WORLD NEWS BRIEFS

PAKISTAN / A least 8 die in air strikes

Suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft launched a pair of missile strikes in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least eight people in the latest attacks targeting militants who pose a threat to foreign forces in Afghanistan. The identities of the people killed were not known, but the area where the strikes occurred is dominated by a militant group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur that regularly attacks NATO troops in Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

AFGHANISTAN / Taliban leader killed

A senior Taliban commander and two other insurgents were killed in a firefight with NATO and Afghan forces in western Afghanistan, the military alliance said Sunday, as the government named a chief of a new council tasked with talking to insurgent groups. A Taliban commander identified as Mullah Jamaluddin was tracked as he traveled in western Badghis province Saturday, and NATO and Afghan forces moved in. Also Sunday, five civilians died in a roadside bombing in the east, and two NATO troops were killed in a blast in the south.

CHINA / Nobel winner's wife held

The wife of China's Nobel Peace Prize winner said late Sunday that Chinese authorities allowed her to visit her husband, Liu Xiaobo, in prison over the weekend, then placed her under house arrest when she returned to Beijing. Liu Xia disappeared from public view for two days after Friday's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xia's Twitter note stated the house arrest had begun on Friday, and her phone was also cut off.

GERMANY / Extradition sought

Germany is demanding the extradition of an Islamist from Hamburg, Germany, now being held in a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, prosecutors in Karlsruhe say. Recent travel alerts to European cities are thought to be based on information given by German citizen Ahmad Siddiqui during interrogation at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.