Accidents kill 11

LUCKNOW: A taxi skidded off the road and fell into a canal, and a truck collided with a bus in northern India, leaving at least 11 people dead and nine others injured in the two separate accidents, police said on Saturday. — AP

Quake jolts Indonesia

JAKARTA: An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale shook the eastern Indonesian island of Lombok on Saturday, but there were no casualties, the state news agency said. The quake was also felt in the neighbouring islands of Bali and Sumbawa, Antara said, citing an official with the meteorological and geophysics agency in the Balinese capital Denpasar. — AFP

Saran to visit Pak

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran will go to Islamabad on a two-day visit on Tuesday to discuss various initiatives for deepening multi-faceted cooperation in the South Asian region. All issues related to the SAARC, like the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) pact, the promotion of investment, poverty alleviation, environment and energy will be discussed at the 31st session of the Standing Committee of SAARC foreign secretaries August 17-18. — HNS

Sentence reductions

JAKARTA: Abu Bakar Bashir, a militant cleric jailed for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings will be among 53,000 inmates receiving sentence reductions to mark Indonesia’s independence day, authorities and media reports said on Saturday. — AP

Cops given more time

KARACHI: A Pakistani judge on Saturday gave police four more days to question an Islamic militant accused of arranging an initial meeting between slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and his kidnappers, a defence lawyer said. Judge Khushi Mohammed, however, asked police to again produce the suspect, Hashim Qadeer, before him in a Karachi court on August 17, said defence lawyer Rai Bashir, who feared that his client could be killed.— AP