A Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for speaking out about suffering under the regime is being brought to the UK for treatment, it was reported today.

Schools in Pakistan's Swat Valley have closed in protest as anger erupted across the country over the Taliban attack on a 14-year-old activist famed for promoting girls' education.

The Taliban released a video today showing fighters executing 16 Pakistani tribal police officers who were captured in a cross-border raid from Afghanistan earlier this summer.

Pakistan’s army chief ordered an inquiry today into video clips that show men in soldiers’ uniforms gunning down a group of bound and blindfolded detainees.

Dozens of medical teams have been sent to north-west Pakistan in the hope of preventing a massive outbreak of disease caused by the worst floods in the country’s history.

THE death toll from massive floods in northwestern Pakistan rose to 1,100 as rescue workers struggled to save more than 27,000 people still trapped by the raging water.

The death toll from massive floods in Pakistan has risen to 1,100 people, officials said today.

Rescue workers struggled today to save more than 27,000 people still trapped by massive flooding in Pakistan’s north-west that has killed over 900 people and destroyed thousands of homes, officials said.

An explosion near a bus terminal in Pakistan’s Swat Valley killed two people and wounded at least 35 today, officials said.

A suicide attacker set off a bomb at a security checkpoint in north-west Pakistan today, killing at least 10 people and injuring 52, officials and a doctor said, underscoring the relentless security threat in the country.

Police commandos acting on a tip-off killed one militant and arrested five others today in a raid against a bombing cell accused in recent attacks around the north west Pakistani city of Peshawar, authorities said today.

A SUSPECTED suicide bomber killed 41 people in an attack on the Pakistani military yesterday as the Taliban claimed responsibility for a weekend raid on the army’s headquarters.

A suicide car bombing targeting Pakistani troops killed 41 people today, the fourth militant attack in just over a week, as the Taliban pledged to mobilise fighters across the country for more strikes.

More than half a million children in Pakistan are left with little hope of education after clashes between the army and Taliban destroyed hundreds of schools, according to the United Nations.

A suicide bomber has killed at least 14 police recruits near the main police station in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, an official said today.

Pakistan's army said helicopter gunships destroyed a suicide bomber training camp and killed six Taliban militants near the northern town of Charbagh in the troubled Swat Valley.

The Taliban and the Pakistani government are engaged in a bloody conflict, leaving 2 million displaced people caught in the crossfire of a battle that could determine the future of Pakistan itself. Noel Baker witnessed the effect on the victims

THOUSANDS of Pakistanis have had their homes reduced to rubble by mortar shells, but some victims of the armed conflict may as well have been bombed back to the 19th century.

President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan has praised the country’s “very significant” progress in taking back key territory from the Taliban and promised more weapons for the fight against extremists close to the Afghan border.

Dozens of artists, including singers and dancers, who left Pakistan’s Swat district after the Taliban arrived are now returning to their homes.

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.

Police in Pakistan have arrested an influential pro-Taliban cleric who had brokered a failed peace deal in the troubled Swat Valley, in an indication the government will no longer negotiate with militants.

ONE of Osama bin Laden’s sons was probably killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year, US National Public Radio reported, citing US intelligence sources.

A United Nations team visited Pakistan’s battle-scarred Swat Valley today as hundreds of refugees made their way back to the troubled area.

THE first groups of the two million Pakistanis who fled a military offensive against the Taliban in Swat Valley began trickling back home yesterday, but many families refused to leave refugee camps, demanding promised government assistance and citing security concerns.

Hundreds of Pakistani refugees who spent weeks in relief camps began heading home to the battle-scarred Swat Valley today under a government repatriation programme.

The British Red Cross is preparing to move 14,000 people in Pakistan to higher ground before torrential rains bring more misery to refugees from fighting in the Swat valley.

US drones prowled the sky over Pakistan’s South Waziristan yesterday, a day after one of the aircraft attacked a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killing about 70 militants.

Pakistani troops backed by jet fighters and artillery killed about 50 militants in a volatile north-western tribal region near Afghanistan where the country's top Taliban leader is believed to be entrenched with thousands of his fighters, officials said today.

Army surveillance planes today flew over suspected militant strongholds in Pakistan’s north-western tribal district where a major offensive is planned, and helicopter gunships hit several targets in advance strikes, officials said.

Thousands of angry villagers who have laid siege to a group of Taliban gunmen in Pakistan were today backed up by army helicopter gunships.

A suicide bomber killed 30 people attending prayers at a mosque in Pakistan’s violence-racked north west today.

The military offensive to expel the Taliban from Pakistan’s Swat Valley could take another two months and troops may have to stay for a year to prevent them from retaking control, commanders said today.

Pakistan lifted curfews on seven towns in the Swat Valley today in a further sign of confidence that its offensive against the Taliban is making progress.

PAKISTAN’S defence secretary said yesterday that a month-long offensive to crush Taliban fighters in north-west Swat could end within days, as fierce fighting spilled into a nearby tribal area.

The Pakistan military says it has regained control of the largest town in the Swat Valley from the Taliban.

Two explosions at a busy Pakistan market and a police checkpoint killed at least 11 people and wounded scores of others today.

The Taliban today admitted it was behind a bomb and gun attack in Lahore that killed 30 people, claiming it was revenge for the offensive against them in the country’s north-west..

The Taliban have urged civilians to return to the Swat Valley’s main city, promising they would not attack security forces out of concern for the safety of trapped residents.

THE Taliban urged civilians yesterday to return to the main town in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, promising that they won’t attack security forces battling insurgents there but it stopping short of calling the move a ceasefire.

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.

Pakistani security forces are fighting street battles with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley’s main urban centre, a critical phase in the effort to wrest the northwest region near Afghanistan out of insurgent hands.

Pakistan’s army said its troops have entered the main town in the Swat Valley and are engaging militants in street fights.

A DEADLY car bomb has killed six and injured 70 in the Pakistani city of Peshawar as the UN appealed for $543 million (€388m) to ease the suffering of nearly two million refugees from the fighting in the north-west.