Two US soldiers killed

KABUL: Two US soldiers were killed and another wounded in a bomb attack on their vehicle in southeastern Afghanistan, the US military said on Saturday. “An improvised explosive device detonated June 3 near Orgun-E, killing two US service members and wounding a third,” it said in a statement. An Afghan interpreter was also wounded in the blast. — AFP

Opium Wars’ anniv

BEIJING: Police in China have burnt 224 kg of drugs with an estimated street value of around $12 million to mark the 166th anniversary of the Opium Wars with Britain, state media reported on Saturday. The drugs, which included heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines and were seized in 2002 and 2003, were set ablaze on Friday in Beijing, the China Daily said. — AFP

6 held on drug charges

KUALA LUMPUR: Police in Malaysia have arrested six people, including citizens of Taiwan and China, for exporting the club drug ketamine in coffee to avoid its detection by sniffer dogs, a report said on Saturday. The five men and a woman were arrested after a five-month investigation in which more than 25 kg of ketamine was seized along with a large number of coffee sachets, the New Straits Times reported. — AFP

Eight pilgrims killed

MULTAN: An overcrowded vehicle carrying religious pilgrims fell into a canal in eastern Pakistan on Saturday, killing eight people, five of them children, an area police official said. Chaudhry Mohammed Sarwar said the pilgrims were returning to a nearby village after visiting the shrine of a Muslim saint, Baba Farid, when their car fell into the canal at

Pakpatan town, about 200 km southeast of Multan. — AP

Militant gets death

KARACHI: An Islamic militant was sentenced to death Saturday after being found guilty of planning two suicide attacks that killed 45 minority Shiite Muslims last year at mosques in southern Pakistan, a government lawyer said. Gul Hassan, a member of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, was captured shortly after the bombings. On Saturday, judge Haq Nawaz found him guilty of orchestrating the attacks in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, according to government prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum. — AP

Thaksin leaves India

NEW DELHI: Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra left India on Saturday after a day’s visit during which he discussed trade and security cooperation. He met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday and urged India to set up an Indian Institute of Technology-like university in Thailand, a top official said. On Saturday morning Shinawatra left for Bhutan where he will hold talks on agricultural cooperation, personnel training and research and development. — AP

Anti-terror drill

SINGAPORE: Singapore will host maritime exercises this year aimed at stopping shipments of weapons of mass destruction, the city-state’s defence minister said on Saturday. The announcement by Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean came shortly after US Secretary of Defence Donald H Rumsfeld told an Asia-Pacific security conference here that impoverished North Korea would “sell anything,” including its nuclear technology. — AP