In Short

Other world news in brief

Egypt vows  to reopen Iraq embassy

BAGHDAD: Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit made an unannounced visit to Iraq yesterday and promised to reopen an embassy in Baghdad soon, the latest sign that fellow Arab nations are slowly restoring ties.

Mr Aboul Gheit was accompanied by Egypt's oil minister Sameh Fahmy in the first high-level Egyptian delegation to Iraq since al-Qaeda killed Egypt's envoy to Baghdad in 2005.

Eleven Iraqis were killed on Sunday during a US raid on a home in northern Iraq in which a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest among civilians inside, the US military said.

A US military spokesman said it was not clear how many of the victims died as a result of the bomb blast and how many as a result of shooting. Three women and three children were among those killed during the raid, which targeted a wanted man in Mosul, some 390km north of Baghdad. - (Reuters)

Earthquake hits central Asia

BISHKEK: A strong earthquake struck central Asia yesterday but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, officials and witnesses said.

The quake jolted an area between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, central Asia's most densely populated corner prone to ethnic tension and instability.

The earthquake was felt throughout the region, mainly in Kyrgyzstan, but there were conflicting reports about the magnitude and epicentre. - (Reuters)

18 killed as truck plunges into river

TURKEY: A small truck carrying illegal immigrants plunged into a river after overturning on a Turkish highway near the border with Greece yesterday, killing 18 people and injuring 25 others, the state news agency said. Most of the dead were from Burma and Pakistan. Turkey is a major trafficking route for illegal immigrants trying to enter the EU from southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. - (Reuters)

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times