Shield testing

TOKYO – Japan said it shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of joint efforts with the United States to erect a shield against a possible North Korean attack.

Sudan peace * KHARTOUM – Sudan’s former southern rebels will rejoin the national government on December 27, a presidential spokesman said on yesterday, formally ending the crisis which threatened to tear Africa’s largest country apart. Iraq unrest * BAGHDAD – Insurgents killed at least six people in car bomb attacks in Iraq as US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a surprise visit to the battered country, security officials and medics said.Immigrants dead * GENEVA – About 200 African would-be immigrants are dead or missing after two boats they were travelling in sank off the coast of Yemen at the weekend, the United Nations refugee agency said.Guards killed * HERAT – Fifteen Afghan security guards were killed in a Taliban ambush in western Afghanistan, police said, as two police and several Taliban rebels died in other clashes across the country.Laden in Pakistan? KHAR – A Taliban group operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s claims that Osama bin Laden could be in the region – but said they would welcome him there.Nampa-AFPIraq unrest * BAGHDAD – Insurgents killed at least six people in car bomb attacks in Iraq as US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a surprise visit to the battered country, security officials and medics said.Immigrants dead * GENEVA – About 200 African would-be immigrants are dead or missing after two boats they were travelling in sank off the coast of Yemen at the weekend, the United Nations refugee agency said.Guards killed * HERAT – Fifteen Afghan security guards were killed in a Taliban ambush in western Afghanistan, police said, as two police and several Taliban rebels died in other clashes across the country.Laden in Pakistan? KHAR – A Taliban group operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s claims that Osama bin Laden could be in the region – but said they would welcome him there.Nampa-AFP