Pakistan thanked the world for coming to its aid and said more than 20 million flood victims now knew that nations and people around the globe were standing with them during the worst disaster the country has ever faced.

The United Nations appeared to have met its target of €358m in immediate aid for flood-stricken Pakistan today, after Ireland, the US and other nations dramatically upped their pledges.

A CAR bomb struck a busy market in north-western Pakistan yesterday, killing 91 people — mostly women and children — as visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged US support for Islamabad’s campaign against Islamic militants.

A suspected Taliban car bomb exploded in a Pakistan market today killing more than 90 people, mostly women and children, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived to pledge support for the campaign against Islamist militants.

THE makers of Slumdog Millionaire met with the film’s two impoverished child stars yesterday in Mumbai, but the father of one of the children stormed out of the meeting, saying they have been forgotten since the movie won eight Oscars.

The 'Slumdog Millionaire' child actors have passed their school exams with good results despite poor attendance.

The mother of 'Slumdog Millionaire' star Rubina Ali has blasted her ex-husband over allegations he attempted to sell the nine-year-old.

The father of 'Slumdog Millionaire' star Rubina Ali has been cleared by Indian police over allegations he attempted to sell his young daughter.

INDIAN police said yesterday they would not charge the father of a child star from the hit film Slumdog Millionaire, and ended their investigation into claims he tried to sell his 9-year-old girl to a British reporter posing as a wealthy sheikh.

The mother and step-mother of 'Slumdog Millionaire' child star Rubina Ali had a Mumbai street showdown over claims the little girl had been put up for sale, it emerged today.

'Slumdog Millionaire' child star Rubina Ali is at the centre of sensational newspaper claims that her father has offered her up for sale - for $300,000 (€231,000).

INDIA received a warning from the United States before last week’s attacks in Mumbai that militants were plotting a waterborne assault on the city, a senior US official said yesterday as domestic intelligence officials said they were aware of a Pakistan-based plot.

ONE name that will be at the forefront of the investigators’ minds is that of Abdul Subhan Qureshi, also known as Tauqeer, a Mumbai-educated member of the Indian Mujahideen credited with masterminding several of the previous attacks.

Pakistan’s foreign minister said China has signed an agreement with the energy-starved Islamic nation to help it build two more nuclear power plants.

Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf’s spokesman says he will not resign despite the move by Pakistan’s ruling coalition to finalise impeachment charges against him over the weekend.

Pressure on Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf to quit increased today as both his rivals and allies confirmed behind-the-scenes talks were under way that could ease him out.

Pakistan’s foreign minister ruled out any future investigation into whether the military helped a disgraced scientist spread nuclear weapons to rogue states.

United Nations supremo Ban Ki-moon said today he would set up an independent commission to identify Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassins “with a view to bring them to justice”.

Police broke up a major tiger-poaching ring in northern India, arresting an alleged kingpin and 15 others, police and wildlife officials said today.

Pakistan’s military leader President Gen Pervez Musharraf planned to bid his troops farewell today, a day before standing down as army chief to become a civilian head of state in a move aimed at easing the country’s political crisis.

Pakistan today dismissed Osama bin Laden as a terrorist whose “ridiculous” call for holy war against its US-allied leader will find little echo, despite growing concern that al-Qaida is regrouping near the Afghan border.

Pervez Musharraf today rejected “any pressure or ultimatum” to decide whether to quit as army chief, his spokesman said, after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto claimed he would step down under a pact to restore Pakistan to democracy.

Roger Federer was today aiming for his 50th straight win on grass in the second round at Wimbledon.

RAFAEL NADAL had little to quibble about after cruising into the second round of Wimbledon yesterday.

Health authorities today launched a two-week campaign to immunise 800,000 children among quake victims in divided Kashmir following concerns that infectious disease could thrive in the crowded and sometimes squalid tent camps for survivors.

IT was just before 9am and 17-year-old Uzair Mohammed Qureshi was reading his chemistry book as the ground began to shake.

TEN years on from beating Tiger Woods and becoming top amateur at the British Open, England’s Steve Webster finally lifted his first European Tour title yesterday.

Ten years on from beating Tiger Woods and becoming top amateur at the Open, England’s Steve Webster finally lifted his first European Tour title today.

Steve Webster hopes to crack his European Tour duck at the 247th attempt tomorrow – and if he does a lot of the credit will go to a “mind magician”.

A village council in Pakistan ordered four men suspected in the killing of a woman to walk on fire in a centuries-old ritual to prove their guilt or innocence, police said today.

Gunmen riding in two cars and a motorcycle opened gun fire on a pick up truck carrying a senior Sunni Muslim cleric in the violence-prone Pakistani city of Karachi today, killing him and wounding four other people, police said.