The courage shown by Malala Yousafzai in speaking out against Taliban human rights abuses was remarkable and it’s good to see she was evacuated to a hospital in Birmingham after she was brutally shot by the Taliban (Riaz Khan, Irish Examiner Oct 16).

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.

Nine people were killed in a suspected US missile strike on a militant stronghold near the Afghan border today, Pakistani officials said.

A bomb exploded in a crowded street in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar on today, killing five people and wounding several others, police said.