Afghan search on

KABUL: The US military said on Saturday it was continuing a search for a small US reconnaissance team in rebel-infested eastern Afghanistan but gave no details of the operation citing security reasons. The search in the woody mountains in Kunar province dragged into a fifth day after Taliban insurgents shot down a US Chinook helicopter Tuesday killing 16 personnel.— AFP

Six ‘militants’ killed

JAMMU: Indian soldiers killed six suspected Islamic militants on Saturday who had crossed the mountainous frontier into India’s portion of Kashmir from Pakistani territory, the army said. “The militants had infiltrated last night. Troops were keeping an eye on them and chasing them ... We were able to kill them today and their identification is being done,” said Lt Col VK Badola, the regional army spokesman. — AP

Policeman shot

COLOMBO: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot and killed a policeman in volatile eastern Sri Lanka on Saturday, the military said, amid escalating violence in the area. Chaminda Roshan, 29, was shot in the mouth and chest by the suspected guerrillas in Kalkdah, 230 km east of the capital Colombo, said military spokesman Brig Daya Ratnayake. The assailants fled on bicycles. — AP

PM Singh to lay stone

MADURAI: India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone on Saturday for a shipping channel in a narrow strait between India and Sri Lanka that will slash travel time for ships between the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, an official said. “The prime minister will visit Tamil Nadu to inaugurate the Sethusamudram project on Saturday afternoon,” a spokesman for Singh said in the capital. — AFP

Student riot in China

BEIJING: Thousands of students rioted at a southern China college to protest fees and other campus issues, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Saturday. More than 4,000 students overturned cars and threw bottles out of windows at a university in Jiujiang, the Oriental Daily News reported. The riots took place on June 25 as a protest against fees charged by the Jiujiang Institute, a college jointly run by the military and the government, the paper said. — AP

Pakistanis deported

QUETTA: Iran has deported 125 Pakistanis after they were arrested in Iran for allegedly trying to enter neighboring Turkey without travel documents, an official said on Saturday. Asmatullah Khan, an official with the Federal Investigation Agency, which deals with immigration issues in Pakistan - said the men were handed over Friday and Saturday in Taftan. — AP

Man gets 60 yrs in jail

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian man convicted of sexually assaulting and robbing foreign tourists

has been sentenced to 60 years in jail and 24 lashes of a rattan cane, news reports said on Saturday. Beh Soon Hock, 38, was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to raping a 24-year-old Korean woman on June 23, and sodomising a 45-year-old Irish woman and a 10-year-old Kuwaiti boy days later. — AP

3 shot in Thai south

BANGKOK: A police advisor was shot dead and a military informant critically wounded on Saturday, as two villagers were also killed in the latest attacks in Muslim-majority southern Thailand, police said. All three attacks occurred in Pattani. — AFP