<B>PARIS. Airlines, markets pummel Airbus on delays. </B>Airlines around the world punished Airbus for delays in the delivery of its A380 superjumbo, demanding compensation, reconsidering orders – and in one case, striking a major deal with its rival Boeing Co. Shares in Airbus’ parent company crashed and Boeing’s soared as repercussions of the production problems with the world’s biggest passenger plane resonated throughout the industry. They also raised questions about the European planemaker’s management and strategy, and the future of the double-decker A380. Boeing is staking its bets on a smaller, more fuel-efficient model.

<B>CHINA. 11 killed as lightening strikes. </B>Eleven people, mostly farmers, have been killed by lightning strikes in northeast China’s Liaoning Province since the beginning of June, the local observatory said yesterday.

The death toll went up by five in comparison with that for the same period last year, information from Liaoning Provincial Meteorological Observatory said. Eight of the killed were farmers tilling the land as the bolts of lighting struck, “Xinhua news agency” reported.

<B>SHANGAI. Iran offers energy cooperation at Asian summit. </B>Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered energy cooperation to oil-thirsty China and other countries yesterday, seeking to win friends but avoiding direct mention of Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West. Ahmadinejad was attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as one of four observer states, but his presence threatened to upstage the meeting and irritate the United States as he sought to charm attending leaders.

<B>HOUSTON. Over 2, 100 illegal immigrants held in US. </B>US immigration authorities arrested more than 2,100 illegal immigrants, including alleged gang members and fugitives, in a nationwide sweep, the Department of Homeland Security said yesterday. Roughly 2,179 people were arrested in the operation, which began May 26 and ended on Wednesday, the department said in a news release. The department said the fugitives captured in the operation threatened public safety in hundreds of neighborhoods and communities across the country.

<B>KUALA LUMPUR. Malaysia denies Cherie Blair her day in court. </B>Malaysia denied barrister Cherie Blair, wife of the British prime minister, her day in court yesterday, refusing her leave to appear in a local case. The Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling that the case was nothing a local lawyer couldn’t handle, despite Blair flying to Malaysia earlier this week to listen to the appeal hearing

<B>BELGIUM. Man charged with kidnapping two girls.</B> There is still no sign of the two girls Stacy Lemmens, 7, and Nathalie Mahy, 10, but a man has been charged with their kidnap. Abdellah Ait Oud, who has twice served time for paedophilia, is accused of being behind their disappearance in Liege in eastern Belgium last Friday night. The man accused of the girls kidnap was released from a detention centre last December. He denies the charges against him. The case in Belgium is all the more emotional because it revives memories of the paedophile and murderer Marc Dutroux who killed two girls from Liege a decade ago.