ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: International news channels BBC and CNN went off the air in the country again on Friday as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest ahead of a protest rally.

Authorities stopped cable operators from broadcasting international and private Pakistani news channels on the weekend, after President Gen Pervez Musharraf imposed the emergency rule.

The only television available to most people in the country since then has been the state television. Newspapers have been publishing as normal.

BBC and CNN reappeared on cable channels late on Thursday, when they were reporting Gen Musharraf had promised to hold elections by mid-February. But both disappeared again on Friday after reporting that Ms Bhutto was under house arrest and police had sealed off a park in Rawalpindi, where she had been planning a party meeting in defiance of a ban on rallies.

—Reuters