Six killed in Indonesia

JAKARTA: At least six people died and seven were wounded in escalating violence in Indonesia’s Aceh province, where government troops are seeking to crush a 30-year separatist movement. Military spokesman Lt Col Asep Sapari said the victims were rebels gunned down on Sunday and Monday in separate clashes in the region of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island. He said the violence did not affect voting in Monday’s parliamentary elections because they occurred in remote regions of the province. — AP

Maoists injure troops

RAIPUR: An attack by Maoist guerrillas in Chhattisgarh has left seven paramilitary troopers seriously injured. The banned Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) opened fire on Monday afternoon on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team in Balrampur in Sarguja district, 362 km from here. Seven CRPF personnel, including the platoon commander, were injured.

The CRPF claimed that four Maoists were also killed when the security personnel retaliated but the rebels managed to take away the bodies. — HNS

New interior minister

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s new interior minister said on Tuesday that fighting crime will be his key goal, as he prepared to replace his predecessor who resigned over the handling of last month’s mysterious election-eve shooting that wounded the president. Su Jia-chyuarn, 47, will take over from Yu Cheng-hsien on Friday. "The government will focus its efforts on stimulating the economy, so we need to improve law and order as a backup," said Su, most recently the head of the government in the southern county of Pingtung. Su’s first official term as minister is expected to last only one month because the entire Cabinet will resign on

May 12. — AP

Delhi rocked again

NEW DELHI: The Indian capital felt tremors for the second successive day on Tuesday following a quake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale that had its epicentre near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Officials at the meteorological department here confirmed the capital felt moderate tremors at 2.54 a.m."I woke up with the rattling of utensils in my kitchen. I thought it was a cat, before I heard the deep rumbling sound," said Ramakant Mahant, a resident of

south Delhi. — AFP

‘Jihad’ against drugs

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday called for a ‘jihad’ or holy war against the country’s growing narcotics trade, saying the drug industry threatened the stability of the government. In his first press conference since returning to Kabul following an aid meeting in Berlin at which donors pledged some 8.2 billion dollars to help rebuild the war-shattered nation, Karzai called on tribal elders to struggle against the narcotics trade. "Narcotics is one of the things which threatens our dignity, our economy, our agriculture. It threatens our government and our roots — and it is against our religion," he said. — AP

Quake jolts Afghanistan

KABUL: A powerful earthquake jolted the remote Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan’s northeast border with Pakistan early on Tuesday. Reports said at least one person was dead, and probably more. "There are casualties, but we are still trying to sort out the details," the head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, Qarabig

Ezedyar, said. He would not speculate on how many. Police also reported hearing of deaths from the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province and caused panic even in the capital, Kabul,

275 km to the southwest. — AFP