Security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 10 suspected insurgents today in a mountainous valley in north-western Pakistan, where the government is battling supporters of a militant pro-Taliban cleric, the military said.

Militants have killed all 11 men they kidnapped from a minibus in apparent retaliation for an assault by security forces on the stronghold of a militant cleric in north-western Pakistan, a police official said today.

Throngs of supporters greeted Benazir Bhutto as she landed in Sukkur, Pakistan, today on the way to her ancestral home.

The midnight suicide attack that killed up to 136 people and shattered the homecoming of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto might have been the work of al-Qaida and the Taliban, authorities in Pakistan said today.

Pakistan’s military leader ran up a huge majority in a presidential election largely snubbed by his opponents today.

Former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto said today she would return to Pakistan soon, and that her party would announce a specific date for the trip on September 14.

Pakistan marks the 60th anniversary of its independence from British rule today.

Senior Pakistani opposition leader Javed Hashmi was released from prison today and received a rapturous welcome from hundreds of chanting, flag-waving supporters, a day after the Supreme Court granted him bail.

DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate Barack Obama yesterday said he would send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists even without local permission if warranted — an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive.

Authorities in Pakistan were today investigating a suicide bombing that killed 16 people before a rally, the latest in a series of violent incidents since the army stormed a mosque held by Islamic extremists.

Suicide bombers struck today in two areas of north-western Pakistan, killing up to 38 people, while Taliban militants broke a 10-month-old peace pact with the government along the frontier with Afghanistan.

Three blasts struck a military convoy in north-western Pakistan today, killing 14 people in an intensifying militant campaign of violence against the government in the restive border region, an army spokesman said.

Thousands of troops were deployed to north-west Pakistan to try dissuading outlawed Islamic militants from launching a holy war against the government for its bloody attack on a radical mosque, officials said today.

Several explosions were heard near a radical mosque besieged by security forces in the Pakistani capital Islamabad this morning.

A Pakistan government minister warned armed militants holed up in a radical mosque in Islamabad to surrender or face punishment by security forces.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is in Pakistan today for talks with Pakistani leaders on Afghanistan, where the alliance troops have carried out deadly offensives against Taliban insurgents in recent weeks.

Pakistan today rejected the US intelligence chief’s claims that Osama bin Laden and his deputy are hiding in the country, and that al-Qaida is setting up camps near the border with Afghanistan.

US Vice President Dick Cheney today sought Pakistan’s help in countering al-Qaida’s efforts to regroup in its remote border region.

US vice president Dick Cheney landed at the largest US military base in Afghanistan this afternoon for consultations with American military leaders, but a planned meeting with President Hamid Karzai was cancelled because of inclement weather.

A suicide attacker exploded a bomb among police officers on guard near a Shiite Muslim mosque in this north-western Pakistani city late today, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 30.

More than 5,000 supporters of a radical Islamist coalition rallied in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad today to protest over recent changes in a disputed Muslim rape law.

More than 20,000 supporters of an Islamic alliance rallied today in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, demanding the government withdraw changes to a controversial rape laws.

A probe into the deadliest attack on Pakistani troops waging a counterinsurgency campaign along the Afghan border was progressing well, an investigator said today, as a previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed 42 soldiers.

US midterm election results that heralded a massive power shift in the American political landscape, capped by the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, were widely greeted with jubilation around the world, with many expressing variations on the same sentiment: it’s about time.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush said yesterday he was “taken aback” by a purported US threat to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age if it did not cooperate in the fight against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.

Pakistani intelligence agents were questioning at least 17 people, including British nationals, over their alleged links to a plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets from Britain, officials said today.

Irish charity GOAL has been presented with an award for their outstanding relief work following the earthquake in Pakistan.

Security was tightened across Pakistan today during a strike called by radical Islamic groups to protest against the Prophet Mohammed drawings, with most shops and businesses closed in several cities.

Pakistan’s president today said co-operation with America in the war on terror was “excellent” despite a US missile strike on a border village that targeted al-Qaida leaders, but also killed 13 civilians, including women and children.

Pakistan has yet to find the bodies of al-Qaida operatives thought to have been killed in a US missile strike more than two weeks ago and is still hunting for fugitive leaders of the terror group, an army spokesman said today.

Cold, cloudy weather and weary survivors of the October 8 quake today greeted US Vice President Dick Cheney on his visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where millions of homeless survivors braced themselves for the harsh winter.

Osama bin Laden may no longer have operational control of his terror network, the US ambassador to Pakistan told a gathering of local journalists today, according to two Pakistani television channels.

A senior al-Qaida operative has died in an explosion in a north-western Pakistan tribal area, the president said today.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appealed to donors to give generously for victims of the devastating October 8 earthquake in Asia, as Kashmiri civilians were poised to cross the disputed territory’s frontier.

INDIAN Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday told Pakistan’s president there were indications of a foreign link to the bombings that struck two New Delhi markets, and reminded the Pakistani leader of his country’s promise to fight terrorism, an official said.

The UN World Food Programme today warned that half a million earthquake survivors had yet to receive relief supplies, and Pakistan’s president said during a visit to a quake-stricken town that he had appealed to the international community for more tents to shelter the homeless.

Trucks of aid arrived in the ruined capital of Pakistan-ruled Kashmir today, and victims scuffled for badly needed food and blankets three days after a devastating earthquake flattened whole communities, killing tens of thousands and leaving millions homeless.

Aircraft rushed in supplies from abroad and the US pledged $50m (€41.5m) in aid today as hungry families displaced in Pakistan’s worst earthquake huddled in tents and shopkeepers clashed with looters. Death toll estimates ranged from 20,000 to above 30,000.

RESCUE teams and aid pledges poured into Pakistan from around the world yesterday.

RESCUERS struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas and stricken residents of a devastated city scavenged for food and gasoline yesterday, a day after a massive earthquake struck Pakistan and India.

A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake reduced villages to rubble in Pakistan and India on today, killing hundreds of people. Pakistan’s army described the damage as widespread and said it included villages buried in quake-induced landslides.

India and Pakistan today signed a deal requiring them to notify each other of plans for ballistic missile tests, a key step in the peace process between the two nuclear-armed rivals. However, India warned that militant attacks in Kashmir could derail the thaw in relations.

PAKISTANI counter-terrorism experts are questioning 21 suspects captured at an al-Qaida hide-out for clues about remnants of the terror network and the Taliban, an intelligence official said yesterday.

Pakistani intelligence agents believe one of the London suicide bombers visited a religious school run by an al Qaida-linked terror group, two senior officials said today.