One killed in J&K

SRINAGAR:

Suspected Islamic rebels threw a hand grenade at a paramilitary patrol in Kashmir on Wednesday, killing a cop and wounding five soldiers and three villagers, police said. The attackers fled after hurling the grenade in Katran, a village 80 km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, said Sheikh Owaiz, a top police officer. The eight injured were not in a serious condition, Owaiz said.—AP

Staines killer’s plea

NEW DELHI:

A man found guilty of burning alive an Australian missionary and his two sons in eastern India six years ago has appealed against his conviction to the Supreme Court, reports said on Wednesday. Dara Singh is serving a life term for the killings of Graham Staines and his two sons, aged 10 and eight, that drew condemnation in India and around the world. Staines had worked for three decades with lepers in India when he and his sons were killed by a Hindu extremist mob who torched the jeep in which they were sleeping in Orissa. — AFP

Poachers punished

BEIJING:

Five people in southwest China’s Sichuan province have been sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for trying to sell a panda skin valued at US $123,000 dollars, state media and an official said on Wednesday. The main culprit in the case, Zeng Guihua, received the panda skin in April 2004 from her husband, who had bought it from an acquaintance. — AFP