Six dead in Azeri base shooting

BAKU: Two soldiers in Azerbaijan shot dead four fellow servicemen and then killed themselves at a military base near the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The ministry said two other soldiers were wounded in the shooting, which took place Thursday and the motive behind the shooting was not known. The independent Turan news agency said several senior commanders of an artillery unit were among those killed after the two soldiers opened fire in the officers’ quarters of the base, and that the attack was motivated by mistreatment. The base is located in the western Dashkesan region of Azerbaijan, close to the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline.

Journalist jailed for 13 years

YANGON: A Myanmar court has handed down a 13-year jail term to a journalist for working for exiled media, his legal counsel said Friday. Ngwe Soe Lin was sentenced Wednesday after being arrested for working for the Myanmar exile broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Norwegian capital Oslo, lawyer Aung Thein said. He added that Ngwe Soe Lin would appeal the ruling, which sentenced him to 10 years in jail for violation of the country’s Electronics Act and another three years under the Immigration Emergency Provisions Act. Aye Chan Naing, the head of Democratic Voice of Burma, said he believed the junta was attempting to seize greater control over media ahead of national elections planned for later this year.

Philippine journalist’s killer sent to prison

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: A hired gun has been jailed for 40 years in the central Philippines for the killing of a radio journalist, domestic media organizations said Friday. The verdict was just the sixth time anyone has been sentenced for killing a journalist since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001, the media groups said, despite nearly 100 media workers being murdered over that time. A court in Cebu city this week found Mohammad Maulana guilty of the fatal February 2005 shooting of DXKP station broadcaster Edgar Amoro, 46, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). The NUJP and press clubs thanked the court for the verdict.

More jail time for arms smugglers

BANGKOK: A Thai court has extended the detention of five alleged arms traffickers who flew a planeload of weapons into the country from North Korea, officials said Friday. The Belarusian pilot and four Kazakh crew were arrested last month and charged by police with possessing illegal weapons and ammunition, smuggling weapons and other banned products and failing to report the cache. Permission to detain the men must be renewed every 12 days and the fifth extension lasts until February 11, court officials said. Prosecutor Kayasit Pissawanprakan told reporters that the Attorney General’s office would need at least another week to decide whether to take the case to court.

— Compiled from agencies