Senate panel cuts Pakistan aid over conviction A Senate panel expressed its outrage over the conviction of a Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. get Osama bin Laden by slashing aid by $33 million -- $1 million for every year of the doctor's 33-year sentence. The Appropriations Committee approved the amendment 30-0 on Thursday as Republicans and Democrats widely criticized Pakistan's conviction of Shakil Afridi for high treason a day earlier. Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden's presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabad where U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida leader in May 2011. The United States has called for Afridi to be released. The vote came on a $52 billion foreign aid budget for next year.