Colombo, January 23
Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets today destroyed a key LTTE base in Kilinochchi frequented by LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, but the fate of the elusive rebel leader remains unknown.

The military, which has stepped up its offensive since the scrapping of the ceasefire early this month, targeted the “X-ray base” located east of Iranamadu Tank in the Kalmadukulama area, “with pinpoint accuracy”, defence sources said.

According to air force spokesperson Wing Commander Andi Wijesoriya, the target located in a thick jungle patch, north of LTTE’s “runway” in Iranamadu, has been a regular visiting place of Prabhakaran.

Fighter pilots have confirmed that the target was accurately hit, he added.

The air raid was timed with a “special” activity that was going on at the LTTE base, a defence ministry statement said, but was quiet on the fate of the 53-year-old LTTE chief who suffered a series of setbacks late last year.

The LTTE’s political wing chief S.P. Thamilselvan was killed in an air strike in November and weeks later, the military claimed Prabhakarn too was injured in an air force attack, but the LTTE refuted the report.

The latest offensive came as the All-Party Representative Committee prepared to submit a report on the devolution package to resolve the over-two-decade-old Tamil ethnic problem. Fighting between the rebel Tamil Tigers and the government troops have intensified in the north after the government ended a six-year-old Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement with the rebels on January 16. At least 10 LTTE militants a soldier were killed in fresh clashes in the country’s north. — PTI

Islamabad January 23
Barrister Sultan Mehmood, former prime minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and president of Pakistan Muslim League (PML), has criticised British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for supporting India’s bid to become permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Addressing a press conference here, he said by doing so the British premier not only violated the moral obligations but had also hurt the feelings of thousands of Kashmiris residing in Britain.

“India has no right to apply for a permanent seat in the Security Council, as it does not accept UN resolutions regarding Kashmir and its 800,000 troops are killing innocent people in occupied Kashmir,” Mehmood added.

He called upon the international community not to support India in its bid to become permanent Security Council member unless all Indian troops were withdrawn from the occupied Kashmir.

Islamabad, January 23
A group of retired senior military officers, including former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg and ex-ISI head Hamid Gul, have asked President Pervez Musharraf to resign in the supreme national interest since he “does not represent the unity and the symbol” of the federation.

“General Pervez Musharraf (retd) does not represent the unity and the symbol of the federation as President,” said Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society, an organisation working for the welfare of retired military personnel.

“He should resign from his office of the President and this is in the supreme national interest and makes it incumbent on him to step down”, it said in a statement.

Apart from the retired service chiefs, dozens of former commanders and some retired junior commissioned officers, who met in the garrison city of Rawalpindi yesterday, blamed Musharraf for the current crisis in Pakistan and asked him to step down. Beg and Gul also attended the meeting.

The society is headed by Lt-Gen Faiz Ali Chishti (retired), once a key member of the late Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s regime.

The ex-servicemen said an impartial, effective, independent and credible Election Commission should be appointed after consultations with all political parties. They also appreciated Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani’s directive to serving officers to abstain from taking part in political activities. — PTI

A Senate panel has asked the Pakistan government to take all stakeholders into confidence before making a final decision on the import and exhibition of Indian films in the country. The panel acknowledged that such import would promote healthy competition at home.

The Senate Standing Committee on Culture, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, emphasised that the import should be done in a manner that does not harm religious and cultural norms and values.

The members of the committee held the view that the decision regarding the exhibition of Indian films should be on reciprocal basis and Pakistani producers must try to win a share from the very large Indian market, as the ground was fertile for good Pakistani Urdu and Punjabi movies. The committee expressed dismay over the fact that cable operators were openly showing Indian movies despite a complete ban on their exhibition in Pakistan enforced since the 1965 War.

Indian films are being viewed uncensored in almost every household, making the ban practically ineffective, the committee observed.

Durban, January 23
South Africa and the whole of humanity had a huge “debt of gratitude” to apostle of peace Mahatma Gandhi, a senior Zulu leader has said, as a bronze bust of the father of the Indian nation was unveiled at a city north of here.

Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party and chairman of the House of Traditional Leaders, was speaking at a ceremony in Richards Bay, an industrial harbour city.

“South Africa owes a lot to Gandhiji, indeed the whole of humanity owes a lot to this timeless icon. We are moved by the huge debt of gratitude we owe to him, one of the undisputed towering figures of the 20th century,” he said.

Indian consul-general in Durban Harsh Varshan Shringla spoke about plans to introduce cultural exchanges and scholarships between Indians and Zulu-speaking people both here and with the support of the Indian government.

Other than Shringla, local Indian-origin and African leaders were also present at the function.

The bust, imported from Karnataka, has been temporarily housed in the Empangeni Museum, pending plans for the establishment of a “Garden of Remembrance” where it will be displayed along with the statues of Indian leaders and Zulu monarchs such as King Mpande, who ruled over KwaZulu-Natal when more than 300 Indians arrived in Durban under British rule to work as indentured labourers on sugar farms.

The bust is just one of several statues of Gandhi in towns such as Johannesburg, Ladysmith, Pietermaritzburg and Verulam. There are also several streets named after Gandhi in Durban and other cities and towns. — PTI

Sydney, January 23
Tired of being called a terror suspect, Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef has said he will be “grateful” if the Australian government considered paying him compensation for his ordeal.

“I’ve lost everything,” the Indian medic, wrongly accused of having links with failed London car bombings, said.

He said though he was acquitted, the accusation would always cast aspersions on his person and career as a doctor.

“I’ve lost my job, my career. Any western country I would like to go to do my further studies, there would be a question, I would say, about this issue,” Dr Haneef told Bulletin magazine in an interview to be published today.

The 28-year-old medic wants to resume his studies at a Queensland hospital, but his lawyer Peter Russo would not advise him to return while the Australian Federal Police maintained it was continuing the investigations.

The Goldcoast doctor said he is tired of being labelled a “former terror suspect”.

He appealed to the media to stop using the description as it was “continuing to muddy my name and professional standing”.

“This label makes me feel bad. It’s not true-I had nothing to do with terror,” Dr Haneef said. — UNI

The constituent assembly elections slated for April 10, which is the key step to lead the ongoing peace process and end decade-long Maoist insurgency in Nepal, has arrived at the critical juncture as the mushrooming armed outfits intensified their violent activities across the country.

In latest incident, unidentified armed groups attacked at least three police posts in Khotang district in remote eastern hills of Nepal last night and looted some firearms from the security personnel.

According to the Khotang district police office, separate groups of around 50-60 persons, equipped with sophisticated weapons, launched attack at the police post in Faktanag at about 6.30 pm on Monday, the police post at Chisapani at midnight and the police post at Devisthan at around 5 am on Tuesday morning and seized police uniforms, seven rifle, two guns, a CDMA telephone set along with hundreds of rounds of bullets.

Though the police personnel at Chisapani post exchanged firing around 60 rounds of bullet to retaliate, they eventually forced to surrender in front of rebels, the police claimed.

According to chief district officer at Khotang, the attackers have been reported that they raided the police posts in order to get firearms that they needed to disrupt the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, home ministry official said a massive search operation had been launched in the area immediately after the incident.

New York/ Melbourne, January 23
Australian-born actor Heath Ledger, whose acclaimed performance as a gay cowboy in the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain” earned him an Oscar nomination, was today found dead in his Manhattan apartment with sleeping pills near his body.

Ledger (28) was found dead on the floor of his bedroom by a housekeeper who went to inform him that his masseuse had arrived for an appointment.

While US media speculated that it could be a case of suicide or an accidental drug overdose, New York Chief police spokesman Paul J Browne said the police did not suspect foul play.

“There was no indication of a disturbance,” he said adding there were no signs that Ledger had been drinking nor were any illegal drugs found in the vicinity.

Ledger’s former fiancee “Brokeback Mountain” co-star Michelle Williams -- the mother of his two-year-old daughter Matilda --- was reported to be “devastated” by the death and was on her way to New York.

Ledger’s acting career started at the age of 10 when a local theatre company cast him in “Peter Pan”. That role led to parts on children’s television programme and to the 1992 film “Clowning Around”.

Ledger left for Hollywood at 19 where his standout talent was spotted by star Mel Gibson when auditioning 500 actors for the role of his son in “The Patriot”. — PTI

Beijing, January 23
An almost 100,000-year-old human skull fossil that could shed light on a “critical period” of human evolution has been excavated by Chinese archaeologists in Henan.

The Henan find came after two years of excavation at the site in Xuchang in what could be called the “greatest discovery” in China after the Peking Man and Upper Cave Man skull fossils in Bejing early last century.

“We expect more discoveries of importance,” the state-run China Daily quoted Li Zhanyang, an archaeologist with the Henan cultural relics and archaeology institute who is leading the excavation, as saying.

The newly discovered fossil consists of 16 pieces of the skull with protruding eyebrows and a small forehead.

“More astonishing than the completeness of the skull is that it still has a fossilised membrane on the inner side, so scientists can track the nerves of the Paleolithic ancestors,” Li said.

“It was freezing cold and digging was difficult. We had planned to leave until one of us saw something like part of a human being,” Li said.

The earlier human skull fossils discovered in China were five of the Peking Man in Beijing dating back to 200,000 to 700,000 years, three of the Upper Cave Man, also in Beijing, about 18,000 years old, and one Jinniushan Man in Liaoning, 150,000 years old. — PTI

London, January 23
Ever thought how it would be like living forever? Even if not eternity, what about having a life of 800 years.

Don’t shrug it off as an unrealistic possibility because scientists have now created a genetically engineered organism that lives 10 times longer than normal. “It is the greatest extension of longevity yet achieved by researchers investigating the scientific nature of ageing and is directly relevant to human ageing and longevity,” lead researcher Valter Longo said.

Experts created a strain of yeast fungus that could live for 10 weeks or more, instead of dying at its usual maximum age of just a week by deleting two genes within the yeast’s genome and putting it on a calorie-restricted diet.

“We’re setting the foundation for reprogramming healthy life. If we can find out how the longevity mechanism works, it can be applied to every cell in every living organism,” the Independent quoted Longo as saying.

“We are still very far from making a person live to 800 years of age. Yet, I don’t think there is an upper limit to the life of any organism,” he said.

The study also provided a theory that ageing may not simply be a side effect of the wear and tear of life, but was a genetically programmed condition designed to rid the population of aged individuals to make way for younger ones.

Many experts on the science of ageing, however, are deeply skeptical about the idea that the ageing process could somehow be circumvented, allowing people to extend their lives by decades or even centuries. — UNI