US senators warn Pakistan on aid over bin Laden 
 
 WASHINGTON — Key US senators Wednesday demanded that Pakistan pardon a surgeon handed 33 years in prison for helping in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, warning that the decision could put US assistance at risk. 
 
 A tribal court in Khyber, a lawless district and extremist hotbed, sentenced surgeon Shakeel Afridi for treason after he agreed to collect DNA for US intelligence to verify the presence of the most-wanted Al-Qaeda leader. 
 
 Carl Levin and John McCain, the top senators from the two major US parties on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a joint statement called Afridi's sentence "shocking and outrageous." 
 
 "What Dr. Afridi did is the furthest thing from treason. It was a courageous, heroic and patriotic act which helped to locate the most wanted terrorist in the world -- a mass murderer who had the blood of many innocent Pakistanis on his hands," the two senators said. 
 
 McCain and Levin urged Pakistan to pardon and free Afridi "immediately." 
 
 "Dr. Afridi's continuing imprisonment and treatment as a criminal will only do further harm to US-Pakistani relations, including diminishing Congress's willingness to provide financial assistance to Pakistan," they said. 
 
 The United States has provided Pakistan with more than $18 billion since it joined the war in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks, but US officials have persistently worried that some elements of the Pakistani establishment have maintained support for extremists. 
 
 US lawmakers rejected calls to cut off aid but imposed tougher conditions after US forces in May last year killed bin Laden, who had been living a stone's throw away from Pakistan's elite military academy in Abbottabad. 
 
 Pakistan shut down supply routes -- its main assistance to US-led forces in Afghanistan -- after a border air raid in November killed 26 Pakistani troops. President Barack Obama has voiced regret, calling the deaths an accident, but stopped short of meeting demands for an apology. 
 
 Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari flew to Chicago for this week's NATO summit on Afghanistan amid signs of a deal on the supply routes. But no agreement materialized and Zardari left Chicago after only a brief meeting with Obama. 
 
 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike on suspected Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan killed 10 people on Thursday, Pakistani intelligence officials said, an attack likely to raise tensions in a standoff with Washington over NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. 
 
 The pilotless drone aircraft attacked a compound in a village in North Waziristan, a day after a similar attack killed four suspected militants in the same region. 
 
 "The drone fired two missiles at the compound. We believe it was being used by militants," one of the Pakistani officials said. 
 
 The United States has been urging Pakistan to mount an offensive in North Waziristan to pursue members of the Haqqani militant network, one of Washington's most feared foes in neighboring Afghanistan. 
 
 That looks more unlikely than ever, as a result of a crisis in relations between Washington and Islamabad over a range of issues. 
 
 The United States has been pushing Pakistan to re-open supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan in difficult talks that show no signs of a breakthrough any time soon. 
 
 Pakistan closed the routes, which are seen as vital to the planned withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014, in protest against last November's killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO air attack along the Afghan border. 
 
 U.S. frustrations with Pakistan deepened on Wednesday after Pakistani authorities sentenced a doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden to 33 years in jail on charges of treason. 
 
 Attacks by unmanned drone aircraft, which U.S. officials say are highly effective against militants, fuel anti-American sentiment in Pakistan because they are seen as violations of sovereignty that inflict civilian casualties. 
 
 After a review of ties with the United States following the killing of the 24 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan's parliament demanded an end to drone strikes. 
 
 Pakistan has spelt out in no uncertain terms that the drone attacks inside its territory must stop, but Washington is not listening, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Reuters in an interview in April. 
 
 Analysts say the CIA could not kill high-value al Qaeda or Taliban militants without cooperation from Pakistani authorities, unless intelligence from informants on the ground used in drone strikes has improved dramatically. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
– The sun still is not shining on US-Pakistan relations. A US drone strike targeting suspected militants in northwest Pakistan killed 10 today, a move that will likely further inflame tensions between the two countries, reports Reuters. Pakistan has demanded an end to the strikes, which it considers a violation of its sovereignty—and it's still waiting for an apology for November's deadly strike. Adding to the most recent drama: Sens. John McCain and Carl Levin. McCain and Levin yesterday called the 33-year sentence handed to the doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden "shocking and outrageous." They threatened to end US financial assistance to Pakistan—which had totaled $18 billion since the war in Afghanistan began—if Shakil Afridi is not pardoned and freed "immediately," reports the AFP. "Dr. Afridi's continuing imprisonment and treatment as a criminal will only do further harm to US-Pakistani relations, including diminishing Congress' willingness to provide financial assistance to Pakistan," they wrote in a joint statement.