■ Pakistan
Attack death toll rises
Three more soldiers died of their wounds, taking the toll from a suicide attack on a local army soccer team to 12, the military said in a statement. The attack took place on Monday in a high security area of the garrison city of Kohat in North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. The players were on a public road in the area when they were blown up. Nine were reported dead at the time of the attack. "Later, three critically injured also succumbed to their injuries," the military said in a statement late on Monday.
■ SRI LANKA
Tigers overrun military post
Tamil Tiger rebels overran a military outpost in the north yesterday, killing at least five government soldiers, the rebels said. The Tigers mounted the offensive at Weerapuram in the district of Vavuniya just outside their de facto mini-state, the Tiger's Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said in a statement. "At least five Sri Lanka armed forces men were killed and others fled," the statement said, adding that the guerrillas did not suffer any casualties. There was no immediate reaction from the military, which has claimed killing at least 327 rebels since Dec. 1.
■ JAPAN
Gun laws to be reviewed
The government will review gun control laws following last week's deadly shooting at a sports club, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Monday. A man opened fire on Friday night at a private gym in Sasebo, killing two people and injuring six. "No matter what the reason is, we should not let such a crime happen at any cost," Fukuda said. "There must be problems with usage standards or ways to control [guns]," Fukuda told reporters. The gunman, unemployed 37-year-old Masayoshi Magome, fired 10 shots and briefly took 10 people hostage before fleeing and turning the gun on himself in an apparent suicide.
■ BANGLADESH
Court to try war crimes case
A court on Monday accepted the first case since 1975 accusing people of war crimes during the war that led to the country's independence. The complaint, filed by a former guerrilla fighter who said his uncle and two cousin comrades were murdered in the 1971 conflict, accused two officials of a major political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and 11 other people. The accused included Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, the chief and secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami respectively. The complaint said they were commanders of al-Badar, a local auxiliary force of the Pakistan army in 1971.
■ SYRIA
Opposition activists nabbed
The government has detained four members of a secular opposition grouping, intensifying a week-old crackdown on dissent, the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights said on Monday. Security forces in Hama picked up Fidaa Horani, a 42-year-old gynecologist who chairs the Damascus Declaration grouping on Sunday and sent her to the capital, the rights group said. On Monday, the authorities detained three more members -- writer Ali Abdullah and doctors Walid Bunni and Mohammed Yaser al-Iti. Seven members of the grouping have now been detained since Dec. 9.
■ CANADA
Dubai pardons UN official
A Canadian UN official who advised Afghanistan on eradicating opium poppy crops was granted amnesty by the ruler of Dubai on Monday, six months after he was sentenced to four years in prison for smuggling and drug possession. Bert Tatham, 35, of Vancouver, was arrested April 23 during a one-hour stopover at the Dubai International Airport, for having a half a gram of hashish and two poppy bulbs. His attorney, Saeed Al-Gailani, said at the arraignment in June that Tatham accidentally carried a small amount of drugs because part of his job was to collect "tons of drugs every day" in Afghanistan. "His trousers must have mistakenly picked up the tiny quantity of hashish," al-Gailani said, adding Tatham was taking the poppy bulbs to Canada "for experiments and education." Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pardoned Tatham and 376 other inmates this week.
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