Top Bush administration and Pentagon officials have held intensive consultations with Pakistan’s embattled military regime during the past two weeks with the aim of bolstering the autocratic rule of General Pervez Musharraf and securing increased Pakistani military support in staunching the insurgency against Afghanistan’s US-installed government.

A senior American officer involved in training Iraq’s new security forces is warning against putting too much responsibility on those forces too quickly, as pressure grows in the United States for the start of a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A video has been released showing kidnapped British Gaza-based journalist Alan Johnston in an apparent suicide bomber explosives belt and warning it will be detonated if an attempt is made to free him by force.