In brief: Raid on Army camp kills 23 in Pakistan

Islamabad – Militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and suicide vests launched a raid on a Pakistani army camp in the country’s volatile northwest before dawn Saturday, killing 23 people and injuring at least eight.

The attack took place at a camp and checkpost in Lakki Marwat, a district just east of North Waziristan, the tribal area that the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida and other militant groups continue to use as a primary base of operations.

Twelve militants were killed in the fighting, the security official said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for recent U.S. drone strikes that killed two Taliban commanders in Pakistan’s tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

Tape prompts probe of riot police beating

Cairo – Egypt’s Interior Minister vowed Saturday to investigate the beating of a naked man by riot police that threatened to further inflame popular anger against security forces, but suggested that initial results absolve the police of direct abuse.

The beating was caught on camera by the Associated Press and the video was broadcast live on Egyptian television late Friday as protests raged in the streets outside the presidential palace.

Less than 24 hours after the incident, several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched again on the palace Saturday denouncing the police and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after a week of violent protests.

Iran says bomber jet can evade radar

Tehran, Iran – Iran on Saturday unveiled its newest combat jet, a domestically manufactured fighter-bomber that military officials claim can evade radar.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a ceremony broadcast on state TV that building the Qaher F-313, or Dominant F-313, shows Iran’s will to “conquer scientific peaks.”

The Qaher is one of several aircraft designs the Iranian military has rolled out since 2007. Tehran has repeatedly claimed to have developed advanced military technologies in recent years, but its claims cannot be independently verified because the country does not release technical details of its arsenals.

The Islamic republic launched a self-sufficient military program in the 1980s to compensate for a Western weapons embargo that banned export of military technology and equipment to Iran. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, torpedoes, drones and fighter planes.

However, some reports suggest that Iran’s program relies on equipment supplied by major international defense contractors and that it incorporates parts made abroad or uses outside engineered technologies in its domestic designs.