Colombo, January 16
Sri Lanka's military said today it had captured a stretch of the Tamil Tigers' defences along a battlefront in the island's restive east and killed around 30 fighters, but the Tigers denied it.

The clash at the village of Panichchankerni in the eastern district of Batticaloa comes as the military seeks to drive the Tigers out of a coastal pocket of territory they control under the terms of a tattered 2002 truce.

An estimated 10,000-15,000 Tamil civilians are trapped slightly further north within rebel territory after 20,000 others fled to government areas in recent weeks to escape the crossfire of artillery duels.

''One soldier died and 15 were injured. More than 30 dead bodies of Tiger terrorists are lying in the area,'' a spokesman for Media Centre for National Security said about the latest clash amid a new chapter of a two-decade civil war.

Air Force jets also bombed rebel targets around 16 km further north of the defence line, but there no immediate details of casualties.

The Tigers said only seven of their fighters were injured in the fighting, that none were killed, and that they had repulsed the attack and were still in control of the ''border'' that separates their territory from government-controlled areas.

Nordic truce monitors had not visited the area and it was not immediately possible to independently confirm either side's claims.

Earlier today the military said security forces had found torture cells at a captured camp of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the eastern district of Ampara, but the rebels dismissed the accusation as lies. The foes have repeatedly accused each other of widespread human rights violations.

The military posted photographs on its Web site showing small concrete cells with kennel-like iron grills which it said were used to keep rebel deserters and informants at one of 15 rebel camps overrun this month.

Such cells have previously been found at other rebel camps in the northeast, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said. Again there was no independent confirmation.

The military also said the commandos had found a cannabis crop and the remains of elephants which suggested they were killed for their tusks.

The Tigers laughed off the accusations, saying they didn't have any bases in the area and denied torture cells existed anywhere in areas held by them. — Reuters

Beverly Hills, January 16
The Oscars got their front-runners on Monday: “Dreamgirls” and “Babel” are likely to duke it out for best film while Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker take the lead in the fight for best actress and best actor.

All won Golden Globes and with that the vital momentum needed to move toward the big prize, the February 25 Oscars.

The Globes, produced by the minuscule Hollywood Foreign Press Association, may not always predict the final Oscar winners but they help set the debate in the hectic weeks leading up to the film industry’s highest honors.

The list of Globe winners this year pretty well complied with conventional wisdom, although some Oscars voters may find the selection of “Babel” as 2006’s best drama a bit too gut-wrenching. A story about the globalisation of pain and suffering, “Babel” was filmed in five languages in four countries and is far from traditional Hollywood fare.

It is expected to go up against “Dreamgirls,” director Martin Scorsese’s gangster drama “The Departed,” quirky family film “Little Miss Sunshine and “The Queen,” which stars Mirren, when Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 23.

Mirren stopped a reporter when he tried to ask a question about her Oscar chances. She won the best actress in a drama award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.” — Reuters

London, January 16
It is sure to sound ludicrous, but if the British are to be believed, the French were desperate to merge with Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Newly discovered documents claim that in 1956, French Premier Guy Mollet asked his British counterpart Sir Anthony Eden if the two countries could join together.

When Eden said "No", Mollet asked him whether France could be allowed into the Commonwealth.

Eden again declined, and a year later, France joined forces with Germany, forming the Common Market.

According to the Sun, the revelations were uncovered in once- secret papers held in the National Archives. At the time of the proposal, France was in economic meltdown and faced the escalating Suez crisis, the paper said.

On September 10, 1956, Mollet travelled to London to discuss the unlikely merger between the two nations.

The paper quoted a British Cabinet paper from the period as saying: "When the French PM, Monsieur Mollet, was recently in London he raised with the Prime Minister the possibility of a union between the United Kingdom and France".

"When his request for a union failed, the French premier pleaded for his country to be let into the British Commonwealth," the paper said.

According to records, the proposal was given serious consideration by the Government before it being rejected. A BBC team making a documentary for Radio 4 reportedly made the discovery. — ANI

Kathmandu, January 16
Having waged an armed struggle for more than a decade, it was a quiet entry into the democratic fold for Maoists in Nepal as they waited patiently for over five hours to take oath as Parliamentarians.

Wearing grey coats, 73 hardcore Maoist cadres stood along with 10 independent members chosen by them in a separate room and waited patiently for the reinstated House of Representatives to be dissolved after promulgation of the Interim Constitution yesterday.

Interestingly, for a section which had faith in gunpowder in the past, the Maoists have chosen a Buddhist monk as one of their independent representatives.

Among the other independents are a former Major of the Royal Nepalese Army, an arch enemy in the past, and a journalist.

They were led by party spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara and arrived in a special room alloted to them in the Parliament building complex at 3.30 pm (local time) and entered the main hall at 8.30 pm.

While the men were wearing trousers with grey coats, the women were wearing either a kurta or a sari with their coats.

Top Maoist leaders, including Prachanda, and number two Baburam Bhattarai did not join the Parliament, but they were witnessing the swearing-in ceremony from the audience lobby. — PTI