Six Qaida ultras killed

MANILA: Philippine marines killed a top al-Qaida-linked militant commander and five other extremists early on Sunday in an assault on a rebel encampment on a southern island, a senior military commander said. A marine special operations platoon raided an Abu Sayyaf camp outside Maimbung township on Jolo island following intelligence reports that two wanted militant leaders, Umbra Jumdail and Albader Parad, were there, said Lt Gen Benjamin Dolorfino, head of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.

Envoy wraps up tour

ALMATY: A top US diplomat has wrapped up a whirlwind tour of former Soviet Central Asian states in a bid to bolster regional assistance in stabilising Afghanistan. The surge in the US military contingent in Afghanistan over recent months has been accompanied by an effort to enlist help from neighbouring nations in rebuilding the war-ravaged country and to provide reassurances violence will not spill over. US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Sunday that his visit to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan was aimed at addressing regional concerns over Afghanistan.

Synagogue attacked

CAIRO: A man hurled a suitcase containing a makeshift bomb made of gasoline canisters at Cairo’s main downtown synagogue on Sunday morning, but there were no injuries or damage, police said. According to the police report, a man entered a hotel located on the fourth floor of a building across from the synagogue in the early hours of the morning and as he was checking in, abruptly threw his suitcase out the window. Egypt's once thriving Jewish community largely left the country 50 years ago during hostilities between Egypt and Israel, but a number of heavily guarded synagogues remain.