PAKISTAN: Pakistani officials say militants exploded a car bomb outside a police
station in the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least 23 people and
wounding more than 200 others.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik blamed Taliban militants for what officials are calling a "suicide attack" Wednesday.
Malik said it appears the attack was in retaliation for an ongoing
military offensive in the country's northwest targeting Taliban
fighters.
Officials say they have arrested four suspects. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Officials say the militants drove up to an outside barrier of a police
station.
NOKOR - NUCLEAR: North Korea says it will take military action against South Korea if it
participates in a U.S.-led effort to intercept ships suspected of
carrying weapons of mass destruction, as tensions increase over
Pyongyang's nuclear test earlier this week.
In a statement Wednesday, Pyongyang reaffirmed that it would consider
Seoul's decision an act of war and will no longer be bound by the 1953
armistice that ended the three-year Korean War.
Seoul announced Tuesday it would participate in the Proliferation
Security Initiative, which involves intelligence sharing and naval
coordination to prevent nuclear and other illegal weapons from being
transported.
BURMA - SUU KYI: The trial of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi continued
Wednesday, the sixth anniversary of her latest round of detention.
The 63-year-old Nobel Peace laureate has spent the 13 of the last 19
years in detention, most of it at her lakeside home in the main city of
Rangoon.
In a statement released Tuesday by the White House, U.S. President
Barack Obama condemned Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention, and
urged Burma's military junta to release her immediately and without
conditions. Mr. Obama says her current trial is a "show trial based on
spurious charges."
INDIA - BANGLADESH - CYCLONE: Officials in India and Bangladesh say the death toll from this week's cyclone has risen to nearly 200, and rescue teams are still trying to reach thousands of people stranded by flooding. Cyclone Aila slammed into the coast of Bangladesh and eastern India on Monday, driving a storm surge and dumping heavy rains that flooded villages in low-lying areas. Officials say continued rain in the wake of the storm has slowed rescue efforts. Bangladeshi authorities say 130 people have died there and more than 100 are missing. Officials in neighboring India say the death toll in West Bengal state is at least 68.
SOMALIA - UNREST: Somali rebels have fired mortars toward the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least seven civilians.
Witnesses and a military spokesman on Wednesday said the attack
happened late Tuesday. They said the mortars, aimed at the presidential
mansion, hit a civilian neighborhood nearby instead.
Some reports said several government soldiers were also killed in the attack, but that has not been confirmed.
Islamist insurgent groups trying to topple Somalia's government
launched an offensive early this month. Fighting since then has killed
nearly 200 people in Mogadishu.
VIETNAM - DRUG ARREST: Authorities in Vietnam say they have arrested a Lao man transporting nearly 500,000 ecstasy pills. The man, identified as Xeng Phet, a 40-year-old resident of Vientiane, was arrested Tuesday in the central province of Thanh Hoa. Police say they found the ecstasy pills in nearly 80 separate containers in the car.
SWINE FLU: Singapore says a 22-year-old woman has been diagnosed with the H1N1
swine flu virus, the first confirmed case for the city-state.
Authorities say the woman developed a cough during a flight Tuesday
from New York, but the illness was not detected by airport scanners
because she was not running a fever. She has been quarantined in a
hospital, where she is in stable condition.
The health ministry says it is searching for people who had come into
close contact with the woman, so they can be quarantined and treated
with anti-viral medication.
SOUTH KOREA - ROH: News reports in South Korea say the bodyguard of former President Roh Moo-hyun left his side before the ex-politician committed suicide last week. Yonhap says the bodyguard initially claimed he witnessed Mr. Roh jumping from the Owl Rock mountain Saturday near his hometown of Gimhae, about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul. But an investigation turned up evidence that contradicted the man's statement. The guard now says the former president instructed him to go to a nearby Buddhist temple to see if the head monk was there. Yonhap says the guard discovered Mr. Roh's body 30 minutes later.
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