11 of kin killed

MULTAN: Eleven members of the same family were killed and 23 others were injured when a coach and passenger van collided in central Pakistan on Monday. The accident happened at Rajanpur, in Punjab province, when the bus coming from the southern city of Karachi and the van crashed on a turn in the road. Three women and three children were among the dead. — AFP

More blasts in Lanka

COLOMBO: Two roadside bombs exploded in northern Sri Lanka’s Jaffna town on Tuesday, killing a government soldier and three civilians and wounding 25 others. Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels for the blasts that appeared targeted at military patrols. One of the bombs, of a type that can be remotely controlled, apparently missed its military target but killed a civilian and wounded a soldier. The other blast hit a military truck, killing one soldier and wounding two others. — AP

Polio wiped out

JAKARTA: Polio has been eradicated in Indonesia following five nationwide rounds of immunisation against the crippling disease, a WHO official said on Tuesday. The last case was reported in February, so enough time had passed to make this assessment, a WHO official explained. He said the crippling disease was brought to an end thanks to the immunisation of 24 million children. — AFP

137 m online in China

BEIJING: China, the world’s second-largest Internet market in terms of people connected to cyberspace, saw its Internet population soar 23.4 per cent last year to 137 million, a think tank said on Tuesday. The statistics showed that more than one in 10 Chinese had become an Internet user, China Internet Network Information Center said on its website. — AFP