Anger after US strike

Angry residents of a Pakistani village on the Afghan border stopped government officials yesterday from approaching the ruins of a house struck by missiles suspected to have been fired by a US drone.

Eighteen people including foreign militants were killed when two missiles hit a house in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal region, where Islamist militants have been known to operate, on Wednesday evening, a security official said.

A senior government official said the strike had apparently targetted a mid-level, Arab Al-Qaida member, who had been killed.

Sharif 'can run for MP'

A judge has dismissed objections to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif running for a vacant seat in the Pakistani parliament next month.

Sharif was barred from February parliamentary elections because of prior criminal convictions, including one related to President Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup.

But Sharif supporters cheered outside a court in Lahore yesterday after a judge dismissed complaints against his renewed candidacy. The judge didn't explain the decision.

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page12)