Pakistan | featured news

Republican presidential contenders jousted over Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East on Tuesday night in a tense national security debate that laid out sharply contrasting views on how to keep America safe from attack.

Pakistan's Taliban movement, a major security threat to the country, is holding exploratory peace talks with the U.S.-backed government, a senior Taliban commander and mediators told Reuters on Monday.

Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to a private Pakistani TV channel broadcast on Saturday.

It seems as if violence is everywhere, but it's really on the run. Yes, thousands of people have died in bloody unrest from Africa to Pakistan, while terrorists plot bombings and kidnappings. Wars drag on in Iraq and Afghanistan. In peaceful Norway, a man massacred 69 youths in July. In Mexico, headless bodies turn up, victims of drug cartels. This month eight people died in a shooting in a California hair salon.

Pakistan has denied the Afghan government's claim its spy agency was involved in the killing of Afghanistan's envoy for Taliban peace talks.

Pakistan would not tolerate any incursion on its territory by U.S. forces targeting militant groups, the country's interior minister said on Thursday, calling for Washington to provide the intelligence Islamabad needs to take them out itself.

American officials have blamed the bold attack on the U.S. Embassy on a Pakistan-based group allied with the Taliban.

Two flights operated by Pakistan's state-owned airline received bombs threats on Wednesday, and both landed safely, one in Turkey, the other in Malaysia, officials said....

Military officials in Pakistan announced the arrest of three men on Monday they said were senior Al Qaeda operatives who had been planning attacks on Western targets.

The number two leader of al Qaeda, Atiyah abd al-Rahman, was killed on August 22 in Pakistan, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday.