ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials took what could be a decisive step forward in the country's fight against Islamic extremism yesterday, publicly admitting for the first time that the Mumbai terrorist attacks were planned in and launched from Pakistan.

"Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan," Rehman Malik, the top security official in the Interior Ministry, told a news conference in Islamabad.

Pakistani officials had previously denied there was proof its citizens were involved in the November bombings, which killed some 170 people and pushed Pakistan and India to the verge of war.

CHARGES AGAINST SOLDIER DROPPED

FRANKFURT — The U.S. Army dropped charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder against a soldier in the deaths of four bound and blindfolded Iraqis in 2007.

In a brief statement yesterday, the Army said charges against Staff Sgt. Jess Cunningham of Bakersfield, Calif., had been withdrawn and dismissed. No reason was given and the 7th U.S. Army Joint Multinational Training Command did not elaborate.

Other soldiers allegedly involved in the incident are awaiting court-martial or have been sentenced to prison.

KING'S SON MARKS 1959 INDIA VISIT

ATLANTA — Martin Luther King III will lead a delegation including civil rights icons John Lewis and Andrew Young on a 13-day trip to India to mark the 50th anniversary of his parents' pilgrimage to the country to study nonviolence.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, traveled to India in 1959, four years after he successfully led the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., to end segregation on public transportation.

King was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who used civil disobedience in the struggle for Indian independence in the early 20th century, to end racism through nonviolence.

BEACH OPEN AFTER 2ND SHARK ATTACK

SYDNEY — Australia's most famous beach reopened today, hours after a surfer's arm was shredded by a shark — the second shark attack in Sydney in as many days.

The 33-year-old man, whose name was not released, was bitten yesterday around dusk at Sydney's popular Bondi Beach and suffered severe arm injuries, police said.

On Wednesday, a navy diver lost his hand after fighting off a shark in Sydney Harbour, not far from the Opera House. His leg also was badly mauled.