Gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying minority Shiite Muslims in south-western Pakistan yesterday, killing 11 people in what appeared to be a sectarian attack.
Two people were also wounded in the ambush in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, senior police official Hamid Shakeel said. The dead included one woman and two children.
Shakeel said the victims were heading to the nearby town of Hazara when four gunmen ambushed the minibus before fleeing.
Angered over the killings, dozens of Shiites briefly blocked a main road and torched two cars and two motorcycles, Shakeel said. Police regained control of the situation with help from local Shiite elders.
Shakeel said police were trying to track down the assailants.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities have blamed majority Sunni militant groups for such violence in the past.
17 people die in shoe factory blaze
A fire at a Vietnamese shoe factory killed 17 people and seriously injured 21 others in the northern port city of Hai Phong, state-controlled media reported yesterday.
Thanh Nien newspaper quoted Bui Thi Them, one of the survivors, as saying the fire broke out last Friday afternoon when welding sparks ignited roofing insulation.
The welder was installing a lightning rod on the factory’s tin roof in preparation for a tropical storm that was expected to hit northern Vietnam later yesterday.
The insulation fell to the factory floor in a fireball, blocking the workshop’s only entrance before quickly engulfing piles of shoemaking materials, it said.
The newspaper reported yesterday that police have detained six people, including the Vietnamese owner of the factory, her Chinese husband and the welder, for questioning.
Libya funds ‘could be unfrozen’– UN
The head of the UN committee monitoring sanctions against Libya says it will consider requests from Muammar Gaddafi’s government and the rebel government in Benghazi to unfreeze funds to pay for medicine and other urgent humanitarian needs for the Libyan people.
Portugal’s UN ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, who chairs the Security Council committee, said the rival governments have sent letters which have been circulated to the 15 council nations seeking funds so they can buy humanitarian items.
He told reporters at a briefing that there appears to be a consensus among the council members that this was a legitimate exception to the sanctions regime.
“But obviously to unfreeze the assets we must have concrete requests from both sides,” Mr Moraes Cabral said.
Chavez to increase oil production
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said his country’s oil production quota within Opec should increase now that its proven crude reserves have grown.
Mr Chavez said production quotas will need to be revised.
He said in a televised speech that “the more reserves you have, the higher the quota you have”.
Venezuela has dramatically increased its proven reserves in recent years.
Earlier this month, Opec recognised Venezuela as the country with the biggest proven oil reserves in the world, saying that with 296.5 billion barrels it now surpasses Saudi Arabia.
Venezuela aims to more than double its oil production within a decade.
Drugs seized in swoop on submarine
Honduras authorities said they have recovered 7.3 tonnes of cocaine from a semi-submersible craft seized off the country’s Caribbean coast.
Presidential guard chief Colonel Rene Osorio says officials had earlier recovered 2.7 tonnes. They have been unloading the drugs since last Wednesday.
The submarine-like fibreglass craft is floating about 15 metres under the surface because the crew tried to sink it.
Planes collide on airport tarmac
Two Delta Airlines aircraft have collided on the tarmac at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly Singley said a plane headed to Minneapolis and one headed to Atlanta struck each other before take-off. Ms Singley said there were no injuries.
A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said the two planes were backing away from loading gates when they collided.