Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and former rival Benazir Bhutto have reached an agreement regarding Musharraf's military role, a key step toward a power-sharing agreement, a senior official said today.

A Pakistani couple injured in a deadly train bombing in a remote Indian village returned home today with caskets containing the charred remains of five of their children, officials said.

SURVIVORS of the bombs that killed at least 66 passengers on a cross-border train from India arrived in Pakistan last night, sparking tears of relief among relatives who found their loved ones — and grief among those who did not.

Pakistani troops were deployed on the streets of Karachi today to curb rioting and vandalism that flared in the southern city for a third day following a suicide bombing that killed 57 people at a Sunni Muslim prayer service.

Pakistan has decided to shift a quake-devastated city to a new location after experts declared any new construction dangerous, a Cabinet minister said today.

An apparent suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite Muslim procession today in north-western Pakistan, killing at least eight people, injuring 40 and sparking riots during the Muslim sect’s most important holiday.

A suspected suicide bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim procession in north-western Pakistan, killing six people, injuring 40 and sparking riots during the Muslim sect’s most important holiday.

THE pre-dawn airstrike aimed at Ayman al-Zawahri in a remote Pakistani village was intended as a devastating blow to al-Qaida, but it has strained ties with a key US ally in the war on terror and could provoke more anti-American fanaticism in this Islamic country, analysts said yesterday.

The pre-dawn airstrike aimed at Ayman al-Zawahri in a remote Pakistani village was intended as a devastating blow to al-Qaida but it has strained ties with a key US ally in the war on terror and could provoke more anti-Americanism in the Islamic country, analysts said today.

An air strike in a remote Pakistani tribal area that killed at least 17 people was targeting al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, who may have been using a suspected terrorist hideout, a senior official said today.

PAKISTANI agents killed one suspected al-Qaida terrorist in a raid and arrested another, possibly a Syrian and a top al-Qaida operative sought by the United States under a $5 million (€4.2m) reward.

Rains compounded the misery of millions of homeless victims a week after Pakistan’s worst earthquake and briefly grounded relief flights, while a fresh consignment of aid arrived from archrival India with much-needed medicine and tents.

RESCUE workers yesterday abandoned the search for any survivors trapped in the rubble of last week’s earthquake, and a top UN official warned that reconstruction of the devastated region will cost billions of dollars and take up to a decade.

A senior leader from a coalition of radical Islamic political parties today said the attacks in London might have been orchestrated by the West as a strategy to turn public opinion against Muslims, a claim sure to produce outrage around the globe.

AFGHAN intelligence officials have thwarted a plot to assassinate US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and arrested three Pakistanis armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said yesterday.

AN apparent suicide bomb detonated yesterday as hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims recited verses from the Koran during a religious festival at a shrine near Pakistan's capital.

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.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the attackers who carried out today's blast at an Islamabad shrine as “enemies of Pakistan and Islam”.

A suicide bombing at a Muslim shrine near Pakistan’s capital killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens of others today, officials and witnesses said.

GENERAL Pervez Musharraf will stay on as Pakistan’s president beyond 2007, despite earlier indications that he would stand down.

Pakistan today dismissed an apology and retraction by American magazine Newsweek of a report alleging desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Authorities arrested al-Qaida’s No 3 commander and said today they were “on the right track” to catch bin Laden himself.

Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a senior al-Qaida suspect wanted in two attempts to assassinate President Gen Pervez Musharraf, has been arrested in Pakistan, the government said today.

The US has agreed to sell sophisticated F-16 fighter planes to both India and its next-door rival Pakistan. India immediately expressed its anger to President George Bush.

POLITICIANS from hardline Islamic groups and moderate opposition parties yesterday walked out of the lower house of parliament to protest at a startling admission from a Cabinet minister that a top Pakistani nuclear scientist sold centrifuges to Iran.

Political allies welcomed the inauguration of President George Bush to a second term today, while critics expressed hope that he would use it as a turning point by acknowledging mistakes in Iraq and mending damage done by the war.

The husband of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was put under house arrest today after a court ordered his detention in a murder case.

Pakistan’s senate president signed legislation today that will allow General Pervez Musharraf to remain as both head of state and army chief beyond December 31.

Pakistani authorities have arrested the alleged mastermind of a deadly bombing near the US Consulate in Karachi two years ago, but another key member of his network is still on the run, a senior official said today.

PAKISTAN announced that it has arrested at least five al-Qaida-linked terrorists who had been plotting to launch suicide attacks on government leaders and the US Embassy.

A SENIOR Pakistani al-Qaida operative who used to run one of the terror group’s training camps in Afghanistan has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates and handed over to Pakistani officials, the information minister said yesterday.

Pakistan has captured two high-ranking al-Qaida terrorists, including one with a multi-million dollar US bounty on his head, in a sweep that has netted a number of other terror suspects, officials said today.

PLANS for terror strikes in the US and Britain were uncovered after a senior al-Qaida suspect was seized in Pakistan, security sources revealed yesterday.

Plans for new terror attacks against Britain and the United States were found on a computer seized during the arrest of a Pakistani al-Qaida suspect wanted for the 1998 twin US embassy bombings in east Africa, it emerged today.

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 Pakistani driver who was taken hostage by insurgents in Iraq has been freed, Pakistan’s information minister said.

A bomb explosion ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi today, killing at least eight people and wounding 35, hospital officials said.

THE Gandhi political dynasty prepared for a return to power yesterday after it was handed a stunning victory in India’s elections.

Pakistani forces believe they have cornered and perhaps wounded Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, in a major battle near the Afghan border.

Armed men opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshippers during a religious procession in a city in southwestern Pakistan today, killing at least 41 people and wounding more than 150 others.

Security was tightened in major Pakistani cities today after a suicide attack outside a mosque amid fears of sectarian violence as the Islamic country’s Shiite minority marked the religious holiday of Muharram.

PAKISTAN has expanded its investigation of the country’s premier nuclear weapons laboratory, detaining as many as seven scientists and administrators for questioning, officials said yesterday.

Pakistani agents staged a pre-dawn raid at an apartment complex today and arrested seven suspected foreign members of the al-Qaida terror group who had been living there for two months.