Islamabad - Pakistan is ready to join Indian efforts to halt piracy off Somalia, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday.

Islamabad - An anti-terrorism court on Saturday formally indicted five people in connection with the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, media reports said.

Bhutto was murdered in a gun-suicide attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which is adjacent to the capital Islamabad, during an election rally on December 27 last year.

The authorities accused Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in the restive tribal district of South Waziristan of masterminding the slaying of the former head of the now ruling Pakistan People's Party.

The commander, who has links with al-Qaeda and leads a 5,000- strong militia, has denied the allegations.

New Delhi - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday that he did not subscribe to nuclear weapons and favoured a South Asia non-nuclear treaty.

Zardari was responding to a question via video-conferencing at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi.

Nuclear-capable neighbours India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two of them over the disputed Kashmir region.

Kashmir has often been described as a nuclear flashpoint which needs resolution.

Karachi, Nov 22 : The Pakistan Government has still not provided the promised funds to Dr. Aafia Sidiqui’s family to enable them to plead her case in the US court.

According to The News, Aafia’s family was given repeated assurances from the government, but they have not been given any funds for hiring the services of a lawyer till now. The case is being heard in a Texas District Court.

They added that all the required information, including the name of the lawyer and the details of the probable legal expenses relating to the case, were sent to the government in August.

Lahore, Nov. 22 : Former Pakistan cricket captain and now Director-General of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Javed Miandad, has joined a chorus of former and current players in questioning the logic behind the International Cricket Council''s (ICC) ban on the Kapil Dev-led rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).

According to the CricInfo web site, Miandad believes there is immense "public pressure" on the PCB to bring ICL players back into the Pakistan fold and "past decisions by past [PCB] administrations" have "nothing to do with the new set-up".

Peshawar, Nov. 22 : Aid workers have started withdrawing from the city of Peshawar, as armed men, especially Islamist militants and criminal gangs continue to hold the northwestern city to ransom through a spate of kidnappings.

One senior police official told The Times that there had been 124 reported cases of kidnapping this year alone.

The real number could be higher as most people do not trust the police, preferring to pay the ransom.