PAKISTAN said it will pursue an army operation against the country’s top Taliban commander, a feared militant based in a tribal region along the Afghan border where a suspected US missile strike killed five people yesterday.

Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf is discussing whether to quit as army chief before upcoming elections, the government said today, rejecting a rival’s claim that the decision has already been made.

PAKISTAN’S Supreme Court yesterday ordered a couple to be released from prison after a lower court ruled the husband was a woman and said their same-sex marriage was against Islam.

U2 front man and activist Bono was today poised to unveil his latest effort to combat the spread of Aids in Africa while Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was to give a speech about the war on terror.

Angelina Jolie has met the Prime Minister of Pakistan on a visit to highlight the plight of Afghan refugees in the country.

PAKISTAN’S highest Islamic court has thrown out the controversial acquittal of five men convicted of raping a woman on orders from a village council in a case that shocked the world.

PAKISTAN has detained several people in the attempted assassination of the man selected to be the country's prime minister, a government minister said yesterday.

A bomb exploded minutes after a motorcade carrying the Pakistani president passed a road near the capital today.

PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf yesterday said he had been ready to use atomic weapons if Indian forces entered Pakistani territory earlier this year during a peak in tensions — an admission of how close the neighbours came to nuclear war.

The president of Pakistan, General Musharraf, has today appealed to his divided nation for support over his decision to help the US in the current crisis.