BBC News with Julie Candler
Pakistan's intelligence chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha has offered to resign after facing tough questioning about the US special forces raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. General Pasha, who appeared before parliament with his military counterparts, said the offer was refused. Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.
It is unheard of in Pakistan for the head of the intelligence services to be
humiliate
d in this way.
Not only was he hauled in front of parliament to explain himself and the failings of his agency in the Bin Laden affair,
but according to some MPs who briefed the BBC he faced such
hostility
that at one point he told them they were treating him like an enemy. When asked about specifics on how Osama Bin Laden had been in Pakistan for so long without being detected, he said it wasn't time to answer questions like that. But that's not going to be enough for many Pakistanis, who feel a massive sense of embarrassment that the al-Qaeda leader was found here and killed in an American operation.
President Barack Obama has announced the resignation of the US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. Seventy-seven-year-old Mr Mitchell has led the administration's efforts to kick start the failed peace talks in the Middle East for the past two years.
President Obama said Mr Mitchell had always insisted he would only serve that amount of time in the position.