Pakistan Warns Petraeus on Missile Attacks

Pakistan is holding them in security compound for now

(NEWSER) - Osama bin Laden advised his children against a life of terror, according to one of his brothers-in-law. "He told his own children and grandchildren, go to Europe and America and get a good education," says Zakara al-Sadah, whose sister was the al-Qaeda chief's fifth wife. For now, Sadah claims, Pakistani authorities are holding nine bin Laden children and three wives—including Sadah's sister—in an Islamabad security compound against their will, reports the Daily Mail via The Sunday Times . More»

Yousaf Raza Gilani's trial will begin Feb. 13

(NEWSER) - It's official: Pakistan's Supreme Court says it's following through on its threat to charge Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with contempt for failing to pursue corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari and others, the New York Times reports. The trial will begin Feb. 13, and could permanently boot Gilani from parliament, and net him up to six months in jail. More»

Defense chief also calls for release of doctor who helped catch him

(NEWSER) - Defense chief Leon Panetta talks about the capture of Osama bin Laden with CBS' 60 Minutes in an interview airing tomorrow, and two main points are generating headlines:

• Pakistan knew? He suspects government authorities knew bin Laden was in Abbottabad, notes the Hill . "I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound," he said. Why? Start with those 18-foot walls. "It was the largest compound in the area. So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell's going on there?’” In fact, the US didn't tip off Pakistan about the raid because it feared word would get out to bin Laden, he added.

Chaos reigns in Islamabad as bridge between military, government is ousted

(AP) - Pakistan's government fired the defense secretary today and the army warned of "grievous consequences" for the country, escalating a political and legal crisis that some believe could end in the dismissal of the government. Retired Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi, an army loyalist seen as a bridge between the generals and the civilian government, was dismissed for "gross misconduct and illegal action" and replaced with a bureaucrat close to Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani. More»

Officials insist there was no moratorium

(NEWSER) - The US' drone war in Pakistan is back on. The US launched its first strike last night since a November attack that killed 28 Pakistani soldiers and ratcheted the already fraught tensions between the two nations to a new high. The attack hit a North Waziristan home just before midnight, killing at least four, the AP reports. "It was an unusually big bang," one local college student says. "In the morning, we saw a modest mud house had been destroyed." More»