounded the hide-outs of a Taliban commander in north-western Pakistan today, killing at least eight people, government officials said.

Troops manning a checkpoint today rescued dozens of students, teachers and staff from a boys' school who had been taken captive by militants in the northwest, the Pakistani military said.

A huge battle between the Taliban and Pakistani troops erupted in the Swat valley today.

PAKISTAN’s military yesterday accused the Taliban of “gross violation” of a peace accord covering a large segment of its northwest after several acts of violence over the weekend.

The Pakistani military has pounded an extremist stronghold near the Afghan border where a rebel leader blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is believed to be hiding, officials said.

Cross-border firing from Afghanistan hit the tent of a nomad family on the Pakistan side of the frontier, killing two women and injuring at least four children, Pakistani officials said today.

More than 3,000 people died today when a massive earthquake triggered landslides, toppled an apartment building and flattened villages of mud-brick homes near the border between Pakistan and India.

Defence Secretary John Reid today praised the Pakistani military for its efforts in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking.

The US' top commander in Afghanistan has questioned Pakistan’s commitment to fight Taliban and al-Qaida militants along the border, saying appeasing extremists will only put off an inevitable battle.

Pakistani and US forces have intensified the search for Osama bin Laden along a south-western stretch of the border with Afghanistan following information from a newly captured al-Qaida deputy, Pakistani intelligence and military officials say.

Pakistan has called on the international community to press India to open talks, claiming three Pakistani civilians were killed by cross-border artillery fire.