Bin Laden doctor’s appeal delayed

PESHAWAR — A lawyer for a Pakistani doctor jailed after he helped the US track down Osama Bin Laden says the first hearing in his appeal was delayed. Samiullah Khan Afridi said the prosecution failed to produce a record of the case filed against his client during the hearing Thursday in the frontier city of Peshawar. He said the hearing was delayed until July 19. The doctor Shakil Afridi was convicted in May of ties to militants but is widely believed to have been targeted by Pakistani authorities because he helped the US track down Osama Bin Laden. Afridi ran a fake vaccination program designed to get DNA from the Al-Qaeda leader. His lawyer said the doctor did not attend the hearing, which was not announced ahead of time to the media. — AP