A top US military officer says a Nato attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers was not deliberate, while Pakistan maintains Nato forces were alerted.

Senior al-Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri, regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world, was killed by a US drone.

Al-Qaeda has acknowledged that Osama bin Laden is dead, dispelling the doubts of some Muslims over whether the group’s leader had really been killed.

Floods caused by a week of heavy rain have killed more than 1 000 people in Pakistan’s north-west.

A commercial Pakistani passenger plane with 152 people on board crashed in bad weather on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people, officials said.

Pakistan’s government came under pressure on Saturday to bring stability to the country after one of the bloodiest bombings in more than two years.