Four die after truck explodes

FOUR people were killed yesterday when a pick-up truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police station in north-western Pakistan.

The blast destroyed shops and homes and damaged the station and a nearby mosque in the town of Badh Ber, which lies close to a Pakistani air force base. Thirty other people were wounded.

The area has become the focal point for militant retaliation against an army offensive along the nearby Afghan border.