 |
|
|
Lankan troops kill LTTE finance chief
‘H-1B not on bilateral agenda with US’
Madoff pleads guilty to fraud, jailed
Islamist militants behind mutiny: Govt
|
|
|
Iraqi shoe-thrower gets 3 yrs jail
Baghdad, March 12 A Baghdad court sentenced an Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at former US President George W Bush to three years in prison here today.
|
|
Lankan troops kill LTTE finance chief
Colombo, March 12 Sri Lanka’s military has encircled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a mere 37 sq km of the island nation’s northeastern coast and is fighting to deal a death blow to a civil war that has raged off and on since 1983. Army commanders say nearly all of the Tamil Tigers’ top guerrillas, including leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran, are in that area, with some personally commanding the battles. “Mortar fire killed the chief of the LTTE’s financial wing yesterday,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Sabarathnam Selvathurai, whose nom de guerre was Thamilendri, administered LTTE finances, which analysts say were built to hundreds of millions of dollars a year up through smuggling, credit card fraud, extortion and Tamil diaspora donations. Intelligence reports show he was killed in Puthukudiyiruppu, the final town held by the Tigers, the military said. Troops are inside the town and have just a few kilometres to go before they reach a lagoon on its eastern edge, across from which is a 12-km coastal strip set up as a no-fire zone. This morning, soldiers captured the Puthukudiyiruppu hospital, a large medical complex which the Tigers had accused the military of shelling on purpose in January. The military denied it and published aerial photos showing it as intact. Nanayakkara said it remained undamaged today. The Tigers could not be reached for comment but the pro-LTTE web site www.TamilNet.com again accused the military of shelling and killing civilians. It said 133 had been killed inside the no-fire zone on Tuesday, but cited no sources. The military says it has stopped firing artillery and is not returning fire at LTTE gun positions located inside the safe zone. It says the Tigers are again trying their old ploy of creating a civilian crisis to get a ceasefire so they can re-arm. The government says 70,000 people are inside the no-fire zone, while the Red Cross says there are 1,50,000. Aid agencies, rights groups and the government have urged the LTTE to stop holding civilians by force as human shields. While, the Tigers insist they are staying by choice According to the military, about 38,900 people have fled the Tiger-held areas this year. Although few doubt the military shortly would destroy the Tigers as a conventional force, few also expect the group to stop carrying out unconventional attacks like a suicide bombing that killed 14 in southern Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
—Reuters
|
|
‘H-1B not on bilateral agenda with US’
Washington, March 12 “This (H-1B) is not an issue that India and the US negotiate or discuss. This is not part of a bilateral agenda and it can’t be by definition,” Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon told reporters at the end of his visit here for a first dialogue with the new officials under US President Barack Obama’s administration. Menon was asked about the restrictions imposed on H-1B visa holders in the stimulus package. “It is not for us to tell the US what their policy is going to be or vice versa. But when it effects our nationals, we mention to them what we think about it.” Responding to another question, Menon said there is an issue of free movement of person, and it’s an issue which is being discussed consistently. “It’s a discussion between partners and it is their (US) decision. This would be true whether we change our immigration regime, or whether they do it,” he said. — PTI
|
|
Madoff pleads guilty to fraud, jailed
Washington, March 12 Madoff pleaded guilty to all 11 criminal counts, telling the lower Manhattan federal court that he was “deeply sorry and ashamed”, according to broadcaster CNBC. Judge Denny Chin accepted the guilty plea and said Madoff would go to prison until he is sentenced on June 16. Madoff’s lawyer Ira Sorkin on Tuesday said the investor would plead guilty after failing to reach a plea deal with prosecutors. — DPA 
|
|
Islamist militants behind mutiny: Govt
The Bangladesh government revealed on Thursday that Islamist militants may have been behind in the bloody mutiny that killed 74 persons on February 25. Probe committee chief and commerce minister Faruk Khan told reporters that investigators have unearthed links between the mutineers at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and banned terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). “We have found that some people that we are interrogating have JMB links,” said Faruk, adding they will clarify these links in the final probe report due early next week.
|
|
Iraqi shoe-thrower gets 3 yrs jail
Baghdad, March 12 Muntazer al-Zaidi worked for Al-Baghdadiya television and earned instant worldwide fame when he threw his shoes at Bush at a news conference in December, calling him a dog. “This sentence is harsh and is not in harmony with the law and eventually the defence team will contest this in the appeals court,” said Dhiaa al-Saadi, the head of Zaidi’s defence team. Zaidi’s sister Ruqaiya burst into tears.
— Reuters
|
Pinto the show-stopper! Anoop moves ahead
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
