More world news in brief.
Missiles kill militants on Afghan border
ISLAMABAD -Missiles from a suspected US drone aircraft killed up to 20 militants in a Pakistani region on the Afghan border yesterday, officials said, hours before Afghan and Pakistani tribal and political leaders met to discuss peace.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent months, raising fears about the future for both countries at the heart of the US-led global campaign against militancy. - (Reuters)
Saakashvili dismisses PM
TBILISI -Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has dismissed reformist prime minister Lado Gurgenidze, a senior government source said yesterday, under a government overhaul following war with Russia in August.
The source said Mr Saakashvili would name Grigol Mgaloblishvili (35), Georgia's ambassador to Turkey, as his choice for the post. Mr Gurgenidze (37), a pro-western technocrat and former banker, became prime minister in November 2007. - (Reuters)
Indonesians flee flooding
JAKARTA -More than 11,000 Indonesians have fled their homes because of floods caused by torrential rain in Gorontalo city on Sulawesi island. "About 80 per cent of Gorontalo city and Bone Bolango regency are paralysed because of the flood," Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministrys crisis centre, said yesterday. - (Reuters)
Two die in US campus shooting
Police were last night questioning two suspects after a shooting on Sunday night on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway left two students dead and a third person injured. Two other suspects remain at large.
"Our campus is safe," UCA interim president Tom Courtway said at a televised news conference.
Gunshots were reported at about 9.19pm local time outside the Arkansas Hall dormitory, Lieut Rhonda Swindle, a spokeswoman for the campus police, said at a televised news conference. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene and another died later at Conway Regional Medical Center.
Farc deserter may get asylum
PARIS -France is checking the status of a deserter from the Colombian Farc guerrilla group who helped a hostage escape at the weekend and may offer him asylum, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's office said yesterday.
A spokesman at the Élysée Palace said France had agreed to offer residence rights to Farc members who pledged to lay down their arms, "as long as they are not the target of legal proceedings anywhere in the world". - (Reuters)
More ferry bodies recovered
MANILA -Divers have recovered at least 23 more decomposing bodies from a ferry that sank with more than 860 people on board four months ago, one of the Philippines's worst maritime disasters.
Only 56 people survived when the MV Princess of the Starscapsized during a typhoon in June. - (Reuters)
Somali Islamists reject ceasefire
MOGADISHU -A powerful Somali Islamist group that boycotted UN-brokered peace talks said yesterday it would not respect a ceasefire reached over the weekend until all Ethiopian troops backing the government had left the country.
The hardline Islamist Shabaab faction said the agreement signed between the government and the more moderate Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia Islamist group was only a ploy to splinter the opposition. - (Reuters)