10 militants killed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army destroyed suspected al-Qaeda hideouts in an airstrike near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing 10 people, officials said. The army and a senior local official said the dead were militants, and included some foreigners, but a resident said the slain men were in fact Afghan laborers. The raid in South Waziristan came days after the US intelligence chief said leaders of both al-Qaeda and Afghanistan’s former ruling Taliban militia were finding shelter in Pakistan. — AP

New CJ in Fiji

SUVA: A judge who has previously defied Fiji’s coup leader and interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama was sworn in on Tuesday as acting chief justice. Justice Anthony Gates was sworn in by Fiji’s reinstated president Ratu Josefa Iloilo, two weeks after Bainimarama suspended Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki pending an investigation into allegations of corruption in the judiciary. — AFP

Five killed in mishap

JAKARTA: At least five people were killed and over 90 injured when a passenger train derailed in Indonesia’s Central Java province, railway officials said on Tuesday. The accident occurred just before midnight on Monday when the west-bound train derailed in Banyumas district. — DPA.

Reporter killed

BEIJING: A Chinese reporter was beaten to death by unknown assailants while conducting interviews in the heartland of the country’s crime and accident-ridden coal industry, his newspaper said on Tuesday. Lan Chengzhang had been hired by the China Trade News on December 27 and died on January 10, one day after the assault, said Wang Jianfeng, a manager at the News. — AP

Invitation taken back

BANGKOK: Thailand on Tuesday rescinded an invitation to Singapore’s foreign minister to visit the country later this month after ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s met with a top Singaporean official. The government also announced it was suspending a civil exchange programme with Singapore and cancelled a meeting about the programme that was to be held later this month. — AP

BNP official arrested

CHITTAGONG: The army on Tuesday arrested a senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party official in a crackdown on underworld-linked politicians after a state of emergency was imposed last week, a spokesman told AFP. Dastagir Chowdhury, general secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party ’s Chittagong city unit, was arrested, the armed forces source said. — Agencies