In Short

A round-up of today's international news

At least nine dead after US missile strike

PAKISTAN:  A US missile strike in a Pakistani tribal region known as a haven for Taliban and al- Qaeda fighters killed at least nine people yesterday, Pakistani intelligence officials said. One report put the toll as high as 21.

Officials said a pilotless drone aircraft attacked the village of Mohammad Khel, 30km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. - (Reuters)

EU plan to allay states' fears

BELGIUM: EU governments may seek to keep the European Commission in office beyond the end of its five-year term next year so that each member state can retain its own commissioner, EU diplomats said yesterday.

The aim of the new plan - still in its early stages - is to reassure the EU's smaller countries that they will not lose their national representative on the commission when its successor is appointed. - (Financial Times service)

Vote on Kosovo sparks backlash

MONTENEGRO: Montenegro's parliament passed a resolution yesterday that the opposition sees as a first step towards recognising the independence of Kosovo, a sharply divisive issue in the former Yugoslav republic.

Opposition pro-Serb parties said they would call on their followers to stage street protests if parliament recognises Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February.

"You have a historical responsibility to decide whether you will preserve the dignity of Montenegro or stab a bloody knife in the back of sister Serbia," Amfilohije Radovic, Serbian Orthodox bishop in Montenegro, said in a letter to President Filip Vujanovic. - (Reuters)

Boy (7) feeds zoo animals to croc

AUSTRALIA: A seven-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said yesterday.

The boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre in Australia early on Wednesday, then went on a 30-minute killing spree, using a rock to kill three lizards, including the zoo's beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to "Terry", an 11-ft, 440lb saltwater crocodile, said zoo director Rex Neindorf. The boy's acts were caught on security camera. - (PA)

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times