News In Brief

Karzai ends Pak visit, invites Sharif
Afp, Islamabad

Afghan President Hamid Karzai concluded a two-day trip to Pakistan yesterday by inviting Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Kabul.
Karzai came to Islamabad to meet Sharif for the first time since his election in May in a bid to overcome a series of public rows that have hampered efforts to end 12 years of war in Afghanistan. The Afghan president also urged Pakistan to help arrange peace talks between his government and the Taliban.

Maoists kill 4 BSF troops in India
Pti, Koraput

At least four Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers were killed and two injured in a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists in Koraput district yesterday.
Police said as many as 18 BSF personnel were travelling from Koraput to Vishakpatnam in Andhra Pradesh in three four-wheelers with six men in each vehicle. While the two vehicles crossed over safely, the third vehicle exploded in the blast.

Venezuela foils Maduro killing bid
Afp, Caracas

Venezuela said Monday it derailed a plot to kill President Nicolas Maduro, arresting two hitmen it said wanted to assassinate the leftist leader on orders from a Colombian conservative ex-president.
Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said at a briefing that Caracas arrested the alleged hitmen, two Colombians, on August 13.
Maduro himself called on US President Barack Obama to say if he ordered or knew of the alleged assassination plan. Maduro said that besides Colombia, it was hatched by far-right Venezuelan opposition figures in Miami. Maduro is a frequent and fiery critic of Washington, as was his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
"Is President Obama so weak that decisions are made for him in the United States to kill a Latin American head of state without his knowing it?" Maduro said to reporters.

2 Red Cross staff abducted in Darfur
Afp, Khartoum

Gunmen in Sudan's troubled Darfur region were holding two employees of the Red Cross yesterday but six others have been freed, a spokesman for the organisation said.
He said a team of eight Sudanese ICRC staff were detained by "unknown gunmen" on Monday as they travelled between Nertiti and Zalingei in Central Darfur state.

Heavy rains batter Laos; 16 killed
Afp, Bangkok

At least 16 people have died and tens of thousands of others have lost homes, land or livestock across Laos in heavy rains, the United Nations said yesterday.
The deaths occurred during flash floods after downpours in the northwestern district of Beng on August 20, the UN's resident co-ordinator for the impoverished communist country said in a statement.