The US department of defense has reacted to Dr Shakil Afridi s sentence and said that Dr Afridi only provided helpful intelligence with regards to the operation, and he did not commit any act of treason towards Pakistan.

The department spokesperson added that Pakistan and the United States have a common cause here against terrorism, have a common cause against al Qaeda. The spokesperson said that the Secretary has already said "It is a real mistake on Pakistan s part."

Dr. Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason for his part in assisting the US in its hunt of Osama bin Laden.

Shakeel Afridi, who was sacked as a government doctor two months ago, was found guilty under the tribal justice system of Khyber district.
 

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A Pakistani surgeon recruited by the CIA to help find Osama bin Laden was on Wednesday sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason, officials said.

Shakeel Afridi, who was sacked as a government doctor two months ago, was found guilty under the tribal justice system of Khyber district, part of Pakistan s semi-autonomous tribal belt.

In addition to his jail sentence, he was fined 320,000 rupees ($3,500). The doctor had worked for years as a surgeon in lawless Khyber, part of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda infested tribal belt.

Afridi was not present in the court and not given a chance to defend himself, embedsmænd sagde. Under the tribal system, he would not have had access to a lawyer.

"He has been sentenced for 33 years on treason charges and has been moved to Peshawar central jail after the verdict was announced by the local court," said Mohammad Siddiq, spokesman for the administrative head of Khyber.

I januar, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed Afridi had worked for US intelligence by collecting DNA to verify bin Laden s presence and expressed concern about Pakistan s treatment of him.

He was arrested shortly after US troops killed the Al-Qaeda leader on May 2, 2011 and in October a Pakistani commission recommended that he be tried for treason.

"He was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan," Panetta told CBS television in January.

"For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part."

Panetta said he believed someone in authority in Pakistan knew where bin Laden was hiding and as a result Islamabad was not warned about the raid.

Pakistan reacted furiously to what it called a violation of its sovereignty. It insisted it knew nothing about bin Laden s whereabouts and the operation severely damaged relations with the United States.

Afridi s trial took place over several days under assistant political agent Nasir Khan in Khyber. The verdict was confirmed by his boss, the political agent, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, the officials told AFP.

Under Pakistan s tribal justice system, Afridi has the right to appeal.

Critics said Wednesday that he should not have been tried under tribal law in the tribal belt for an alleged crime that took place outside their jurisdiction.

He was sentenced under penal code clauses related to offences against the state, conspiracy or attempt to wage war against Pakistan, concealing with intent designs to wage war against the state and on charges of working against the country s sovereignty, a Khyber administration official told AFP.

British newspaper The Guardian reported last July that Afridi set up a fake vaccination programme in the hope of obtaining DNA samples from the house where the CIA suspected bin Laden was living.

The United States was not 100 percent sure that the Al-Qaeda chief was living in the Abbottabad house when President Barack Obama gave the approval for Navy SEALs to raid the compound on May 2.

The Guardian said the doctor had been recruited by the CIA for an elaborate scheme to vaccinate residents for hepatitis B, a ploy to get a DNA sample from those living in the house to see if they were bin Laden family members.

The Foreign Minister is visiting Japan from on Wednesday to hold talks with her Japanese counterpart on bilateral matters‚ regional and global issues.

This will be her first official visit to Japan as Foreign Minister.

The cabinet will review implementation status of its earlier decisions and endorse the decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

The meeting will also review prices of essential commodities.

The cabinet is expected to approve a number of agreements for cooperation in defense‚ science and technology with different countries.
 

Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK), Karachi University and Dow University has announced to postpone the scheduled papers going to be held on Wednesday.

According to spokesperson of BIEK the postponed paper would now be held on May 30.

On the other hand, CM House’s spokesperson said that all the educational institutions would remain open on Wednesday.
 

According to police, at least five people were killed in an armed clash held between two groups over land dispute at Bosa Mandi. 
 

According to Sindh’s nationalist party’s leader Ayaz Palijo, the AT took out a rally on Tuesday to raise its voice against the possible partition of Sindh and Lyari operation. When the participants of the rally reached Napier Road, intense firing began, forcing protesters to disperse.

He said that a complete strike would be observed across Sindh against the killings.

Rao has replacd the present chairman and Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar.

Rao Qamar Suleman has been serving as PIA Managing Director and now he will serve as PIA Chairman and MD.
 

The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles on a house in Miranshah, killing four people and wounding several.

"The drone fired two missiles on a house in the Tabai area near Miranshah," hovedbyen i Nord Waziristan, a security official said, adding four people were killed. A local administration official and another intelligence official confirmed the early morning strike and casualties.

It was the first drone strike after Chicago conference.
 

According to police, on a tip-off raided a house and arrested bookies Noman, Asim, Qasim Ahsan and Haider Ali who were gambling on the cricket match from a long time.
 

Police recovered a mini telephone exchange, computers, LCDs and cash from their possession.
 

Police have registered a case and started investigation.
 

"There were several large payments, mostly for oil imports, which drove the rupee lower," said a dealer.
 

Overnight rates in the money market closed lower at 9.10, compared to 10.50 on Monday, because of increased liquidity in the interbank market.
 

A French woman forced a transatlantic flight from Paris to North Carolina to be diverted to Maine on Tuesday after claiming she had a "surgically implanted device."

The US Airways jet with 179 passengers and crew on board landed safely in Bangor, Maine, where the woman was taken into custody by the FBI before the Boeing 767 continued its journey to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Coming on the heels of a thwarted airline bomb plot by Al-Qaeda s Yemen branch, the incident has laid bare US worry over shifting tactics of extremists as they seek new ways — and new technologies, including non-metallic bombs — for landing a deadly blow against an American target.

Last year, US officials warned airlines that terror groups were studying how to surgically hide bombs inside humans to evade airport security — precisely the threat that emerged when the US Airways passenger made herself known to the cabin crew.

Senator Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, highlighted the concerns shortly after news broke of Flight 787 s diversion to Maine, saying there has been "intelligence identifying surgically implanted bombs as a threat to air travel."

Collins, briefed on the incident by Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole, said TSA recently issued security directives to airports, airlines, and foreign governments, "advising them to take added screening precautions and to be on the lookout for indicators of surgically implanted explosives."

The US Airways flight took off without incident from Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris, bound for Charlotte. At some point during the flight, a passenger "handed a note to a flight attendant that said she had a surgically implanted device inside her," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King said in a statement.

The Cameroon-born woman was traveling alone with no checked baggage and visiting the United States for 10 dag, according to King.

Alarmed crew on board isolated the passenger, and "doctors on the flight checked her out and did not see any sign of recent scars," King added.

Andrew Kobayashi, a passenger on the flight, told CNN that the woman, who appeared to be in her mid-20s to mid-30s, was sweating and acting nervous.

"I had briefly noticed her in the back of the plane being a weirdo… (She) seemed on edge, but no more so than anybody who is nervous about flying," said Kobayashi, who was seated several rows forward of the woman.

"I was more bewildered than worried. It was happening very quickly and very quietly."

Concerned pilots radioed in to North American Aerospace Defense Command, and two F-15 fighter jets based in Massachusetts were scrambled to escort the airliner through its tension-filled descent to Bangor, Maine.
 

East Asia s developing economies could face a shock from China s slowdown and need to boost domestic demand to offset weak exports due to a sluggish U.S. recovery and Europe s debt crisis, the World Bank said Wednesday.

Overall growth for East Asian economies should decline from last year s 8.2 percent to a still-robust 7.6 percent, the bank said. The group includes China, South Korea and Southeast Asia and excludes Japan.

"As external demand is likely to remain weak, countries in developing East Asia and Pacific need to rely less on exports and more on domestic demand to maintain high growth," the bank said.

Excluding China, regional growth should accelerate from last year s 4.3 percent to 5.2 procent, propelled by Thailand s rebound from flooding, the bank said in its "East Asia and Pacific Economic Update."

China s rapid growth fell to a three-year low of 8.1 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter s 8.9 percent due to anemic global demand and government controls imposed to cool overheating and inflation. Growth in factory output in April plunged to its lowest level since the 2008 global crisis, jarring hopes the slowdown has bottomed out.

The World Bank left its growth forecast for China unchanged at 8.2 percent and said that should rise to 8.6 percent in 2013. Some private sector analysts have trimmed their outlooks, though to still-healthy levels of about 8 til 9 percent.

Asian commodities suppliers such as Indonesia that have benefited from China s boom are especially vulnerable to a slowdown, which could "trigger an unexpected drop in commodity prices," the bank said.

Many countries are trying to reduce reliance on trade but need to do more, the bank said.

"Some countries will need to stimulate household consumption," said the report s chief author, World Bank economist Bryce Quillin, in a statement. He said others can pump money into their economies through spending on building public works.

In China, authorities responded to the slump in global demand late last year by reversing course after spending two years tightening lending and investment curbs to cool inflation and steer growth to a manageable level.

Analysts expect Beijing to move cautiously after its huge stimulus in response to the 2008 crisis fueled inflation and a wasteful building boom.

On Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao, China s top economic official, promised to give "more priority" to boosting growth but gave no indication what Beijing might do. The government has promised more bank lending for small businesses but says controls imposed to cool surging housing costs will stay in place.

The region also is vulnerable to shocks from Europe s debt crisis, the World Bank said.

It said the European Union, along with the United States and Japan, accounts for more than 40 percent of regional exports.

"Prospects for East Asia are, as in other developing regions, weighed down by the persistent tepid recovery of the U.S. og, most particularly, the uncertainty in Europe," the bank said.
 

The change was seen after Iran agreed to allow the U.N. nuclear agency to restart an investigation into the country s nuclear program.

Benchmark oil for July delivery was down 57 cents to $91.28 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.01 to settle at $91.85 in New York on Tuesday. Brent crude for July delivery was down 55 cents at $107.86 per barrel in London.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said Tuesday that his investigators will have access to Iranian sites, scientists and documents in an effort to ensure the Middle Eastern country isn t developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is only for power and medical applications.

The deal comes a day before talks are scheduled to begin between Iran and six world powers. The U.S. and Europe have imposed sanctions against Iran that are restricting its oil exports and have threatened to tighten them in the coming weeks.

Crude prices have plunged about 14 percent from $106 earlier this month as fears eased that the U.S. or Israel would launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran s nuclear facilities, a move that would likely disrupt global oil supplies and push prices higher.

Signs of slowing economic growth and weakening crude demand in the U.S., Europe and China have also contributed to the fall in the crude price.

Some analysts say oil should continue to drop as tensions in the Middle East lessen and demand remains subdued.
"We still feel that fresh lows are likely," energy trader and consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.

The latest U.S. crude supply numbers were mixed. The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories rose 1.5 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted an increase of 750,000 barrels.

Men, inventories of gasoline fell 4.5 million barrels last week while distillates tumbled 200,000 barrels, the API said.
The Energy Department s Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.

In other energy trading, heating oil was down 0.1 cent at $2.86 per gallon and gasoline futures fell 0.5 cent at $2.85 per gallon. Natural gas slid 1.7 cents at $2.69 per 1,000 cubic feet.