Abbottabad

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has arrested a Frenchman accused of being a prominent al-Qaeda militant, officials said Wednesday, a reminder of the country's vital role in the war on terror at a time of deteriorating relations with the United States. The arrest shows the additional challenges facing a country already trying to salvage its stumbling economy and pull itself out of a deepening political crisis. The president has called for parliament to elect a new prime minister Friday after Yousuf Raza Gilani was dismissed over a corruption probe.

He did what he said he would do. Five times I have interviewed President Obama, and in each conversation I raised the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Going back through the tapes and transcripts, I'm reminded that he was as consistent in his remarks as I was in repeatedly asking. And in the end, it went down just the way he promised. That bin Laden was hiding in plain view, in the shadow of the military academy of the Pakistani army, in a community noted for the numbers of its military retirees, is testament to Pakistan's obfuscation of our objectives.

Tough presidential decisions George Parry's story of President Obama leading "confused" SEALs into action was plain nonsense, but great reading ("Obama should stop celebrating," Sunday). Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's D-Day decision was "monumentally difficult. " However, on that day, he was safely in England, where the supreme commander of the Allied Forces correctly should be. Difficult decisions are what military commanders make. Harry Truman, a Democrat, also made a very difficult decision with worldwide consequences from the safety and comfort of his office.

FORGET ORLANDO! Pakistani officials say the government plans to build a recreation complex in the town where al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. Syed Aqil Shah , sports and tourism minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Monday the project in Abbottabad will have a zoo, paragliding club and water-sports facilities, and is part of a revival of recreational and cultural activities in the province - and is not intended to counter Abbottabad's negative reputation following bin Laden's discovery there.

WASHINGTON - Initial analysis of the huge cache of documents seized at Osama bin Laden's compound shows he was not a figurehead but the operational leader of al-Qaeda - an active manager who communicated regularly with terrorist partners about plots and tactics, a senior intelligence official said. "As a result of the raid, we've acquired the single largest collection of material from a senior terrorist ever," said the official, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity. "The materials have already provided us some important insights.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Doctors Without Borders condemned the CIA's secret use of a vaccination program as cover for spying on Osama bin Laden's house in Pakistan, saying Thursday that the ploy would damage public-health efforts in poor countries. The medical charity described the ruse by U.S. intelligence agents as a "grave manipulation of the medical act" that threatened immunization work by doctors and nurses in developing countries. "The risk is that vulnerable communities - anywhere - needing access to essential health services will understandably question the true motivation of medical workers and humanitarian aid," Unni Karunakara, the group's international president, said in a statement.

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan - That Osama bin Laden was found in this Pakistani town that hosts three army regiments and is not far from the capital has increased suspicions in Washington that Islamabad might have been sheltering him. The United States acted alone in Monday's predawn helicopter raid, did not inform Pakistan until it was over, and pointedly did not thank Pakistan at the end of a wildly successful operation. All this suggests that more strain lies ahead in a relationship that is already frayed, with the United States accusing Pakistan of supporting Afghan extremists and Pakistanis angry over American drone attacks and spy activity.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Two militants attacked a police station in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, fighting gun battles before blowing themselves up during a five-hour standoff that killed at least 10 officers, authorities said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which involved a female suicide bomber, saying it was partly in revenge for the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Similar recent attacks have underscored the vulnerability of Pakistan's security establishment, which is reeling from humiliation after the unilateral U.S. raid.

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN - Osama bin Laden spent his last weeks in a house divided, amid wives riven by suspicions. On the top floor, sharing his bedroom, was his youngest wife and favorite. The trouble came when his eldest wife showed up and moved into the bedroom on the floor below. Others in the family, crammed into the three-story villa compound where bin Laden would eventually be killed in a May 2 U.S. raid, were convinced that the eldest wife intended to betray the al Qaeda leader.

Before President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was dead, the news already had spread to all corners of the world and a lot of it was pushed out through social media. A computer programmer working late near bin Laden's mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan, realized - after the fact - that he had inadvertently written the first public account of the military operation on Twitter.com. "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)," tweeted Sohaib Athar at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.