Senior aide to Pakistani Taliban commander surrenders to authorities: Official

A top aide to a Pakistani Taliban commander has surrendered to authorities. Government officials say this is the first by a Taliban commander's aide since the military operation in the area began 18 months ago.

Salar Mehsud and 17 other militants gave themselves up to authorities in the Bajur region. Bajur is in the northwestern tribal area on the border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani military offensive there is targeting militants. Mehsud was a close aide of Bajur Taliban chief Faqir Mohammad. Pakistan media reports say the two had recently fallen out and had begun fighting.

And in New York, a terror suspect has admitted to training with al-Qaeda in Pakistan's Waziristan region. 25-year-old Najibullah Zazi has pleaded guilty to planning suicide bomb attack on the city's subways in September last year. The Afghan immigrant faces life in prison.

Plain-clothes policemen escort a man believed to be a Taliban  commander to a district court in Karachi February 18, 2010. The  man, whom police identified as Abdullah, is a Pakistan Taliban  commander from the Bajaur region, police official Omar Shahid  said. The arrest in Pakistan of a top Afghan Taliban commander  should bolster Pakistan's position as it manoeuvres to play a  leading role in any Afghan peace process, but probably does not  signal a fundamental Pakistani policy shift. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro