The Pakistani Taliban said they used a female suicide bomber for the first time in an attack on a police station in north-western Pakistan that killed 10 people.

The Pakistani Taliban is claiming responsibility for an attack on a police station that killed at least 10 officers.

Taliban fighters killed eight Pakistani soldiers at a checkpoint in an Afghan border region that the army had said was cleared of insurgents, while two bomb attacks today in the north-west killed six civilians, officials said.

PAKISTANI authorities still have three of Osama bin Laden’s wives and eight of his children in custody, a week after the US raid that killed the Saudi terrorist leader.

America has said it is “inconceivable” that Osama bin Laden did not have a support system in Pakistan which enabled him to remain in the country for long periods.

A government official said Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships and jets have killed 54 alleged militants in a north west tribal region near the Afghan border.

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.

Police today blamed the Pakistani Taliban for attacks that killed 93 people at two mosques belonging to a minority sect.

The Pakistani Taliban released a video – apparently dated early April – of their leader promising an attack on major US cities “in some days or a month”, a monitoring group said today.

PAKISTANI authorities could have prevented the 2007 murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and deliberately failed to properly investigate her death, a UN-appointed independent panel has said.

Pakistani security forces killed 29 militants in two troubled tribal regions near Afghanistan today, officials said, as troops pressed on with operations aimed at flushing out insurgents who have threatened the state.

Pakistani airstrikes killed nine suspected insurgents today in a tribal region near the Afghan border.

Witnesses have said that suspected Taliban militants shot dead two men they accused of spying for the US in a northwest Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border.

A roadside bomb killed three US soldiers and flattened a girls’ school in north-west Pakistan today in an attack that drew attention to a US military training mission in the al Qaida and Taliban heartland.

A suicide bomber struck an area full of government buildings in Pakistan’s main north-west city today, killing four people and underscoring that militant groups retain strength despite being under siege by the army.

Gordon Brown sent a tough challenge to Pakistan today to step up action against the al Qaida terror network and “take out” its leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri.

PAKISTANI commandos freed dozens of hostages held by militants at the army’s own headquarters yesterday, ending a bloody, 22-hour drama that embarrassed the nation’s military as it plans a new offensive against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

PAKISTANI authorities are increasingly convinced that the notorious head of the country’s Taliban movement was killed in a CIA missile strike, as reports emerged of an apparently bloody battle for his succession.

PAKISTANI troops battling the Taliban have captured several points in the Swat Valley’s main town, the army said yesterday, including a spot nicknamed “bloody intersection” because militants routinely dumped the mutilated bodies of their victims there.

PAKISTANI commandos dropped from helicopters behind Taliban lines in the Swat Valley in a widening offensive that the military said has pushed the number fleeing fighting in the north-west to 1.3 million.

PAKISTANI warplanes bombed suspected militant positions in a stronghold close to the capital yesterday, pressing ahead with a fierce offensive that has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, many into crowded refugee camps.

PAKISTANI forces attacked Taliban militants in the Swat valley yesterday, as concern grew about the fate of nearly a million people displaced by an upsurge in violence.

PAKISTANI forces bombed dozens of houses in a tribal region near the Afghan border yesterday, officials and witnesses said, amid reports that days of clashes have killed at least 100 insurgents and nine paramilitary troops.

PAKISTANI officials said a second suspect had been arrested in connection with a plot to kill former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated last month.

PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf yesterday hailed the killing of top al-Qaida operative Amjad Hussain Farooqi as a breakthrough and predicted it would lead to more high-profile arrests.

The founder of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has admitted he transferred nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, a Pakistani government official said today.

The United States has apologised to Pakistan for the recent “friendly fire” deaths of two of its soldiers, the foreign ministry said today in Islamabad.

A PAKISTANI anti-terrorism court convicted four men yesterday of organising last year's suicide bomb attack on the US consulate in the port city of Karachi, and handed death sentences to two of them.

PAKISTANI police said a leading Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl may have blown himself up yesterday while making bombs in the southern port city of Karachi.

Pakistan said today it would not escalate a war of words with India that has worsened relations between the nuclear neighbours, and urged New Delhi to act responsibly to avoid outright conflict.

The president of Pakistani Kashmir is urging every family to sign up one child to fight Indian troops.