15 killed in mishap

JALANDHAR: At least 15 pilgrims were killed on the spot and five seriously injured when the jeep in which they were travelling rammed into a stationary truck at G T Road near Goraya in Punjab in the wee hours on Sunday, police sources said. The accident occurred when an overcrowded jeep carrying a family hailing from Mukundpur village of Ludhiana district to the Golden Temple at Amritsar, rammed into the truck, they said adding 15 people were killed on the spot. — PTI

HK radio host ‘sacked’

HONG KONG: A radio talk show host who resigned last year after complaining he was harassed for criticising China’s Communist Party has been sacked from the station, a report said on Sunday. Wong Yuk-man was fired from Commercial Radio, the main private channel in the southern Chinese territory, with three months left on his contract. A statement from the station’s chief Rita Chan said he had been in dispute over extending his show to five days a week, the South China Morning Post reported. — AFP

Rice to visit Thailand

BANGKOK: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Thailand during an Asian tour this month and may address the controversy over military-ruled Myanmar heading ASEAN, Thailand’s foreign minister said on Sunday. “Rice will visit Thailand on the 11th and 12th” of July, Kantathi Suphamongkhon told reporters, adding that she will hold talks with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. — AFP

Afghan battle toll 38

KANDAHAR: Two days of fighting in south and southeastern Afghanistan left 28 rebels and 10 members of the Afghan security forces dead in the country’s south and southeast, officials said on Saturday. The heaviest clashes occurred in southern Uruzgan province where 31 people, most of them Taliban insurgents, died in fresh battles, an official said. — AFP

11 jailed in China

BEIJING: Eleven people have been jailed for up to 12 years for running an obscene website in China’s largest case of Internet pornography, a state newspaper said on Sunday. The sentences were handed down on Friday by the Hefei intermediate court in the central province

of Anhui, the People’s Court Daily said. Wang Yong and Shao Rong were described as the main operators of the website www.99bbs.com, also known as the 99 Sex Forum. The website was set up in 2002 and run from an overseas server, the report said. — AFP