Islamabad  - Taliban militants in troubled north-western Pakistan said Saturday that a Polish electrician held by them for the last 18 weeks has been beheaded.

A Taliban spokesman who identified himself as Mohammad, told various media organizations over the phone that Polish citizen Peter Stanczak was executed in tribal district of South Waziristan after the expiry of a February 6 deadline given to Pakistani and Polish governments to fulfil the militants' demands.

Islamabad - The World Bank (WB) is to provide a loan of two billion dollars to cash-strapped Pakistan, a senior official of the bank said on Saturday.

"The Bank Group plans to provide up to two billion dollars in credits during this fiscal year to support economic growth and the government's poverty-focused programs," said WB's country director for Pakistan Yusupha Crookes.

"These projects will support the immediate challenges in education, health, safety nets and community-led development, while laying the foundation for investment in infrastructure to foster long term growth and job creation," he added.

Islamabad - Ethnic tribal rebels in Pakistan's insurgency-hit south-western province of Balochistan claimed on Saturday that a UN top official kidnapped earlier this week from the region was in their captivity, a media report said.

According to country's private news agency Online, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a secular and nationalist guerrilla organization in Balochistan, has accepted the responsibility for the abduction of the local head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Islamabad - Unknown gunmen killed six police officers and two civilians in a raid on a police check point in Pakistan's central province of Punjab on Saturday, a security official said.

The attack took place around 3:30 am (2230 GMT Friday) in the Qudrat Abad area of Mianwali district, said local police chief Malik Tassadaq Hayat.

According to Hayat the attackers first gunned down two volunteers from Civil Defence guarding the post and later blew up check post building with explosive material. As a result six policemen sleeping in the post were buried under the debris and died.

Islamabad, Feb. 6 : Disgraced Pakistani scientist Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan, who was acquitted by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday on charges of nuclear proliferation, said the issue of his acquittal was between him and the Pakistan Government, and had nothing to do with the United States.

Talking to media after the IHC's decision to lift orders of house arrest, Khan said: "I am satisfied with the decision of the court."

He refrained from commenting on his relations with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist outfits saying: "I don't want to delve in the past incidents."

Islamabad - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide Pakistan with a loan of 300 million dollars to improve water and sanitation services in six cities of country's southern province of Sindh, a Pakistani official said on Friday.

"This program is aimed at bringing improvement in water, sanitation and solid waste management areas of these cities," Farrakh Qayyum, Pakistan's Secretary of the Economic Affairs Division told reporters after signing an agreement with ADB's country director, Rune Stroem.