A Pakistani reporter for the BBC said he was released today by unknown men in the capital, Islamabad, a day after they abducted, blindfolded and beat him.

A global media rights group expressed concern that a missing Pakistani journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation may have been abducted.

A BBC journalist went missing today after visiting the Pakistani capital Islamabad, the BBC said, and his brother feared intelligence agents may have kidnapped him.

Seventeen people were killed and 47 wounded when a bomb explosion ripped through a crowded market in southern Afghanistan today, a hospital official said.