Heat wave kills at least

100 around country

LAHORE - More than a week of sweltering heat has left more than 100 people dead in Pakistan, many of them in the country's eastern Punjab province, officials said Sunday.

Temperatures have soared up to 122 degrees in some parts of Punjab, and in the capital Islamabad Saturday was the hottest day in 11 years with 113-degree temperatures.

Since the heat wave began more than a week ago, 105 people have died in Punjab, said Javed Asghar, a health ministry official in the province's capital of Lahore.

Sunstroke, dehydration and food poisoning have apparently caused most of the deaths, Asghar said.

COLOMBIA

Army counterattacks against leftist rebels

BOGOTA - President Alvaro Uribe flew to southwest Colombia to oversee a counterattack against leftist rebels on Sunday, a day after 25 soldiers were killed in attacks across the country that shattered hopes that the insurgents were nearing defeat.

More than 1,000 troops backed by helicopter gunships hunted down several hundred rebels believed to be heading for the nearby Ecuador border to seek refuge, the army said.

''The murder of our soldiers pains us greatly,'' Uribe said.

As many as 300 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Saturday attacked oil wells near Puerto Asis and ambushed an army convoy, killing at least 19 soldiers. Rebel casualty figures were not known.

ARUBA

Judge orders release

of Dutch teen's dad

ORANJESTAD - The father of a Dutch suspect arrested in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager was freed from jail Sunday, hours after a judge ordered the release of a party boat disc jockey also held in the case.

Paul van der Sloot, a high-ranking justice official studying to be a judge on the Dutch Caribbean island, had been arrested Thursday as a suspect for collaborating in a crime with his 17-year-old son, according to his lawyer.

''A little bit of the nightmare clouds are now disappearing,'' van der Sloot's wife, Anita, said.

Anita van der Sloot said the most important thing for her now ''is that my son comes [out] free.''

Earlier Sunday, a judge also ordered police to release Steven Gregory Croes, the party boat DJ held in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, saying authorities did not have enough evidence against him.