POK readies for bus link:

MUZAFFARABAD: Authorities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have been told to speed up repairs on a road for a bus service linking POK to Kashmir, officials said. The service, to start April 7, is the first tangible fruit of 13 months of dialogue between the neighbours who have fought three wars, two over Kashmir which each hold in part but claim in full. “We have been asked by Islamabad to make the road ready for traffic before April 7,” Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, minister for communications and works in Pakistani Kashmir said. — AFP

One dead as boat sinks:

HONG KONG: A motorboat capsized in waters off an eastern island in Hong Kong on Saturday, killing one man and leaving another missing, officials said. The boat sank off Ping Chau on Saturday morning, and rescuers later pulled an unconscious 51-year-old crew member, surnamed Lam, from the sea, said Marine Department spokesman YK Lau. Lam was declared dead in a hospital. — AP

Envoy heads to Lanka:

COLOMBO: A top Norwegian envoy will urge the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels to resume peace talks this week, officials said on Saturday. Erik Solheim is to arrive in Colombo on Monday. “It’s important for Solheim to come at this time to try to iron out the tensions between the parties,” said Jehan Perera, an analyst with the National Peace Council, an independent think tank. — AP

13 killed in van mishap:

BEIJING: A passenger van went off the road and plunged into a river valley in northern China, killing 13 people and injuring six, the government said on Saturday. The accident occurred on Friday afternoon in Shaanxi province’s Zizhou county, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. — AP

Aftershocks in Andaman:

PORT BLAIR: The tsunami-lashed Andaman and Nicobar Islands have suffered 9,500 aftershocks since an undersea earthquake December 26 sent giant waves crashing into the archipelago, India’s top geologist said. But KN Mathur, director-general of the Geological Survey of India, said the tremors were incapable of triggering tsunamis similar to those that claimed at least 288,800 lives in 11 countries in Asia and Africa. — AFP

Scribes’ plea to govt:

DHAKA: Journalists across Bangladesh called on the government on Saturday to step up efforts to track down the culprits behind “regular” killings of media figures as they demanded greater protection. “We ask the government to protect our lives and ensure a peaceful environment to conduct professional duty,” Reazuddin Ahmed, convenor of the Forum to Protect Journalists, told a rally of journalists in Dhaka. “Journalists are killed regularly, yet the government has yet to find the criminals,” he said. — AFP

15 militants held in Pak:

QUETTA: Pakistani police arrested some 15 suspected Sunni militants in a string of raids following the killing of two suicide bombers planning attacks on a Shiite procession, police said on Saturday. The two militants, who were members of banned Al-Qaeda-linked group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, blew themselves up in the southwestern provincial capital of Quetta early on Friday after a gunbattle with police at their hideout. — AFP

Karzai’s plea:

JEDDAH: President Hamid Karzai on Saturday appealed for foreign support to rebuild Afghanistan’s war-battered infrastructure, insisting his country is as secure as others in the region. “Today Afghanistan is moving with greater speed towards (achieving) security. The people (of Afghanistan) are as secure as our neighbours,” Karzai told the opening of a three-day economic forum in the Saudi city of Jeddah. “It (security) is not much of problem for us,” he said. “It is the infrastructure that is a problem... which we are working on.” He invited foreign businesses to channel investment into the country and make a profit. — AFP