Pakistan blocked vital supply routes for US-led troops in Afghanistan and demanded Washington leave a base used by American drones after coalition aircraft allegedly killed 24 troops at two posts along a mountainous frontier that serves as a safe haven for militants.

At least 10 gunmen torched 29 Nato oil tankers in south-west Pakistan, police said.

Pakistani flood survivors already short of food and water began the fasting month of Ramadan today, a normally festive, social time marked this year by misery and fears of an uncertain future.

Taliban leader Mullah Muhammed Omar is not in Pakistan’s south-western Baluchistan province and the US should not carry out missile attacks in the region, a senior official said.

Some low-level al-Qaida members were among a dozen militant fighters killed by an artillery and helicopter attack on two compounds near the Afghan border, officials said today, raising the toll from the strike a day earlier from 10.

A powerful bomb exploded inside a courtroom in south-western Pakistan today, killing a judge and 12 others, police said.

A bomb ripped through a roadside tea stall in south-western Pakistan today, killing five people and wounding 17.

A bomb ripped through a roadside tea stall today in south-western Pakistan, killing four people and wounding 14, police said.

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.

More than 150 people have died in a 10-day heat wave across Pakistan, officials said today.

A home-made bomb exploded in the toilet of a train at a station in south-western Pakistan today, killing one person and wounding at least five others.

A week of torrential rain and heavy snow in Pakistan has left more than 500 people dead, including dozens buried under avalanches and more killed when a dam burst, officials say.

The United States and its allies have stepped up searches along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for terrorists they fear may launch attacks should there be war against Iraq, intelligence sources say.