PAKISTAN

Pakistani lawyers for five young Americans accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting terrorist attacks sought their release on bail on Tuesday, saying the prosecution lacked evidence.

Iraq is the country most at risk from terrorist attacks for the second straight year, according to a ranking by global analysts Maplecroft, while Thailand has joined the nine countries most in danger for the first time.

Indian police were questioning several people on Tuesday in connection with a bomb attack that killed 10 people in a western city after viewing closed-circuit television footage, officials said.

The Taliban's top military commander was captured in Pakistan, U.S. and Pakistani officials said on Tuesday, but the move may not deal a decisive blow to a group putting up fierce resistance to a NATO offensive.

The Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been captured in Pakistan in a joint raid by Pakistani and U.S. spy agencies, a U.S. official said on Monday, confirming a report of the capture in The New York Times.

Many Pakistani lawyers boycotted courts on Monday in a protest against President Asif Ali Zardari, who is embroiled in a potentially destabilizing dispute with the judiciary over the appointment of judges.

U.S. Marines spearheaded one of NATO's biggest offensives against the Taliban in Afghanistan on Saturday, in an early test of President Barack Obama's troop surge policy.

The United Nations vented frustration on Thursday at the lack of progress at the world's only multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, calling on its members to show more flexibility and get down to work.

The British government failed on Wednesday in a legal challenge to keep secret U.S. intelligence material relating to allegations of cruel and inhuman treatment involving the CIA.

India aims to test a new nuclear-capable missile with a range of more than 5000-km (3,100- miles), a top military scientist said on Wednesday, a move that could complicate security in a volatile region.

Pakistan said on Wednesday it had information suggesting Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of wounds inflicted in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in January.

At least 15 Indian soldiers were killed after an avalanche smashed into a military training camp near the country's disputed border with Pakistan on Monday, police and army said.

Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi was tense on Saturday a day after two bombs killed 31 people, raising further questions about the effectiveness of security crackdowns on al Qaeda-linked militants.

A suspected suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Shi'ite Muslims in a crowded bus in Pakistan's commercial capital Friday, hospital and police officials said.

Pakistani police have arrested 30 suspects in connection with a bombing that killed three American soldiers, three children and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier outside a girls' school, an officer said.

Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb on Wednesday that killed three U.S. soldiers outside a girls school in the northwest of the country and threatened more attacks on Americans.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will seek Saudi Arabia's spiritual influence and probably its financial clout to reconcile with the Taliban during talks with King Abdullah this week.

(In Feb 1 story, corrects $159 million to billion in first paragraph, and corrects name of defense secretary in paragraph 6)

(In Feb 1 story, corrects $159 million to billion in first paragraph, and corrects name of defense secretary in paragraph 6)

President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defence spending for fiscal 2011, but vowed to continue his drive to eliminate unnecessary, wasteful weapons programs.

Afghanistan's neighbours met in Turkey on Tuesday seeking a single voice before a London conference to set a timetable for handing security over to Afghans and find ways to negotiate peace with the Taliban.