Troops kill 10 rebels in Aceh

Troops kill 10 rebels in Aceh

INDONESIA: Ten separatist rebels have been killed in the latest violence in Aceh province, the military said on Saturday.

Troops killed the 10 members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in three separate clashes at Tapaktuan in South Aceh district on Friday, Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin said.

Guns and ammunition were seized from the rebels, he said.

But a local GAM spokesman, Abrar Muda, claimed that the 10 dead victims were civilians and no guerrilla was killed in the skirmishes. -- AFP

;AP; ANPA ..u.. Nepal-Maoist Rebels Death toll in fighting between Maoist rebels, police is 160 JP/2/NEPAL

160 killed in Nepal battle

NEPAL: At least 160 police and Maoist rebels were killed in a single night of fighting, the worst carnage in the six-year-old insurgency to bring communism to this Himalayan kingdom, police said on Saturday.

The dramatic jump in the toll -- the government had reported 54 deaths Friday -- was revealed by local officials to journalists who traveled overnight by road to the two remote towns in western Nepal that saw most of the fighting on Thursday night and early Friday.

Police Inspector Padam Vohra told The Associated Press that 60 policemen were killed on Thursday night while defending the house of Interior Security Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka from a rebel attack in Satbariya. Another 27 policemen who surrendered were beheaded and two were burned alive, he said. -- AP;AP; ANPAc..r.. High-Mideast-Powell Powell's meeting with Arafat on hold after suicide bombing in JP/2/HIGH

Powell meeting with Arafat on hold

ISRAEL: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is waiting for a statement from Yasser Arafat denouncing a suicide bombing in Jerusalem before deciding whether to see the Palestinian leader.

They were supposed to meet on Saturday in Ramallah, where Israeli forces have Arafat cooped up in his headquarters. Powell called off the sessions, saying through his spokesman that "it is important that Chairman Arafat not miss this opportunity to take a clear stand against the violence that harms the Palestinian cause."

Powell could see the devastation when a helicopter taking him to northern Israel for a military briefing passed over the site, a market in the center of Jerusalem.

The bomber, a Palestinian woman, struck as shoppers were preparing for the onset of the Sabbath. Six people were killed and at least 90 injured, some critically. -- AP

;REUTERS; ANPAc..u.. High-India-violence Two killed in fresh religious violence in Indian state JP/2/HIGH

Two die in more strife in Indian state

INDIA: Two people were killed and 27 injured in fresh Hindu- Muslim clashes late on Friday in India's Gujarat state, police said.

Gujarat has been tense since more than 750 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in a wave of reprisal killings in the state after a Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists and burned 59 people alive in late February.

Violence has continued to erupt intermittently after the country's worst religious bloodshed in a decade and thousands of Muslims are still in relief camps and mosques, too terrified to return home.

"Two people were killed, one due to injuries in firing by groups and the other in stone pelting in Dhanilimda area of Ahmedabad late on Friday," a senior police official told Reuters on Saturday. -- Reuters

;REUTERS; ANPAc..u.. High-Vietnam-drugs Vietnam sentences Malaysian ecstasy smuggler to life JP/2/HIGH

Malaysian ecstasy smuggler gets life VIETNAM: A Vietnamese court sentenced a Malaysian man to life in prison after he was found guilty of smuggling nearly 5,000 ecstasy pills into the communist-ruled country, official media reported on Saturday.

The Vietnam News daily said the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Mohd Hafiz Gomez Bin Abdullah, 35, for drug trafficking on Friday.

Court officials were not available for comment on Saturday.

The newspaper quoted Abdullah as testifying at the one-day trial that he was hired to take some 4,981 pills of the synthetic drugs into Vietnam in exchange for 7,000 ringgit (US$1,842) in April 2001. He also testified that he had smuggled ecstasy into New Zealand from Malaysia in November 2000. -- Reuters ;AP; ANPAc..r.. High-China-Bus-Accident Bus crash in southern China kills 28 JP/2/HIGH

Bus crash kills 28 in China

CHINA: At least 28 people were killed in southern China when a truck carrying pesticides plowed into a passenger bus and burst into flames, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The impact of Thursday night's accident outside the southern city of Changsha caused both vehicles to flip into a ditch full of water 1 meter deep, further complicating rescue efforts, Xinhua said.

Hours later, police were still pulling bodies from the charred wreckage of the bus, which was carrying 53 people, 21 more than it was licensed to, the agency said.

Xinhua said the cause of the accident was still being investigated. The truck's driver had been at the wheel for more than 15 hours and his vehicle was overloaded with 8 tons of pesticide, it said. -- AP