World briefs

MYANMAR The new U.N. human rights envoy for Myanmar has expressed serious concern about the conditions in camps for more than 100,000 mostly minority Muslims displaced by violence led by Buddhist extremists, and warned that the country’s human rights situation may be deteriorating.

GAZA Strip Hamas yesterday agreed to observe a 24-hour truce in Gaza after initially rejecting a similar Israeli offer, as fighting resumed and the two sides wrangled over the terms of a lull that international diplomats had hoped could be expanded into a more sustainable truce. After Israel announced a 24-hour truce late Saturday, Palestinian militants fired rockets deep into Israel, prompting it to resume an offensive aimed at destroying rocket launchers and cross-border attack tunnels used by Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling the coastal strip.

AFGHANISTAN  A civilian and a border policeman were killed when Taliban insurgents attacked the house of a police chief in the country’s restive south. A group of suicide bombers launched the attack early yesterday from a school building near Gen. Abdul Razeq’s house in the Spin Boldak district. The six attackers tried to enter Razeq’s house before they were killed by police, officials said. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack.

RUSSIA-EU Russia says new EU sanctions against it over the Ukraine crisis will jeopardise security co-operation against terror. The Russian foreign ministry said the EU would bear the blame for the move which sees 15 officials and 18 entities subject to asset freezes and visa bans. The EU and US accuse Russia of backing Ukraine’s rebels. Moscow denies this.

AUSTRALIA Prime minister Tony Abbott says unarmed Australian police will be sent to the Malaysian airliner’s crash site in rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine as part of a Dutch-led police force to secure the area and help recover victims’ remains. Mr Abbott said yesterday that by using unarmed police, Ukraine’s Parliament will not need to ratify the deployment as it would if the security force were to be armed.

CAMEROON The wife of vice prime minister Amadou Ali was kidnapped and at least three people were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants on in the northern town of Kolofata yesterday, officials said. A local religious leader, or lamido, named Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town’s mayor, was kidnapped as well, in a separate attack on his home. Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist militant group, has stepped up cross-border attacks into Cameroon in recent weeks.

PAKISTAN The first team of Pakistani climbers to scale the world’s second tallest mountain, K2, has arrived at the summit, BBC reported. K2 lies in Pakistan, near the northern border with China. The climbers made it to the summit at 02:30am Saturday. Mountaineers regard K2 as more challenging to conquer than Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.