Osama bin Laden (AP/File)

The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden has been sentenced to 33 years in jail for treason.

Shakil Afridi, 48, had been accused of running a fake hepatitis B vaccination program, collecting DNA samples reportedly used by U.S. intelligence officers to track bin Laden to Abbottabad, where Navy SEALs killed him in a raid on his compound last year.

A tribal court found Afridi guilty of "acting against the state," The New York Times reported. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison and a fine of 320,000 Pakistani rupees, or $3,477, a government official said.

Afridi, who was arrested shortly after bin Laden's killing, was sentenced under tribal laws and will serve his jail term in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan. Tribal laws do not carry the death penalty for treason.

According to Reuters, the sentence is "almost certain to further strain ties" between Washington and Pakistan. Following the raid, U.S. officials raised suspicions that Pakistani intelligence may have sheltered bin Laden in Abbottabad. The raid "humiliated" Pakistan, which saw it as a violation of its sovereignty.

"Afridi's prison term could complicate efforts to break a deadlock in talks over the re-opening of land routes through Pakistan to U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, which are crucial for supplies," Reuters said.

In January, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "confirmed that the United States had been working with Dr. Afridi while trying to confirm the location of Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad," the Times said.

"For [Pakistan] to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part," Panetta said, according to the paper.

According to the BBC, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also called for Afridi's release "on the grounds that his work served Pakistani and American interests."

Sarah Palin weighed in on the Utah Senate race during an interview Tuesday night and took a side. But instead of rallying around the Republican tea party challenger, as she has in other primary campaigns, the former Alaska governor endorsed longtime senator Orrin Hatch.

"I want him to win," Palin told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, saying she joined with other conservatives "who would like to see Mr. Balanced Budget return to Washington."

Watch an excerpt of Palin's appearance below:

The endorsement represents a departure from Palin's history of backing anti-establishment tea party outsiders like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware and Sharron Angle in Nevada, both of whom ran for statewide office in 2010. Hatch has been picking up support from high-profile conservatives in advance of the runoff election on June 26, as concerns about Dan Liljenquist's perceived weaknesses grow. Liljenquist, 37, served briefly in the Utah state Senate before stepping down in December 2011 to focus on the U.S. Senate race.

Hatch is seeking his seventh term in the U.S. Senate. On the campaign trail, he touts the fact that he could chair the Senate Finance Committee if Republicans take control of the Senate in the fall elections.

"I'm deeply honored by Governor Palin's endorsement," Hatch said in a statement early Wednesday morning. "There are few as committed to the cause of liberty and the ideals that have made this nation great as Sarah Palin."

Mitt Romney (Mary Altaffer/AP)

Mitt Romney has taken a 6-point lead over President Barack Obama in the battleground state of Florida.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found Romney now besting Obama 47 percent to 41 percent among likely Florida voters. That's a shift from earlier this month, when a Quinnipiac poll found Romney and Obama statistically tied in the state. In March, Obama led Romney 49 to 42 percent in the Sunshine State.

If Romney were to add Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to the ticket, the presumptive Republican nominee would expand his lead in the state only slightly, according to Quinnipiac. Forty-nine percent of Florida voters say they'd choose a Romney/Rubio ticket versus 41 percent who say they'd vote for Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. (The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.)