'Up to Pak to decide whether they want US troops or not'

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Amid anger in Pakistan over a US covert operation raid that led to Osama bin Laden's death, the Pentagon has said that it was up to Islamabad to decide whether they want American troops to remain in the country or not.

The comments came a day after the Pakistani army decided "to reduce the strength of US military personnel in Pakistan to the minimum essential".

"The chairman has repeatedly noted that the small number of US military trainers in Pakistan are there at the invitation of the Pakistani government, and therefore subject to that government's prerogatives," said a spokesman of Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

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Obama defends bin Laden sea burial as "respectful"

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President Barack Obama said US forces were "respectful of the body" of Osama bin Laden when they buried his remains at sea, despite criticism from some Muslim clerics that it violated Islamic practice.

"We took more care on this than, obviously, bin Laden took when he killed 3,000 people. He didn't have much regard for how they were treated and desecrated," Obama told CBS's " 60 Minutes" program, referring to the September 11, 2001, attacks that the al-Qaida leader masterminded.

"But that, again, is something that makes us different. And I think we handled it appropriately," Obama said, according to an advance excerpt of an interview that will air in full on Sunday.

Questions have multiplied since the White House said bin Laden was unarmed when U.S. helicopter-borne commandos shot and killed him on Monday at the fortified villa where he had been hiding in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

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Al-Qaida plotted 9/11 anniversary rail attack: US

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Al-Qaida considered attacking the US rail sector on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, US government officials said on Thursday in describing intelligence from Osama bin Laden's hide-out in Pakistan.

They said some evidence was found indicating the al-Qaida leader or his associates had engaged in discussions or planning for a possible attack on a train inside the United States on September 11, 2011.

"We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the US rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting," spokesman Matthew Chandler said of an intelligence message the Department of Homeland Security sent on Thursday.

The department and other US agencies have been reviewing the treasure trove of information from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan seized by the United States during the raid this week that killed the al-Qaida leader.

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