London, Apr. 1 : Echoing President Barack Obama's stance that Pakistan would be made accountable for all the assistance it will receive, the US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher has said that Washington would not let the aid go unchecked, and that it will closely monitor its proper usage.

Boucher said that Obama wants stability and wants extremism to be rooted out completely from the region.

Warsaw  - A military place crash in northern Poland was linked to budget cuts that forced pilots to cut back on flight time, reported the daily Rzeczpospolita on Wednesday.

Four people died in northern Poland near Gdansk Tuesday when a military transporter crashed upon landing during a training flight. The Bryza transport plane went up in flames as it crash-landed, local media reported.

Two weeks earlier, Rzeczpospolita reported, pilots had told the daily they would only fly for 20 minutes once a week because of budget cutbacks.

New York, Apr 1 : French fashion designer Pierre Cardin is all set to sell of his fashion empire, but only if he gets the right amount.

Cardin, 86, has put the price up at 1 billion euros, and will only sell if he gets it.

"The asking price is 1 billion euros, and if prospective buyers can''t pony up the funds, then that''s their problem, not mine," the New York Post quoted him as telling the spring/summer issue of Fantastic Man.

"It''s not like I''m strapped for cash," he added.

With Bharti AXA Investment Managers failing to make much of an impression in the market, Bharti Enterprises is working its way out of the mutual fund joint venture with the French biggie AXA, almost after a year of the registering of the asset management company. The fund, which started its operations in July 2008, had assets under management of Rs 186 crore as of February 2009.

The Bharti decision to exit Bharti AXA Investment Managers - in which Bharti Ventures has a 25 percent stake, while AXA Investment Managers Asia Holdings holds the remaining 75 percent - will not affect its affiliation with AXA in the sphere of life insurance and general insurance.

London - US President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday of the rift between the US and Russia, but expressed hope that a new US- Russian nuclear arms reduction deal could open the way to a new dialogue between the two countries, after a period of tension.

A key issue for both nations is the scaling back of nuclear proliferation, in light of a US-Russian strategic weapons reduction programme (START) due to expire at the end of 2009.

Lahore, Apr. 1 : Two suspected injured Manawan attackers have mysteriously vanished from a hospital here.

According to The Nation, two injured persons in police uniform were brought to a hospital here on Monday after the terror strike on the Manawan Police Academy.

Both persons identified themselves as Abbas and Shafiq, but after few hours, doctors said that both were missing.

The hospital concerned, however, has denied reports of missing persons.