SNIPPETS

Eighteen killed in accident

AMRITSAR: At least 18 people were killed and four injured on Friday in a head-on collision between their truck and a vehicle carrying goods in Punjab, India police said. The accident occurred in Raya, 35 km from Amritsar. The victims included 11 women and four children. The condition of the four injured was serious. — AFP

Shiite teacher killed

LAHORE: Gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire on car carrying the vice principal of a Shiite school here on Friday, killing him and wounding his daughter, police said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on Ghulam Hussain Najfi of the Jamia al-Muntazir school in Lahore, and police official Chaudhry Shafqat said they are still investigating. — AP

Spectacles for tsunami-hit

COLOMBO: An international relief organisation has focused its attention on survivors who lost eyeglasses and can’t afford to replace them. The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration said it will send mobile clinics into areas affected by the December 26 tsunami in Sri Lanka to diagnose sight problems, and in many cases to replace lost eyeglasses.— AP

Gas pipeline blown up

QUETTA: Suspected tribal insurgents blew up a pipeline supplying natural gas to Quetta in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, officials said on Friday. Saboteurs detonated explosives which damaged a three-metre part of the pipeline in Dhadhar, police said. — AFP