Islamabad, Feb. 13: Sacked Director General of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Javed Miandad has refuted reports of him having differences with Board Chairman Ijaz Butt, saying he wanted to serve Pakistan cricket and help regain its lost glory.

Miandad also denied that there was a financial issue behind his removal from the post, saying he is ready to serve to uplift the standard of the game in the country, free of cost.

Washington, Feb. 13 : The new director of national intelligence in the United States, Dennis C. Blair has reiterated that no significant improvement in Afghanistan is possible unless Pakistan regains control of its own border areas.

According to the New York Times, Blair told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Islamabad was losing authority over that territory and that even more developed parts of Pakistan were coming under the sway of Islamic radicalism.

He also warned that the global economic turmoil and the instability it could ignite had outpaced terrorism as the most urgent threat facing the United States.

London, Feb. 12 : Fatima Bhutto, the niece of the former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto, fears that her journalistic work could make her liable for prosecution under the recently presented `Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance' Bill.

In an article published in The Guardian, Fatima Bhutto criticized the Pakistan Government for introducing a bill that will `censor Pakistan's already frightened media and censured citizenry.'

Islamabad, Feb. 13 : Pakistan has reiterated that disgraced nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan does not pose any threat, and termed his case a `closed chapter'.

Addressing a weekly press conference here, which largely centered on US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke's visit, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said Khan has no access to any important facility of the country.

"We told US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke that it was a closed chapter and he (Dr Khan) has no access to any strategic facility," The Daily Times quoted Basit, as saying.

Karachi, Feb. 13 : Legendry ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan has been hospitalized after he reported uneasiness and difficulty in breathing.

Hassan has been admitted to the Agha Khan Hospital here.

He has been kept in an intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital, where doctors are treating him for chest and lung infections.

"Not only is he unable to speak, but he is also unable to recognise his family members," The News quoted Hassan's son, Arif Mehdi, as saying.

Islamabad, Feb. 13: Pakistan may have acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that parts of the Mumbai terrorist attacks were planned on its soil, but officials in Washington are seeing the development as a political salvo aimed at easing tensions with India.

The New York Times quoted an official of the US State Department as saying that the acknowledgement by Pakistan was a "political decision" to ease tensions with India.