Pakistan

Pakistani jets screamed over this Taliban-controlled town Friday and bombed suspected militant positions as hundreds of thousands fled and trapped residents appealed for a pause in the fighting so they could escape. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 140 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours, in addition to about 150 already reported slain. He didn't provide figures for civilian deaths, but witnesses and local news reports say that some have been killed.

Islamic militants who burn schools and threaten women in the name of religious purity. A righteous force battling corrupt and venal officials. Or gun-waving gangsters who conceal their crimes under a banner of spiritual renewal. Weeks of turmoil have made it appear as though a unified Taliban is on the march out of the wild northwest, staking out strategic ground for an assault on Pakistan's heartland. But who exactly the Taliban is may rest in the eye of the beholder.

Tens of thousands of civilians, many on foot or donkey-led carts, on Sunday took advantage of a lifted curfew to flee Pakistan's embattled Swat Valley, and the army said it had killed 400 to 500 militants in its battle against the Taliban. The hemorrhaging of residents from a scenic valley that once attracted hordes of tourists threatened to exacerbate an internal refugee crisis for a nuclear-armed nation already facing economic, political and other woes.

At the entrance to the Hazrat Usman camp just south of the Swat Valley, a welcoming committee greets those fleeing violence between the government and militants with a cool glass of water, a meal and a place to sleep with fans and a pharmacy. Though camp organizers don't voice any overt sympathy for the Taliban, their view is clear: The entire crisis is a creation of the government and the army. Two miles up the road sits the much larger government-run Jalala camp.

The U.S. military has flown drones into Pakistan at least a dozen times in recent weeks in cooperation with the Pakistanis as part of a new program, U.S. officials acknowledged Wednesday. The military conducted test flights in March to demonstrate intelligence gathering capabilities to the Pakistanis. Those were followed by Pakistani requests for additional Predator flights to collect intelligence on suspected militants, said an official from U.S.

A car bomb ripped through an Internet cafe and other businesses Saturday in a congested neighborhood of Peshawar, killing at least 11 people, including two disabled students and two teachers in a passing bus. A second bomb exploded in the northwestern city several hours later, wounding four people. The bombings came amid continued bloodshed across Pakistan, with residents of a rural tribal region reporting 29 deaths from a suspected U.S.

The Obama administration has appealed to China to provide training and even military equipment to help Pakistan counter a growing militant threat, U.S. officials said. The proposal is part of a broad push by Washington to enlist key allies of Pakistan in the effort to stabilize the country. The U.S. is seeking to persuade Islamabad to step up its efforts against militants, while supporting the fragile civilian government and the nation's tottering economy. Richard C.

There was little time to think. With bursts of gunfire ringing out from overhead, three families found themselves trapped in farmer Mir Kamal's candy red minivan, unable to escape. Bullets tore through the roof, the rear window and side panel, hitting some of the children inside. Kamal ordered his wife and children out, hoping the sight of them would stop the gunfire. Eventually, it did. But not before more of them were hit, one fatally.

The Darul Uloom Haqqania campus is a sprawling labyrinth of ashen buildings where young men in black beards and white skullcaps spend their days and nights on hard concrete floors learning all 77,701 words of the Koran. Some people call it the University of Jihad. The fact that some of Haqqania's graduates go on to become Taliban fighters and suicide bombers isn't the school's concern, said Syed Yousef Shah, the head of the 3,000- student madrasa, or Islamic seminary.

The first thing you notice about the protest is the protesters. They're all men. Given the conservative nature of the group and the charged nature of the issue, women are not taking part, even if they have a great stake in the outcome. The second thing you notice are the signs. "Go Taliban Go!" they exclaim, like some high school cheerleader. Wait a minute. Isn't this an anti-Taliban demonstration, being staged in front of a posh Islamabad shopping center?