Colombo, April 12
At least 13 persons were killed and another 50 injured in a bomb blast at a vegetable market in Sri Lanka’s north-eastern port town of Trincomalee today, the police said.

The bomb, planted on a parked bicycle, damaged several shops in the market busy with people shopping ahead of the traditional Sinhalese and Tamil New Year festivities tomorrow and Friday. “It was a bicycle bomb,” a police official in Trincomalee said.

An indefinite curfew was clamped on the area as rioting erupted after the market blast.

At least seven shops of Tamils were torched by Sinhalese mobs and several vehicles were damaged, police said.

The latest bombing raised to 30 the number of persons killed in the past three days and raised fears for next week’s scheduled talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Meanwhile, the European Union in a statement strongly suggested that it may consider a ban on the Tigers after issuing a similar warning in October last year after slapping travel restrictions on Tigers to the 25-member EU nations.

“The EU views the most recent attacks on the Sri Lankan Armed Forces with grave concern and is reconsidering appropriate steps,” the EU said. — PTI

Baghdad, April 12
At least 20 persons were killed and 32 others injured when a car bomb exploded as worshippers left a Shiite mosque northeast of here, the police said. Also, a series of car bombs in three different cities left at least seven more dead and dozens wounded.

The first blast occurred near the Huweder mosque in a village near Baqouba, 60 km northeast of Baghdad, police Lieut-Col Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

Huweder village, where the bombing took place, is in a religiously mixed area of Diyala province.

Most of those killed were worshippers, but passers-by at a nearby market were also among the casualties, al-Mohammedawi said.

In the ancient city of Tal Afar, 420 km from Baghdad, a suicide car bomber drove up to a busy vegetable market and detonated explosives, killing at least two shoppers and wounding seven others, police Brig Abdul-Hamid Khalaf said.

A parked car bomb exploded near a hospital in the city of Khalis, 80 km north of Baghdad, killing two bystanders and wounding at least 23 others, the police said.

Another car bomb exploded in Baghdad, targeting police patrol in the northern district of Wazziriyah. The blast killed one policeman and two civilians, and wounded four others, the police said.— AP 

Baghdad, April 12
Iraq’s interior minister today acknowledged the existence of so-called death squads within certain security forces but denied any link with his own ministry.

Bayan Jabr Solagh, in an interview with the BBC, pointed the finger at special security forces that provide protection for ministries and key installations, as well as the myriad private security companies in Iraq.

Asked if there were unofficial death squads operating within these security forces, he replied: “Sometimes, yes, I can tell you... with these security companies it is not right... you do not know what they are doing.

“We have to make clear that there are some forces out of order, not under our control and not under the control of the ministry of defence,” he said.

“These forces are the Force Protection for Site FPS to protect the ministries,” he said, referring to special security forces known as FPS which protect ministry buildings, power stations or oil pipelines. “And their numbers are huge... there are 150,000,” he said.

“Their uniform is like the police, their car is like the police, their weapons are like the police.”

A recent upsurge of sectarian violence in Iraq that has left hundreds of dead is often blamed by Sunnis on militias wearing uniforms belonging to the security forces. — AFP

Baghdad, April 12
Saddam Hussein and one of his co-defendants have refused to give handwriting samples for experts to authenticate signatures said to be theirs on key documents in their trial, the Chief Judge said today.

Handwriting experts had been due to testify today in the trial, but they did not show up at court, forcing the Chief Judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, to adjourn until Monday after a session that lasted only about five minutes.

Prosecutors told Abdel-Rahman that the analysts had not yet finished their work. Saddam and his seven co-defendants did not attend the session.

The documents, presented by the prosecution during the six-month-old trial, concern a crackdown on Shiites launched by Saddam's security forces after an assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Among them is a document said to be signed by Saddam approving death sentences for 148 Shites, as well as numerous memos and letters form the Mukhabarat intelligence agency and Saddam's office.

Saddam and the former members of his regime face a possible death sentence if convicted over the deaths of the 148 Shiites, as well as the imprisonment of hundreds of others, some of whom say they were tortured in custody. Saddam has refused to confirm or deny whether some of the signatures are his, while some of hi co-defendants have outright said their alleged signatures on the documents are forgeries. — AP

New York, April 12
A police detective died and thousands of others, who worked to find the dead in the debris of the World Trade Centre following the 9/11 terror strike, are believed to be fighting serious respiratory ailments from inhaling a cocktail of toxic chemicals at the site.

The 34-year-old police detective became the first officer to die as a direct result of inhalation of the toxic chemicals as he worked in the debris of the twin towers which collapsed under the 2001 terror attack.

The thousands of security officers, volunteers, fire fighters and labourers who worked on the site and were hailed heroes at that time, are reportedly fighting serious respiratory ailments and their complication alone. One report described as the "walking dead." The detective, James Zadroga, worked for 470 hours sifting ruins wearing a paper mask which apparently was no match for the deadly chemical including asbestos.

"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," Gerard Breton, a pathologist at the Ocean County medical examiner's office, wrote in the February 28 autopsy report. Zadroga had died on January 6.

The coroner found material "consistent with dust" in Zadroga's lungs and damage to his liver and said his heart and spleen were enlarged. CBS television network reported that though estimates vary, tens of thousands of workers and residents have reported some lingering effects and of around 70,000 people enrolled in Mount Sinai's World Trade Center health study, more than 60,000 suffer some kind of respiratory problem.

Dr. David Prezant, co-director of the New York Fire Department's World Trade Center medical programme, conducted a lung function study of 13,000 firefighters, emergency workers and paramedics. He was quoted by CBS as saying that after September 11, the average breathing capacity of the people tested dropped more than 11 times the normal ageing process.

The development is worrying for the planners of emergency response who are not sure whether they would be able to find enough volunteers in any future emergency.

Within four months of the attack, Zadroga was bed-ridden and tethered to an oxygen tank. He moved to Florida where his wife died on 2004 of heart ailment at the age of 29. He leaves behind a four-year old daughter who is being looked after by grandparents who appeared at news conference yesterday along with half a dozen others who too were said to be suffering from similar disease. — PTI 

Dubai, April 12
An HIV-infected worker from Andhra Pradesh, who has been living illegally in Bahrain for 15 years, will finally be able to return home after his relatives sent proof of his nationality to the Indian Embassy.

The 46-year-old claims he was unaware that he had the virus that causes AIDS and is now waiting to be reunited with his children and other relatives in Andhra Pradesh.

“The patient’s travel document has been issued by the embassy and right now all we are waiting for is the clearance from immigration authorities because he has stayed in Bahrain without any proper documentation for so long,” Surya Charitable and Cultural Association general secretary and Indian Community Relief Fund treasurer K.R. Nair was quoted as saying in Gulf Daily News.

Last month, the embassy informed his family in India that without a passport or any proof of nationality they would be unable to process a travel document. Under Bahrain rules, non-Bahrainis with HIV must immediately leave the country.

The man, who is currently being cared for at the Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), claims to have arrived in Bahrain on a free visa in 1991. He added that his Bahraini sponsor had taken his passport away and left him to find work. “We tried searching for the sponsor, but we were unsuccessful,” said Nair. — PTI

London, April 12
Prince Harry stood tall with saber drawn today during ceremonies marking his graduation from Britain’s elite military academy, marching proudly in front of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II as he completed 40 weeks of training.

The 21-year-old second son of Prince Charles entered Sandhurst military academy last May and trained to become an army officer in the Blues and Royal Regiment of the Household Cavalry, one of the British Army’s oldest units.

He will be eligible for future military service in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The prince has spoken of his determination to take a place on the front line alongside his colleagues if called.

Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke of Edinburgh, looked on with pride as cadets paraded around the academy’s grounds in southern England.

The queen, in a pach overcoat and matching hat, delivered a short speech of congratulations. — AP/AFP