Britain has expressed satisfaction today that President Gen Pervez Musharraf was cracking down on Islamic extremists and said there was “no question” of blaming Pakistan for the July 7 bombings that killed 56 people in London.

Pakistan today test fired its first cruise missile, capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads, and did not give advance warning to its archrival India, officials said.

An "important" suspect in the London attacks is under arrest, a Pakistani official said today, as investigators used telephone numbers provided by Britain to determine who may have had contact with the suicide bombers.

FAR from the dusty village where she was brutally assaulted three years ago on the orders of a tribal council, Pakistani rape victim Mukhtar Mai appeared before the Supreme Court in Islamabad yesterday.

A suspected suicide bomber struck today at a popular Muslim shrine close to the official residence of Pakistan’s prime minister and the diplomatic enclave in Islamabad, leaving at least 20 mostly Shiite worshippers dead and scores wounded.

A senior al-Qaida leader recently captured in Pakistan has given investigators vital information about the terrorist network, leading to several additional arrests, two security officials said today.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured Pakistan the US would help the predominantly Islamic nation meet its “legitimate” defence needs, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

Pakistan’s president plans to stop in Washington next week on his way home from Latin America to congratulate President George Bush on his re-election.