PAKISTAN’S top envoy has escaped a mine blast which killed seven people as Tamil Tiger rebels accused Sri Lanka of bombing an orphanage and killing 61 amid ferocious battles elsewhere.

ntelligence agents in Pakistan arrested at least seven people, including two British nationals of Pakistani origin, who provided information on the terror plot aimed at blowing up US-bound passenger jets from Britain, a senior government official said today.

The US today urged Pakistan not to expand its nuclear weapons programme today after a think tank claimed Islamabad was building a nuclear reactor able to fuel up to 50 atomic bombs a year.

The bombers who targeted Mumbai’s rail system had support from inside Pakistan, India’s prime minister said, warning that the nuclear-armed rivals’ peace process could be derailed unless Islamabad reined in terrorists.

The bombers who targeted Mumbai’s rail system had support from inside neighbouring Pakistan, India’s prime minister said today, warning that the nuclear-armed rivals’ peace process could be derailed unless Islamabad reins in terrorists operating from its territory.

Indian authorities today named a third suspect in this week’s Mumbai train bombings, as the local media said the well-co-ordinated attacks that killed 200 people were planned by Pakistan’s main intelligence agency. Pakistan has denied the charge.

Pakistan’s president has granted a stay of execution for a British-Pakistani man who was set to hang next month for the killing of a taxi driver 18 years ago, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said today.

US-led coalition aircraft killed up to 80 suspected Taliban militants in a night airstrike on a rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said today. The local governor said 16 civilians also died.

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.

The dispute over Kashmir and measures to build confidence between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan are expected to dominate talks when the third round of their sweeping peace process begins tomorrow.

The UN secretary-general has appointed former US President George Bush as his special envoy for rehabilitation and reconstruction in quake-hit areas of northwestern Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the Foreign Ministry said today.

EFFORTS to reach stranded villagers in Pakistan’s northern mountains gathered pace yesterday after the country’s friends and foes both urged help for up to three million survivors rattled by fresh aftershocks.

Pakistan and Britain will hold talks this week on co-operation in nuclear power and improved military and political ties, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said today.