Pakistan

The Pakistani army has exceeded expectations in its offensive against Taliban fighters in northwestern Pakistan, effectively marshaling arms, tactics and political support. But the tougher challenge will be preventing the extremists from returning, or from regrouping elsewhere. "The key question is whether the army can hold the ground afterward," said Urmila Venugopalan, a South Asia expert with the defense analysis group Jane's.

The chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mahsud, and close associates attended the funeral of a militant commander in the country's tribal areas but left before a suspected U.S. drone attack that killed dozens of people, residents said Wednesday. The area where the attack occurred, the Bekh Mary Langara region of South Waziristan, is remote and there was no independent confirmation of the number of casualties.

Nearly two months after Taliban militants expanded from their stronghold in the Swat Valley into neighboring Buner district, touching off an army offensive to remove them, there are early signs here that life is slowly returning to normal. Bazaars have reopened in the two biggest towns, Daggar and Ambela. Power is back up in several larger communities. Men are mixing cement and rebuilding damaged walls.

A U.N. official and a guard were shot and killed Thursday during an attempted kidnapping at a displacement camp in northwestern Pakistan, underscoring the level of violence plaguing the country even as government leaders say it's safe for camp dwellers to return to the volatile Swat Valley. The slayings occurred at the Kacha Garhi camp outside Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan's largest city. Zelle Usman, a Pakistani field officer with the Office of the U.N.

U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday that they believe Osama Bin Laden's son and potential heir in the Al Qaeda terrorist network was killed this year by a Predator missile strike in Pakistan. Saad Bin Laden has been portrayed as the Bin Laden son closest to his father and most involved in Al Qaeda's activities. However, he was never seen as an operational leader. "There are some indications that he may be dead, but it's not 100% certain," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official.

Ethel Khurshid Gil gingerly held out the charred Bible she pulled from the rubble of her home, using a swatch of cellophane to keep the scorched pages from scattering in the hot wind. "Look how they've destroyed our Bibles!" the 47-year-old Christian Pakistani cried out.

U.S. and Pakistani authorities are investigating reports that Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mahsud was killed in an American missile strike, officials of both countries say. If confirmed, Mahsud's death would represent a significant victory in the bid by Pakistan and the U.S. to eliminate the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region. Mahsud, believed to be 35, is aligned with Al Qaeda and is thought to be responsible for dozens of suicide bombings, beheadings and other killings all over Pakistan.

Six days ago, a Pakistani journalist on the run from Taliban militants landed in the United States holding a valuable key to sanctuary: a visa granting him the right to work for the Voice of America radio service for one year. But today Rahman Bunairee is in an immigration lockup in Virginia after being detained upon his arrival at Dulles International Airport. "We are concerned and upset" about the detention, said Joan Mower, a spokeswoman for the VOA, which is funded by the U.S. government.

Radio Khyber airs in the heart of Pakistan's wild and volatile tribal areas, where women are bound by strict centuries-old codes of conduct handed down by generations of Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in northwestern Pakistan. The code's tenets are oppressive and nonnegotiable. Women should confine themselves to their homes and the sole task of raising children. When they go to markets and other public places, a male relative should accompany them. And their voices should never be heard by strangers.

The classroom swelters in 102-degree heat. The students, all boys in first and second grade, wipe the sweat off their faces as they bark out a spelling exercise in unison. " A-P-P-L-E, apple! B-O-X, box! M-O-N-K-E-Y, monkey!" School is back in session for the children of Swat, the verdant, mountainous valley that this year became the prime battlefield in the Pakistani military's bid to neutralize local Taliban groups. After more than two months of fighting, soldiers regained control of Swat's major towns, and thousands of refugees who fled the conflict have been returning home.