Pakistan arrests five suspected al-Qaida terrorists plotting wave of suicide attacks

PAKISTAN announced that it has arrested at least five al-Qaida-linked terrorists who had been plotting to launch suicide attacks on government leaders and the US Embassy.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters security forces had captured five or six suspects - one Egyptian, the others Pakistani - in the past week across the country, and had seized weapons.

Authorities were hunting for four or five other suspects, he said.