ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani court on Monday granted bail to former army chief and president Pervez Musharraf who has been under house arrest on charges of failing to provide adequate security for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto before her 2007 assassination. Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, returned to Pakistan in March after nearly four years of self-imposed exile to contest a May 11 general election, but he was disqualified from standing because of pending court cases.

Bangladeshi rescuers pulled a woman alive from the ruins of a collapsed garment factory complex on Friday after she spent 17 days trapped in a basement under the rubble. Hours after officials had announced the death toll had surged past the 1,000 mark, recovery teams who had long given up any hope of finding more survivors were stunned to hear the voice of a woman calling for help. They managed to extract her from the ruins in an operation broadcast live on television and watched by crowds at the scene who were asked by clerics to pray for her rescue.

Bangladeshi rescuers pulled a woman alive from the ruins of a collapsed garment factory complex on Friday after she spent 17 days trapped in a basement under the rubble. Hours after officials had announced that the death toll had surged past the 1,000 mark, recovery teams who had long given up any hope of finding more survivors were stunned to hear the voice of a woman calling out for help. They then managed to pull her from out of the ruins in an operation broadcast live on television and watched over by growing crowds at the scene who were asked by clerics to pray for her.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed veteran U.S. diplomat James Dobbins as Washington's new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Friday. Dobbins, head of international security and defense at the RAND National Defense Research Institute and a former senior U.S. diplomat, will replace Marc Grossman as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.