Pakistan

A suspected U.S. missile attack killed at least eight militants Wednesday, including several foreigners, in the stronghold of Pakistan's top Taliban commander, intelligence officials said. The strike came as the Obama administration prepares to unveil a new strategy to quell Islamist insurgents threatening Pakistan as well as neighboring Afghanistan and to keep the pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in the region.

A senior Democratic senator expressed concerns Wednesday about the Obama administration's plan to triple nonmilitary aid to Pakistan, saying he wasn't sure that would push Islamabad to take more aggressive action against extremists. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, raised questions about the Pakistani government's willingness to forcefully confront militants who have destabilized that country and neighboring Afghanistan.

An American U.N. worker abducted more than two months ago turned up Saturday, lying alongside a road in western Pakistan with his hands and feet bound, pleading "Help me," said the man who found him. John Solecki was found in a village 30 miles south of Quetta near the Afghan border after his captors called a local news agency to tell them where to look, officials said. Mohammed Anwar, who owns a restaurant along the main highway to Karachi, said he found Solecki in the dirt near a wall.

At least 62 people suffocated in the back of a truck packed with illegal migrants, and dozens were rescued unconscious after Pakistani police acting on a tip opened the vehicle Saturday near the Afghan border. Rasool Bakhsh, a senior Pakistani police official in the city of Quetta, said the truck carrying a shipping container entered Pakistan from Afghanistan and was headed for Iran. He said most of the victims were Afghans.

After a fitful day of meetings and government threats, a group of Pakistani Taliban fighters grabbed their guns Friday, jumped into their trucks and headed back toward the Swat Valley, relieving fears that they might continue on toward Islamabad, the capital of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Although recent headlines suggest that the Taliban has left Buner district, only 60 miles from the Pakistani capital, the facts Saturday told another story. Throughout the day, militants in black turbans with cloths over their faces could be seen brandishing automatic weapons in vehicles around the bazaars and on the main roads. Their stereos blared religious songs, and their presence was particularly evident at strategic locations such as key intersections.

The Pakistani government has agreed to allow the U.S. a greater role in training its military, part of an accord that will also send counterinsurgency equipment to help Islamabad step up its offensive against militants. Washington has been watching with growing alarm as Taliban forces have made military gains in Pakistan and U.S. officials have stepped up pressure on Islamabad to do more. Although the Pakistani military launched an air attack against the Taliban on Tuesday, senior U.S.

Soldiers sent to halt a Taliban advance toward the Pakistani capital fought their way over a mountain pass Thursday, killed at least 14 militants and narrowly escaped a wave of suicide car bombers, the army said. Troops ousted militants from the Ambela Pass leading over the mountains into Buner and were inching toward the north, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. Soldiers opened fire on four suspected suicide car bombers who drove toward them near the pass, Abbas said.

President Obama begins two days of talks at the White House today with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to overhaul a painstakingly developed security strategy that was unveiled only five weeks ago but already has become badly outdated. The three countries spent months developing their plan to combat an Islamic insurgency centered in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. But growing militant activity in Pakistan is forcing them to hastily switch focus.

President Obama and the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, setting aside months of friction, committed themselves again Wednesday to their faltering joint effort against Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists. After a day of talks, Obama said he was satisfied that the leaders "fully appreciate the seriousness of the threats we face and have reaffirmed their commitment to confronting it." Obama also moved to quell any doubts about U.S.