Islamabad, Apr. 4 : The Taliban has denied that the flogging of a 17-year-girl took place in the Swat Valley.

"The act is in accordance with shariah, but the flogging did not happen in Swat," The News quoted Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Muslim Khan, as saying.

Khan said the punishment was according to what is described in the shariah.

Islamabad, Apr. 4 : Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has taken suo motu notice of the flogging of a girl in the Swat Valley.

Chaudhry has asked the federal interior secretary, the NWFP chief secretary and the NWFP inspector general of police to appear before the court on Monday.

Lahore, Apr. 4 : Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif has claimed that he has forgotten his anger in the national interest and agreed to work with other parties for building Pakistan.

Addressing party workers in Raiwind, he said he wanted to support the government for fulfilling the national agenda, but linked his working with the government to the implementation of the Charter of Democracy.

Islamabad, Apr. 4 : Days after intelligence agencies warned that over a dozen terrorists have entered Islamabad and Lahore in the garb of religious preachers, intelligence sources have now revealed that nine militants have sneaked into Punjab and are planning to carry out attacks similar to the Manawan police training academy strike.

According to The Nation, the group of terrorists also includes two would-be suicide bombers aged 20 and 22 years respectively.

Peshawar, Apr. 4: The videotaped footage showing a teenage girl being whipped by the Taliban wasn''t the only barbaric instance of this sort by the radicals in the recent past.

Last year, the Swat Taliban awarded punishment of public flogging to about 25 men and 50 women, after the Pakistan Government authorized the militant group to hold courts and deliver justice.

Islamabad  - Pakistan's top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud Saturday claimed responsibility for the shootings at an US immigration services centre in New York state that killed 13 people.

"I accept the responsibility. They were my men," Mehsud told reporters in Peshawar on phone from some undisclosed location.

A lone gunman took more than 40 immigrants hostage Friday when they were taking a citizenship class at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, located around 225 kilometres north-west of New York city.