Pak rejects US charge:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday strongly rejected a US military claim that its forces were helping American troops in Afghanistan aim artillery fire at rebels on the Pakistani side of the border. “Not at all, it is baseless, it has got no truth,” military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said in response to remarks by Colonel Cardon Crawford, director of operations for the US military command in Afghanistan. — AFP

Chen invites China envoy:

Taipei: Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian invited China’s top cross-strait negotiator on Wednesday to visit the island, urging the two sides to reopen talks. The invitation was extended to Wang Daohan, president of China’s quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, at the memorial service of Koo Chen-fu, Wang’s former Taiwan counterpart. — AFP

Indonesia jails militants:

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court has sentenced five members of a small group of Muslim militants to between three and five years of jail each over bomb explosions in March last year, a report said on Wednesday. The Cibinong district court in West Java sentenced Agus Kusdiyanto to five years while three others, Muhammad Ferdiansyah, Putra Musahid and Hadi Swandono received four years each, reports said. — AFP

Electricity partly restored:

QUETTA: Electricity has been partially restored in Pakistan’s restive southwest after a major power line was blown up by suspected nationalist tribesmen, officials said on Wednesday. Quetta and Sibi were receiving power from a neighbouring region while repair work was underway on a transmission tower blasted by rockets on late Tuesday. However, people in a vast area of the troubled province of Baluchistan were still without electricity, interior ministry officials in the capital Islamabad said. — AFP

Leukemia therapy trials:

Beijing: Scientists in emerging biotech power China have started clinical trials of stem cell-based therapies for leukemia, state media said on Wednesday. The experiments are meant to pave the way for commercialising stem cell-based medical products, the China Daily reported, citing Zhao Chunhua, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. — AFP

Held for tattooing insults:

Shanghai: A man has been arrested in China’s Jilin province for tattooing 100 defamatory characters on his girlfriend’s body after she tried to break up with him,

reports said on Wednesday. Zhou, 42, used black ink and a sewing machine needle to forcibly tattoo one-third of his girlfriend’s body. Li, 52, who had been living with Zhou for six months, was held prisoner after she attempted to end the relationship in October, the report said. — AFP