Islamabad - The United States has deducted 55 million dollars out of the 156 million dolalrs bill sent by Pakistan for rendering its military services to fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in volatile bordering tribal areas adjacent to war-torn Afghanistan.

Shaukat Tarin, a financial advisor in the prime minister's office, said the US had "changed the format" for money released under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for Islamabad, resulting in a "massive" deduction.

Islamabad, Jan. 26 : Pakistan's humiliating defeat against Sri Lanka in the last one day international has prompted the Senate Standing Committee on Sports to call a meeting demanding an explanation behind the defeat from the team's skipper Shoaib Malik, coach Intikhab Alam, and the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) chief selector Abdul Qadir.

The Standing Committee on Sports has called the meeting on February 9 to discuss the Pakistan's debacle in the home series.

Islamabad, Jan. 26 : The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has come out with a shocking tale of the brutal rape of a Baloch woman at the hands of military authorities.

According to the Daily Times, journalist and TV producer Munir Mengal, encountered the hapless woman at a detention centre in Karachi, where she was stripped naked and hurled into his cell.

He claims that he was tortured when he refused to rape the woman, a fate she had already suffered multiple times at the hands of her captors.

The case has not figured prominently in the local media. There has not been any official opinion either on what happened and why.

Peshawar, Jan. 26: Following a Talibani threat, transporters in the NWFP have ordered the bus drivers to remove all audio and visual equipment from their vehicles by a fixed deadline.

A general bus stand banner in Peshawar echoes the threat issued by the Taliban, "If any TV or VCR is found in a vehicle after January 25, the owner will be fined 5,000 rupees and the equipment will be seized."

Islamabad - A powerful blast in north-western Pakistan on Monday killed at least five people and wounded several more, police said.

The bomb detonated along a busy road in the militancy-prone town of Dera Islmail Khan, a police officer, Zafar Rehman, said.

"Initial reports say five people are dead," Rehman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the phone. He failed to give any figures for the injured.

However, private news channels reported that 20 people were wounded and the blast was caused by explosives planted on a bicycle left by the roadside.

Islamabad - Pakistan has taken over the central facility of an outlawed Islamic charity believed to be linked with the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, media reports said on Monday.

A government administrator, assisted by a team of around a dozen officers, on Sunday assumed control of the sprawling headquarters of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in the town of Muridke in the eastern province of Punjab, the Dawn newspaper reported.