Maoists kill seven

Raipur: Seven people were killed when Maoists raided two villages in Chhattisgarh in retaliation for a rally in which 117 rebels surrendered, officials said on Thursday. Police said the men were killed when armed guerrillas swooped down on Karemarka and Muder villages in Bastar region on Wednesday. They killed two in the former village and five in the latter for participating the Sunday rally. — HNS

27 ex-officials jailed

Jakarta: A court in Indonesia has jailed 27 former city councillors for involvement in a corruption case involving the embezzlement of over $1million of state funds, a report said on Thursday. Judge Betina Yahya said 27 defendants, who served in Pada-ng’s city council from 1999-2004, we-re guilty of embezzling 10.4 billion rupiah from the city budget in 2001 and 2002, Antara news agency said. — AFP

Pak detains 500 ultras

ISLAMABAD: About 500 people have been detained in Pakistan in a crackdown on suspected hatemongers and militants, a minister said. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said many are Islamic clerics suspected of spreading hatred between the Sunni and Shiite sects and owners of bookshops selling literature deemed to spread religious disharmony. — AP

Explosion in Wana

PESHAWAR: A bomb exploded in a bazaar in in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, damaging

a music shop but injuring no one, an official said. The explosion occurred around dawn in Wana, intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media. — AP

25 immigrants held

SINGAPORE: Singaporean police arrested 25 illegal immigrants living in makeshift shelters in a northwestern forest, immigration authorities said on Thursday. Twenty-two of the suspected

illegal migrants are Myanmar nationals and the rest are Thais. — AP