A young suicide bomber in a school uniform attacked soldiers during morning exercises at a Pakistani army training camp today, killing 27 troops and wounding 40 others, police and the military said.

SUICIDE bombings targeting religious minorities killed at least 44 people in Pakistan yesterday, sharply driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding.

At least 23 people were killed in suicide bombings targeting religious minorities in Pakistan today.

SECURITY forces have rescued several children forcibly recruited by the Taliban, allegedly to be used as fighters or suicide bombers, and there could be hundreds more like them, an army official has said.

Pakistani security forces fought Taliban militants on the outskirts of the main city in the north-west’s Swat Valley and entered two other Taliban-held towns there, the army said today, foreshadowing what could become bloody urban battles.

Pakistani forces killed 55 Taliban in the north-western valley of Swat today, the army said, and lifted a curfew to allow thousands of civilians to flee before troops assail the Taliban-held main town.

Pakistan’s army lifted its curfew in the battle-scarred Swat Valley today, allowing thousands to flee as troops prepared for street-by-street battles with Taliban militants entrenched in the valley’s biggest town.

Refugees gave harrowing accounts of life under the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat Valley as they swarmed into camps to escape fighting between the army and militants.

PAKISTANI warplanes bombed suspected militant positions in a stronghold close to the capital yesterday, pressing ahead with a fierce offensive that has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, many into crowded refugee camps.

THOUSANDS of fearful civilians, many on foot or using donkey-pulled carts, streamed out of a conflict-ridden Pakistani valley yesterday as authorities briefly lifted a curfew. The army said it had killed scores of militants in the latest fighting.

THOUSANDS of terrified Pakistanis dodged Taliban roadblocks to flee fighting yesterday between the army and insurgents in a northwestern valley, streaming into refugee camps and crowding hospitals with their fatigued and hungry children.

SUSPECTED US missiles hit a house frequented by an Arab militant near the Afghan border yesterday and killed 20 people, intelligence officials said, in the latest alleged American attack on targets inside Pakistan.

A missile attack by a suspected US unmanned drone killed at least 20 people at the home of an Afghan border militant today.

Nine people died today when the roofs of homes, a mosque and a sawmill collapsed in rains in north-western Pakistan, taking the number of people killed in rain-related incidents in recent days to 36, a government department said.

At least 35 people were killed when a crowded bridge collapsed after heavy rains hit north-western Pakistan today, an official said.

At least 23 people were killed when a bridge collapsed during heavy rains in north-western Pakistan today, an official said.

Interrogators questioning al-Qaida’s reputed number-three, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, have been repeating the same two questions over and over again: “Where is bin Laden?” and “What were your plans?” a senior Pakistani intelligence official said today.

Al-Qaida’s reputed No. 3 Abu Farraj al-Libbi stayed silent for hours following his capture this week before confessing his identity to interrogators whose initial results have been forwarded to the US, an intelligence official said today.

SECURITY officials who arrested al-Qaida’s number three commander said yesterday that they were “on the right track” to catch Osama bin Laden himself.

SECURITY officials who arrested al-Qaida's number three commander said yesterday that they were "on the right track" to catch Osama bin Laden himself.

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.

FLOODS killed eight people in Bangladesh, where an overflowing river swamped dozens of villages and left about 6,000 people homeless, while a family drowned in India as monsoon rains swept across south Asia.

Floods killed eight people in Bangladesh, where an overflowing river swamped dozens of villages and left about 6,000 people homeless, while a family drowned in India as monsoon rains swept across South Asia, officials said.

The current wave of anthrax attacks was feared tonight to have spread beyond the United States to Pakistan - but reports of possible outbreaks in Germany were later clouded in doubt.