Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1000 GMT, Jan. 24

NEW DELHI -- A special court on Wednesday sentenced controversial Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of eastern Bihar state, to five years in jail, hours after holding him guilty in a decades-old corruption case.

This is the third case in the multi-million dollars fodder scam that took place when Yadav was Bihar's chief minister in the 1990s. He has already been convicted in two other fodder scam cases in 2013 and 2017 and got five and three-and-a-half years of jail term, respectively. (India-Politician-Jail)

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- At least 11 people were injured as a suicide bombing rocked Jalalabad city, the capital of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Wednesday, spokesman for provincial government Attaullah Khogiani said.

The blast was followed by gunshots and a gun battle continues, the official said. (Afghanistan-Bomb)

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NEW DELHI -- Heads of governments of 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members headed for New Delhi on Wednesday for the "India-ASEAN commemorative summit" scheduled for Thursday.

The summit, with the theme "Shared Values, Common Destiny," will mark 25 years of India's ties with the Southeast Asian bloc. (India-ASEAN-Summit)

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KABUL -- Afghan army personnel found and destroyed 40 different improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and landmines over the last 24 hours, Afghan defense ministry said Wednesday.

"The deadly weapons were found and destroyed by Afghan National Army (ANA) engineering teams in different provinces since early Tuesday, naturalizing several potential explosions," the ministry said in a statement. (Afghanistan-IEDs) Enditem