Blast damages shops

MIRAN SHAH: A bomb exploded in a town near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan on Friday, damaging music and video shops, days after Islamic militants circulated pamphlets warning against selling such goods. About 5,000 supporters of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a radical opposition Islamic group, staged a rally in the same town, chanting anti-US slogans and demanding Pakistani security forces end military operations against militants in the region. — AP

CRPF men killed

RAIPUR: Two paramilitary troopers were killed and seven injured in Chhattisgarh in landmine blasts blamed on the extremist group Communist Party of India-Maoist. Girdhari Naik, inspector general of police for Bastar, where the blasts occurred, said guerrillas detonated a landmine at a weekly rural market in Kanker district, 230 km from here, late on Thursday, killing two troopers of the Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF). — HNS

B’deshi man hanged

BARISAL: A person in southern Bangladesh was hanged on Friday for killing his wife after her family failed to pay a dowry, a prison official said. Kamal Hossain, 40, was executed in a jail in Barisal town, 120 km south of Dhaka, jail superintendent Abdul Kader said. Hossain, a farmer, killed his wife, Hanufa Begum by giving her poison in 1998. — AP

‘Over-populous India’

NEW DELHI: India will outstrip China as the world’s most populous country by the year 2030 with over 1.4 billion people, junior health minister Panabaka Lakshmi told parliament on Friday. Indians will number 1.449 billion in 2030 against 1.446 billion Chinese, Lakshmi said. By 2050, the world population is projected to be 9 billion, with India and China accounting for 1.59 billion and 1.39 billion respectively. — AFP

Taipei leader in China

XI’AN: A Taiwanese opposition leader made a pilgrimage on Friday to a monument honouring China’s legendary founder and called for reconciliation between Taipei and Beijing based on their common cultural roots. The visit by James Soong, head of the People First Party, is part of Chinese efforts to combat Taiwanese activists who want formal independence for the self-ruled island. — AP

Lanka prison protest

COLOMBO: Five men believed to be Tamil Tiger rebels protested on a Sri Lankan prison rooftop on Friday, demanding their cases be dealt with immediately or that they be released, police said. The five in Batticaloa prison have been held for eight months to a year on charges of possessing firearms and grenades. — AP

Pak soldiers injured

QUETTA: A bomb exploded near a railway track in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province on Friday, injuring two soldiers, an official said. Local residents had found what they thought might be a bomb, and the device exploded as the soldiers were examining it. — AP

Jakarta-US army ties

JAKARTA: The US is determined to normalise military ties with Indonesia, America’s top commander in the Pacific said on Friday, despite accusations by human rights groups that Jakarta’s forces are continuing to commit abuses. Adm William J Fallon, chief of US Pacific Command, met President Yudhoyono. — AP