Syria base seized

Amman, Feb. 12 (Reuters): Syrian Opposition fighters captured a military airport near the northern city of Aleppo today, an Opposition organisation said.

The Jarrah air base, 46km east of Aleppo, came under the control of rebel units who have been surrounding it for weeks and the highway linking Aleppo to the east of the country is in opposition hands, the Sham News Network said.

US shooting

New York: A University of Maryland student shot his two roommates, one fatally, early on Tuesday before killing himself outside the house they shared near the College Park campus, the authorities said. The men, who were students at the university, had been arguing about a small fire that the gunman had started in the basement, reports the New York Times.

Iran arrests

London: The children of two Iranian Opposition leaders held under house arrest for almost two years were seized by police on Monday as the regime kept up a campaign of intimidation before the second anniversary of their fathers’ detention.

Pak clerics

Islamabad (AP): Pakistani clerics threatened on Tuesday to boycott a peace conference in Afghanistan after a dispute over whether to invite the Taliban, another sign of how hard it will be for the two states to cooperate on a deal to end the 11-year-old Afghan war.

Smoking ban

Moscow (AP): Russia’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban smoking in public places, a contentious measure in a country with one of the highest smoking rates in the world.