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RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – A suicide bomber attacked a Pakistani military bus taking medical corps staff to work in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Monday, killing himself and four military personnel, security officials said.

Militants have battled security forces in several parts of the northwest in recent weeks and briefly seized a main road tunnel 50 km (30 miles) from Peshawar city in late January.

LAHORE, Pakistan – A Pakistani lawyer who has spearheaded opposition to President Pervez Musharraf has come out of three months of detention as defiant as ever and insisting the president step down.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan – A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a Pakistani security force checkpost in the North Waziristan tribal region on Friday, killing six men, a security official said.

ISLAMABAD – A group of retired senior military officers said on Thursday President Pervez Musharraf should hand over power to the judge he sacked three months ago to ensure national elections are fair.

WASHINGTON – A senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday some fraud was to be expected in Pakistan’s elections on February 18 but the United States was working hard to ensure a poll that is “as free and fair as possible.”

ISLAMABAD – Gunmen who took up to 250 Pakistani school children hostage on Monday in a northwestern town freed them all and surrendered to tribal elders, a government spokesman said.

ISLAMABAD – Militants took hostage up to 250 Pakistani school children in the northwestern town of Bannu on Monday, the interior minister said.

KOHAT, Pakistan – Pakistani troops, backed by helicopter gunships, are battling pro-Taliban militants to recapture a key road tunnel leading to the volatile tribal belt on the Afghan border, the military said on Sunday.

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN – A bomb exploded in a crowded Shi’ite Muslim prayer hall in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday, killing four people and wounding several, a government spokesman said.