Pakistan Taliban chief claims Lahore attack

The commander of the Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for a deadly assault on a police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on the White House that would "amaze" the world.

Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5m (£3.5m) bounty on his head from the US, said Monday's attack outside the eastern city of Lahore was in retaliation for US missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.

A spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry said an investigation was under way into the attack but it was too early to respond to Mehsud's claim. Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, has said that authorities had information linking the attack to Mehsud. He said one of the attackers had arrived in Lahore two weeks ago from Mehsud's tribal stronghold of South Waziristan, near the border with Pakistan, and rented a house.