Seven killed in Pakistan shooting

　　KARACHI: Gunmen entered the offices of a Christian welfare organization in the southern port city of Karachi yesterday, tying office workers to their chairs and shooting each of them in the head at close range, police and intelligence officials said. At least seven people were killed and another was critically injured.

　　The shooting was the latest in a string of violent attacks against Christians and Westerners, who have been increasingly targeted since Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to crack down on Islamic extremist groups and join the U.S. war against the Taliban and al-Qaida in neighboring Afghanistan.

　　Japan to send team on abduction

　　TOKYO: Japan will send a mission of government officials to North Korea Saturday to gather information on kidnapped Japanese citizens, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said yesterday.

　　North Korea leader Kim Jong-il admitted in Pyongyang last week the abduction of more than a dozen Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.

　　Of the 13 known for sure to have been abducted, eight are dead, according to North Korea.

　　U.S. troops in Ivory Coast

　　BOUAKE: U.S. troops arrived in West Africa yesterday on a mission to protect Americans caught in Ivory Coast by a six-day military uprising that has left at least 270 dead.

　　Among those caught by the fighting in Bouake,  Ivory Coast's second city, are 160 Americans, including scores of children at a school.

　　Airport sources in neighboring Ghana said a Hercules C-130 cargo plane had arrived with 53 people on board. They said another four planes carrying troops and equipment were expected soon at the airport in Accra.