■ India
Homemade bomb kills seven
A gas canister filled with explosives was set off in a parked car as a paramilitary convoy passed by yesterday, injuring seven troopers in a bus, police in India's violence-wracked Jammu-Kashmir state said. An unidentified caller to a local news agency claimed responsibility on behalf of two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups, but there was no way to confirm the truth of the caller's statement. The Indian-made Ambassador car was parked on the roadside in the Hyderpora suburb of Srinagar. When a convoy passed carrying paramilitary troopers -- who have fought Islamic militants during a 14-year insurgency -- the bomb was triggered, injuring seven troopers, said Javed Gilani, senior superintendent of police.
■ Afghanistan
Rockets fired at US base
About a dozen rockets were fired at the main US base in eastern Afghanistan, but there were no reports of casualties, Afghan officials said yesterday. The rockets smashed into fields near Khost airport, about 150km south of Kabul, at about 11pm on Wednesday evening, said Hayatullah Taniwal, a spokesman for the provincial governor. "Our sources say no one was hurt," Taniwal said. "So many rockets have never been fired at the airport before." He said the rockets were fired from mountains to the south of the city. "This was done by remnants of al-Qaeda because that area is close to the Pakistani border," Taniwal said, without providing any evidence for his assertion.
■ Sri Lanka
Tamils back ceasefire
The Tamil Tiger rebel group has promised Norwegian peace brokers it will honor a cease-fire with the Sri Lankan government despite a power struggle between government leaders that has blocked peace efforts, a pro-rebel report said yesterday. On Wednesday, Norwegian officials met Tamil guerrilla leaders in London for the first time since suspending mediation efforts in November, when the political crisis began, the TamilNet Web site said. Peace broker Erik Solheim met the rebels' London-based chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, and discussed the political situation.
■ South Korea
US soldier on trial
A US soldier went on trial yesterday on charges of fleeing a drunk-driving accident that killed a South Korean woman. Sergeant Jerry Onken, 33, of Onamia, Minnesota, was the first US soldier to be handed over to South Korean authorities for custody before a trial. Surrendering troops to South Korean courts for pretrial jailing was part of a 2001 revision of the Status of Forces Agreement giving South Korea greater authority over accused US soldiers. Prosecutors said the off-duty Onken was under the influence of alcohol when he collided with another vehicle near Seoul in November last year. A 22-year-old Korean woman died in the crash, and prosecutors said Onken fled the scene.
■ China
SARS patients recover
China's two suspected SARS patients are to be released from hospital within the week, an official said, as the World Health Organization (WHO) awaited test results yesterday to determine whether they indeed had contracted the virus. The two were expected to be released on Jan. 22, the Guangzhou Daily reported People's No 8 Hospital director Tang Xiaoping as saying.
■ Spain
Spiritual leader jailed
A Muslim spiritual leader who wrote a book telling Muslim men how to beat their wives was sentenced to 15 months in prison for encouraging violence against women, a court in Barcelona announced Wednesday. In his 120-page book, Women in Islam, Mohamed Kamal Mostafa, imam of the southern Spanish town of Fuengirola, urged husbands not to hit their wives on sensitive parts of the body or with force but, rather, "on hands and feet, using a light rod so that the blows don't leave scars or bruises," according to the sentencing document, dated Monday and released Wednesday.
RSS