DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “2nd LD: Boat carrying 296 refugees reaches Italian island, 25 already dead” plus 9 more

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least ten NATO oil tankers were torched in southern Pakistani Sindh province early Monday morning while on their way from Karachi to Peshawar, reported local Urdu TV channel Geo.

According to the report, the incident took place at about 2:00 a.m. local time Monday morning when unknown gunmen opened fire at a NATO supply convoy moving from the southern port city of Karachi to Peshawar, a major city in northwest Pakistan, on the national highway near Khairpur, a city in the northern part of Sindh province.

Following the attack, the oil tankers caught fire and four people including three drivers were seriously injured. One hotel and three shops nearby the attack site also caught fire, said police.

Six fire brigades from Khairpur and the neighboring city of Sukkur were called in to put off the fire.

Currently nearly 70 percent of the supplies for the U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan is reportedly shipped through Pakistan via land route. The frequent attacks on NATO supply convoys in Pakistan have created a big headache for the NATO troops in Afghanistan, forcing them to consider opening a new route into Afghanistan from the north though much more inconvenient and costly than the southern route from Karachi.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Government troops clashed anew with suspected leftist rebels in southern Philippines on Sunday, leaving one militiaman dead, police said Monday.

The encounter between soldiers and New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas in Loreto town, Agusan del Sur province happened as the hunt for those who attacked a police station in the same province over the weekend continued, said Superintendent Martin Gamba, spokesperson for the Caraga regional police.

Gamba said soldiers and tribal militia were conducting patrol operations at Waloe village, Loreto town, when they ran into some 40 leftist rebels, sparking a two-hour firefight, leaving militiaman named Ricky Lantrong dead.

Two civilians were killed and three others, including two policemen wounded when some 250 NPA gunmen attempted to overrun the police station and government buildings in Trento town.

As this developed, police reported on Monday the arrest of two wounded rebels who were part of the gunmen that attacked Trento town.

The wounded rebels who were being treated at a government hospital in nearby Surigao del Sur province have confessed about their participation in the raid and offered information as to where their dead comrades were hastily buried, said Gamba.

The NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been waging a guerrilla campaign in the countryside for more than four decades. The Philippine military estimates there are over 4,000 NPA guerrilla fighters scattered in more than 60 provinces throughout the country.

KASHGAR, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- A group of religious extremists led by culprits trained in overseas terrorist camps were behind the weekend attack on civilians in China's far-western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that left 6 dead and 15 others wounded, the local government said Monday.

Initial probe has shown that the heads of the group had learned skills of making explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the terrorist group "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang to organize terrorist activities, the government of Kashgar City said in an online statement.

Six civilians were killed, 15 others -- including three policemen -- were injured after attackers set fire on a restaurant and started a killing rampage on civilians in Kashgar on Sunday. Five suspects were shot dead by police.

The government on Monday also issued arrest warrants on two suspects who fled the scene. The two were identified as 29-year-old Memtieli Tiliwaldi and 34-year-old Turson Hasan. Both are local ethnic Uygurs and have primary school education, according to the warrants.

The police offer 100,000 yuan (15,384 U.S. dollars) for information leading to the arrest of any of the two.

The Sunday attack was the second violence that erupted in Kashgar over the weekend. On Saturday night, two people hijacked a truck after killing the driver and drove into crowds. The suspects then jumped out of the truck and hacked random bystanders.

Eight civilians were killed while 27 others were injured. One of the suspect was killed in the clash while the other was apprehended.

The local government did not specifically call Saturday's violence a terrorist attack.

DAMASCUS, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A total of 79 Syrians were said to have been killed in several cities in clashes with security forces Sunday, while the Cabinet ratified a draft law to give a greater say in various fields to local governments and the public.

Abdul-Karim al-Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for Human Rights, told Xinhua by phone that 62 civilians were killed by security forces in the Hama city of central Syria, which was raided by the army from the dawn on Sunday.

Meanwhile, al-Jazeera TV, citing witnesses and activists, said the Syrian army backed by tanks stormed Hama from four sides with heavy gunfire after a nearly one-month-long siege.

Al-Rihawi also said 12 people were killed in the northeastern province of Deir al-Zour, and another civilian in al-Bukamal city, which is close to Deir al-Zour.

Still another four civilians were killed in the southern province of Daraa, the epicenter of anti-government protests, according to Al-Rihawi.

"The Syrian government seems to resort to an armed handling of the crisis instead of a political one," said al-Rihawi.

The report, however, could not be independently verified as there was no official information on civilian casualties.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said he was ultimately confident that Syria would undermine "this new chapter of conspiracy," which he said aimed at "dividing the country as a prelude for dividing the entire region to conflicting states."

Assad reasserted that his country was subject to sectarian sedition, but the Syrian people were aware to what was being intrigued against them and were able to "bury sedition."

Meanwhile, the official SANA news agency said the military entered Hama to purge armed groups that were terrorizing citizens.

Gunmen had torched police stations, smashed public and private properties, erected barricades and sand barriers and set tires ablaze in Hama, said SANA, adding army units were now working to eliminate barriers and barricades.

In Deir al-Zour, SANA said armed groups had cut off some roads and erected barriers in city streets, adding law enforcement forces had engaged those groups and hunted them down.

Syria's Interior Ministry, in a statement, said eight law enforcement forces were killed by "armed terrorist groups" in Hama.

The statement said armed groups started their operations at dawn against official and security centers in Hama in an attempt to kill and kidnap officials and security troops, adding the gunmen also opened fire randomly to threaten local residents.

Several gunmen were killed in the clashes, it said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his deep concerns over the latest violence in Syria.

He strongly condemned the use of force against civilians and called on the Syrian government to immediately halt the violence.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the security forces' latest raids in Syria "horrifying," saying Assad was "completely incapable and unwilling" to respond to legitimate grievances of the Syrian people.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the attacks were "all the more shocking" on the eve of Ramadan which starts on Monday and appeared to be part of a coordinated effort to put off Syrians from protesting during the Muslim holy month.

Meantime, the Syrian Cabinet approved a draft law that ensures decentralization of authority and shifts more power and responsibilities to the public.

The draft law provides rights to local administration councils in a way that enables them to more freely perform their duties of developing administrative units economically, socially and culturally.

It is one of the series of new laws introduced by the Syrian Cabinet as part of the reforms announced by President Assad to meet the Syrian people's aspirations for broader democracy and reforms. The Cabinet recently endorsed the multi-party and election laws.

Syria has been in unrest since mid-March when anti-government protests broke out in Daraa province and spread to other cities.

Syrian authorities blame the unrest on "armed groups and foreign conspiracy" and stress they will track down gunmen who have intimidated people and damaged public and private properties.