U.N. suspends development work in northwest Pakistan

Underscoring the militant threat, an explosion near a bank killed four people and wounded more than a dozen in the capital's neighboring city of Rawalpindi, said police official Kashif Ayaz.

The U.N.'s decision, which applies to Pakistan's tribal areas and North West Frontier Province, comes amid a wave of recent attacks in the country that killed some 250 people last month. Eleven U.N. staff have been killed in attacks in Pakistan this year.

The U.N. will reduce the level of international staff in the country and confine its work to emergency, humanitarian relief, and security operations, and also "any other essential operations as advised by the secretary-general," the organization said in a statement.

U.N. spokeswoman Amena Kamaal told The Associated Press that the organization is still determining which programs will be suspended and how many staffers will be withdrawn from the country. The staff that remains will be assigned additional security, she said.

"We have had 11 of our colleagues killed because of the security situation," said Kamaal. "All of the decisions are being made in light of that."

Monday's blast in Rawalpindi, only a few miles (kilometers) from Islamabad, may have been caused by explosives planted in a car in a parking lot, said the police official, Ayaz.

An eyewitness, Zahid Dara, said the explosion was huge.

"I was nearby and rushed toward the parking area," Dara told Dunya television. "There were many people lying on the ground with bleeding wounds, and a motorcycle was on fire with one man under it."

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