France’s prime minister has rejected suggestions that anti-terrorism authorities fell down on the job in monitoring a radical Islamist who gunned down seven people in a wave of killings that revolted the country.

Inspired by radical Islam and trained in Afghanistan, the gunman methodically killed French schoolchildren, a rabbi and paratroopers and faced down hundreds of police for 32 hours.

An Islamic extremist who boasted of killing seven people died today after jumping from his window, gun in hand, in a fierce shootout with French police.

The man suspected of carrying out an al-Qaida-linked killing spree, Mohammed Merah, is dead after a 32-hour siege in Toulouse, a police union official says.

Riot police set off explosions outside an apartment building in an effort to force the surrender of a gunman who boasted of bringing France “to its knees” with an al-Qaida-linked terror spree that killed seven people.

Three explosions were heard last night outside the home of the gunman wanted for shooting seven people dead.

As Mohammed Merah’s stand-off with French police came to a climax late last night, French television released a picture of the gunman wanted for shooting seven people.

The gunman wanted for shooting seven people dead plans to turn himself in to French police surrounding him at night “to be more discreet,” the Interior Minister says.

Police raided the French school gunman’s home as he was poised to carry out another series of shootings, a prosecutor said.

Eleven Taliban militants were killed in two American drone strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal regions today, officials said.

Al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, US and Pakistani officials said today.

Al-Qaida’s second in command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, a senior Obama administration official said today.

PAKISTAN has called on the US to share information about new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri after US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said he believed that Osama bin Laden’s successor was in Pakistan.

ON the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq the lessons of two disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been learned.

SELF-CONFESSED terrorist Faisal Shahzad was so eager to tell how he plotted to kill Americans in Times Square he went to court with a prepared statement.

Two top Obama administration chiefs have told Pakistan that it has only weeks to show real progress in a crackdown against the country's Taliban, a senior US official said.

Up to 18 American missiles slammed into a Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan close to the Afghan border today, killing 14 alleged insurgents in the third such strike since a failed car bombing in New York drew fresh attention to the region, officials said.

Suspected US missiles killed 10 people in a militant-controlled region close to the Afghan border today, the first such strike since an alleged Pakistani-trained extremist was linked to a bombing attempt in Times Square.

THE US government has ordered airlines to check updated no-fly lists within two hours of being notified of changes in the wake of the failed Times Square bomb attack.

The US government has ordered airlines to check updated no-fly lists within two hours of being notified of changes in the wake of the failed Times Square bomb attack.

A claim by the Pakistani Taliban that it was behind the Times Square bomb attempt should be "taken with a pinch of salt", a spokesman for Pakistan's army said today.

The no-fly list failed to keep the Times Square suspect off the plane, it has emerged.

A suicide car bomber struck a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore today, killing at least 11 people and wounding scores more including women and children heading to school.

At least 19 people died as Pakistani commandos freed dozens of hostages seized by militants at the army's own headquarters today.

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.

Pakistan’s Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been killed by a US missile strike.

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.

Pakistani jet fighters flattened at least three suspected Taliban training facilities in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region today, killing or wounding several insurgents, two senior intelligence officials said.

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.

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 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..

Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border towards India today amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks.

Suspected US missiles slammed into two Pakistani villages close to the Afghan border, killing 29 people including several suspected foreign militants, intelligence officials said.

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

Two men secretly filmed mixing the type of explosive used in London’s July 7 bombings were today convicted in Denmark of preparing a terrorist attack.

PAKISTAN’S military has ordered its forces to open fire if US troops launch another air or ground raid across the Afghan border, an army spokesman said.

More than 80% of suicide bombers in Afghanistan are recruited and trained in neighbouring Pakistan, the United Nations said today in a report that showed attacks running at record levels this year.

At least 24 people were killed and 66 injured when two bombs ripped through a Pakistani army bus and a commercial district in a city near the capital Islamabad today.

Thousands of troops were deployed to north-west Pakistan to try dissuading outlawed Islamic militants from launching a holy war against the government for its bloody attack on a radical mosque, officials said today.

TRIBESMEN have killed about 300 foreign militants during a weeks-long offensive in the mountainous region of Waziristan, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, according to Pakistan’s military leader and president General Pervez Musharraf.

A suicide car bomber attacked a military convoy in north-western Pakistan, killing himself and at least four soldiers.

When Taliban militant Syed Azizullah died during fighting in southern Afghanistan, his body was sent to his native Pakistan where a provincial official gave a eulogy before hundreds of Pashtun tribesmen. A flag of the Islamist militia fluttered by the grave.

Fierce battles between US and government forces and Taliban-led militants have left about 64 rebels dead, the US military said today, the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months.

The US' top commander in Afghanistan has questioned Pakistan’s commitment to fight Taliban and al-Qaida militants along the border, saying appeasing extremists will only put off an inevitable battle.