Government targets Taliban near border

July 5, 2009

PESHAWAR - Pakistani warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded Taliban positions in the country’s volatile northwest yesterday, killing at least 12 suspected insurgents, security officials said, as the government kept up pressure on Islamist militants along the Afghan border. Elsewhere in the northwest, clashes between tribesmen and Taliban fighters left 16 people dead in the latest violence between pro-government tribal militias and insurgents. (AP)

MUMBAI - A child star of the Oscar-winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire’’ moved into his new home in a Mumbai suburb yesterday, a far cry from his family’s former dwelling - a shanty by the railway tracks. Azharuddin Ismail, 9, played the youngest Salim in director Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches film about a slum dweller trying his luck on a TV game show. Ismail and his family moved into the ground-floor apartment, which is in a modern building complex, with electricity and running water. Ismail’s earlier dwelling was demolished by civic authorities. (Reuters)

ROME - Protesters clashed yesterday with police at a demonstration against the planned expansion of an airport and US military base in the northern city of Vicenza. Demonstrators wearing helmets and carrying plastic shields threw stones and other objects at police guarding a bridge on the route of the protest. Police fired tear gas canisters and clubbed some demonstrators, but no injuries were immediately reported. (AP)