In brief: Pakistan claims Indian forces attacked Kashmir border post

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani military is accusing forces from neighboring India of crossing the boundary between the two sides’ forces in Kashmir and attacking a Pakistani border post, killing a soldier.

The military’s public relations office said in a statement that another Pakistani soldier was critically wounded in the incident early today.

The Pakistani statement said troops were still exchanging gunfire in the area. It said the raid crossed the “line of control” dividing the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir, a flashpoint of violence between these two neighbors for decades.

Both claim the region as their own.

A 2003 cease-fire ended the most recent round of fighting.

Each side occasionally accuses the other of violating it by lobbing mortars or shooting across the LOC, but accusations of cross-border raids are rare.

Fashion house chief, 5 others still missing as search goes on

Caracas, Venezuela – Rescue crews used boats and aircraft on Saturday to search for a small plane that disappeared off Venezuela carrying the CEO of Italy’s iconic Missoni fashion house and five other people.

But more than a day after the BN-2 Islander aircraft disappeared from radar screens on its short flight from the Venezuelan resort islands of Los Roques to Caracas, no sign of the plane had been found, officials said.

“We have no other news” about the plane carrying 58-year-old Vittorio Missoni, the head of the company; his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni; two of their Italian friends; and two Venezuelan crew members, said Paolo Marchetti, a Missoni SpA official. He spoke briefly to reporters as he left company headquarters in the northern Italian town of Sumirago on Saturday.

Feline caught carrying tools in impurrfect smuggling try

Sao Paulo – Guards thought there was something suspicious about a little white cat slipping through a prison gate in northeastern Brazil. A prison official says that when they caught the animal, they found a cellphone, drills, small saws and other contraband taped to its body.

Alagoas state prisons spokeswoman Cinthya Moreno said the cat was caught New Year’s Eve at the medium-security prison in the city of Arapiraca.

The O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that all of the prison’s 263 inmates are suspects in the smuggling attempt, though it says a prison spokesman told the paper that “it will be hard to discover who is responsible since the cat does not speak.”