Four killed in Taiwan blaze:

TAIPEI: Nine people were rescued from a rooftop restaurant on Saturday when fire swept through a high-rise building in central Taiwan, killing four others, fire officials said. The blaze immediately engulfed several floors of a 25-storey building in downtown Taichung, Lin Te-chang, an official at Taichung firefighting bureau, said. — AFP

Aftershock jolts Aceh:

BANDA ACEH: A strong aftershock measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale rattled Indonesia’s tsunami-shattered Aceh province on Saturday, meteorologists said. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The inland quake occurred at 13:52 pm, 67 km southeast of Tapaktuan, the meteorology and geophysics office in Jakarta said. — AFP

India tests missile:

BALASORE: India has successfully tested its home grown, medium-range, surface-to-air Akash missile on Saturday, defence officials here said. The missile, which has a range of 25 km, was test fired last Thursday and Monday from the integrated test range at Chandipur in Balasore. It was tested thrice from a mobile launcher on Saturday. — HNS

Peacekeepers’ bodies:

DHAKA: The bodies of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers — one officer and eight soldiers — killed in an ambush in northeastern Congo will be brought home early next week, a military spokesman said on Saturday. Unidentified attackers ambushed them while they were on patrol on Friday near the town of Kafe, 30 km northwest of Bunia, the capital of Congo’s lawless Ituri province, UN spokesman Mamadou Bah said. — AP

Two militants killed:

JAMMU: Two top militants suspected to belong to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideeen in Jammu and Kashmir were killed in a shootout with Indian troops on Saturday. The incident took place in Jhangarwali Gali, a hilly area in Rajouri. “The encounter is still on,” a defence spokesman told reporters. The shootout came one day after the army killed four militants in the Mahore area of Udhampur district. “Our counter-insurgency operations are continuing and these encounters are evidence of that,” he said. — HNS

J&K avalanche toll 249:

SRINAGAR: The death toll from avalanches that smashed through six villages in Indian Kashmir hit 249 as rescue workers struggled on Saturday through huge snowdrifts to bring help to survivors. Meanwhile, on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s trip to Jammu and Kashmir, Governor SK Sinha on Saturday visited snow-hit villages in the state. — Agencies

Aircraft hits terminal:

KABUL: A military transport aircraft from the NATO-led peacekeeping force slid off the runway at Kabul airport on Saturday, sustaining minor damage after hitting a terminal building, an official said. There were no casualties but the plane, a C-130, was damaged and grounded for repair, NATO spokeswoman Major Karen Tissot Van Patot told reporters in Kabul. — AFP