41 candidates for Afghan presidential ballot

KABUL, June 13: Afghanistan's electoral authority unveiled a final list of 41 candidates for August 20 presidential elections that includes the incumbent, President Hamid Karzai. The number is down from a provisional list of 44 people, most of them unknown, after two men were disqualified and one dropped out, Independent Election Commission president Azizullah Lodin told reporters. --- AFP

Prosecutor wants life for Kurdish wedding massacre

DIYARBAKIR, June 13: A Turkish prosecutor wants life sentences for nine suspects charged over a machine gun massacre at a Kurdish wedding last month that killed 44 people, a court source said Saturday. The indictment, filed at a court in the southeastern city of Mardin, demands that the suspects be sentenced to life with no chance of parole on 44 counts of premeditated murder. --- AFP

Militants kill five Philippine marines in ambush

MANILA, June 13: Al-Qaida-linked militants holding an Italian Red Cross worker captive killed five Philippine marines and wounded 10 others in an ambush Saturday on a southern island. One police officer was wounded. About 40 militants attacked a group of marines and special operations police pursuing Abu Sayyaf gunmen holding 62-year-old Eugenio Vagni outside Parang township on Jolo island, said marines spokesman Lt Col Edgard Arevalo. ---AP

Iraq blames al-Qaida for Sunni killing

BAGHDAD, June 13: The Interior Ministry says al-Qaida in Iraq is to blame for the killing of a prominent Sunni lawmaker in Baghdad. The announcement comes as Iraqi leaders attended a funeral service Saturday in a show of solidarity for Harith al-Obeidi. Ministry spokesman told newsmen the evidence so far indicates al-Qaida in Iraq was behind the assassination. ---AP

Pakistan vows to fight Taliban 'until the end'

ISLAMABAD, June 13: President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday that Pakistan was battling for its "sovereignty" a day after scores of people were killed amid an escalating offensive against the Taliban. Zardari said Pakistan would fight "until the end," as US defence officials in Washington confirmed that Islamabad was stepping up its offensive against militants in the country's troubled northwest. ---AP

NASA delays shuttle launch over hydrogen leak

CAPE CANAVERAL, June 13: The US space shuttle Endeavour's launch was delayed Saturday following a hydrogen leak, postponing a mission to the International Space Station by at least four days. The launch had been scheduled for 7:17 am (1117 GMT) from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Now the earliest opportunity for the shuttle's lift-off will be on June 17, officials said. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency said in a statement that the leak in a venting system was detected near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, which is attached to the external tank at its intertank area. --- AFP