25 killed in mishaps

SHIMLA:

A bus crash and a mudslide on Friday killed at least 25 people and injured around 40 others in Himachal Pradesh, police said. “Twelve people were killed and 33 injured when a bus swerved off a mountain road near Dera in Kangra district on Friday evening,” said Satinder Pal Singh, Kangra police chief. In another accident, 13 people were killed and six others injured in the Kullu valley after a mudslide buried the bus in which they were travelling. The accident took place at around noon near the famous Hindu and Sikh pilgrimage site of Manikaran, 250 km from here. “There were 19 people on the bus. All the thirteen dead bodies have been extracted from the mud. Six injured people have been admitted to a nearby hospital (in Kullu),” Neel Chand, a police official, said. — HNS

Indian jet crashes

NEW DELHI:

An Indian fighter jet crashed today soon after taking off from an air force base near Gwalio in central India, but the pilot ejected safely, an air force spokesman said.The British-made Jaguar crashed soon after taking off from the base, spokesman said. — AP

Attack on soldiers

SRINAGAR:

Suspected rebels hurled a hand grenade at a border patrol outside a state-run bank inn Sopore today wounding one soldier and four civilian passers-by, police said. The injured included three children who were walking to their homes from a nearby school said Junaid Ahmed, the superintendent of police. No one claimed responsibility.— AP

Father kills daughter

NEW DELHI:

A young girl was shot dead by her father here on Friday in what police said was a case of honour killing. Neeru Yadav died on the spot while her friend Saranjeet was undergoing treatment at a private hospital for bullet injuries sustained in his arm. The incident occurred when Neeru’s father Bhim Singh found her roaming with Saranjeet outside the M2K theater in the Prashant Vihar area of northwest Delhi. — HNS

Fear reigns embassy

KUALA LUMPUR:

Security fears continued on Friday in Malaysia’s capital after police and diplomats confirmed the Spanish embassy became the 13th mission to receive a suspicious package in the mail. The alarm was raised after officials placed it through security checks and the sender could not be contacted, a Spanish embassy source said. — AFP

PM gets cold welcome

MOMAWI:

Thailand’s premier received a cold welcome on Friday on a goodwill tour of restive provinces in the mainly Muslim south, a trip marred by four bombings and a shooting that claimed two lives. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra made surprise visits to the homes of three men believed to be masterminds of the unrest— AFP

Jail for racist remarks

SINGAPORE:

A Singapore court on Friday sentenced two ethnic Chinese to prison for posting racist remarks about ethnic Malays on the Internet. Animal shelter worker Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27, was jailed for one month while Nicholas Lim Yew, an unemployed 25-year-old, was sentenced to a nominal prison term of one day and fined 5,000 Singapore dollars for racist comments against the minority Malay community. — AP

Tamil killed

COLOMBO:

Sri Lanka An unidentified gunman on Friday killed an ethnic Tamil man in northern Sri Lanka who was seeking employment with a party opposed to the Tamil Tiger guerrillas, the military and a relative said.Kandasamy Senthilkumaran, 45, was gunned down inJaffna town by a man riding on the back of a motorcycle and died immediately,military spokesman Brig. — AP