Washington, May 9
US President Barack Obama and his Afghan and Pakistan counterparts Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari, respectively, have resolved to strengthen the strategic partnership between the three countries and reaffirmed their commitments to combat the menace of extremism and terrorism.

“The three countries resolved to strengthen their strategic partnership based on a shared commitment towards promoting enduring peace, security, stability and economic cooperation in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the US State Department said today, a day after the second trilateral meeting of the three countries concluded in Washington.

The three countries also expressed a shared desire to deepen the strategic dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan and to continue the trilateral talks. The US also reaffirmed its strong commitment to the strategic partnerships at bilateral level with both Pakistan and Afghanistan, the State Department said.

While the US reiterated its strong support for stability and security of the two countries, Islamabad and Kabul on the other hand agreed to continue the cross-border Jirga process so as to build consensus on matters of mutual interest. -PTI 

Kathmandu, May 9
Maoists would neither allow a new government to be formed nor join a government led by others until the President rolled back his ‘unconstitutional move’ to retain the ‘sacked’ chief of Army Staff General Rookmangud Katawal, resolved the Maoists’ politburo meeting on Saturday.

President Ram Baran Yadav finds himself in the eye of a storm as Maoists continued their agitation against him on the streets as well.

The President, who had set Saturday as the deadline for formation of the next government after Maoist PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned, was also served a notice on Tuesday by the Supreme Court and asked to explain his decision to retain the Army chief in defiance of the civilian government.

Attempts at government formation also received a blow when Terai based Madheshi People’s Rights Forum ( MPRF) also put forward pre-conditions for supporting a new government.

MPRF, with 53 members in the constituent assembly, has declared that it would support a formation which gives a commitment to implement past pacts and addresses Madhesi issues including treating the entire Madhes as a single, autonomous province.

Two other Terai based parties, TMDP ( Terai Madhes Democratic Party) and Sadbhavna Party have a strength of 22 and 9 seats respectively in the assembly. No government can be formed by the non-Maoists without the support of these parties from the Terai.

At a time when the Unified CPN (Maoist) leaders and cadres were intensifying their protests in and outside parliament against the controversial move of President Dr Ram Baran Yadav to retain the sacked Chief of Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal, President Yadav seems to be least bothered.

Yadav has been holding consultations with the constitutional and legal experts for the preparation of necessary documents to be sent to the Supreme Court to defend his move.

Constitutional lawyer Dr Bhimarjun Acharya also upheld Yadav’s move and said he was bound to take the unpleasant move.

Issuing a show-cause notice to the Secretariat of the President’s Office,

Secretariat of the Council of Ministers and Rookmangud Katawal, the Apex Court on Tuesday had asked them to furnish separate explanations within 10 days as to why their moves were not unconstitutional as claimed by the petitioners.

However, Yadav has strong conviction that whatever decision he had made were right constitutionally and politically.

According to a top source at the Presidential Office, President Yadav decided to retain the sacked army chief Katawal by using his residual power in the “extra-ordinary circumstance” for the sake of ongoing peace process, democracy and unity within the army.

Sri Lankan newspapers and television stations have been inundated in the past week with recently released pictures of LTTE leader Velupilli Prabhakaran and his family members, all taken from photos albums that troops have recovered as they captured areas in northern Sri Lanka once controlled by the Tigers, which expose the hitherto unknown life of the notorious leader of the Tamil Tigers.

The pictures were released by the Ministry of Defence and newspapers have run pull pages of the photographs while several television stations too have repeatedly shown them to expose to the public the duplicity of the terrorist leader, who while enjoying life of luxury and comfort with his family members had no qualms of sending thousands of young Tamil men and women to a certain death, recruiting them, as suicide cadres.

“The photographs of Prabhakaran, his wife Madivadini, children and some of his top ‘commanders’ bare evidence of the luxurious life they had led as thousands of forcibly recruited children were thrown into battle,” the Defence Ministry said while releasing the pictures.

They show the LTTE leader at various family gatherings, including birthday parties for his son and daughter. In many of the pictures, Prabhakaran is dressed in civilian clothes and not in the camouflaged uniform that he had previously been seen in.

“Although LTTE propagandists had propagated the lie that every big battle was spearheaded by Prabhakaran, the man seemed to have lived a cushy life. Had the LTTE terrorists got a half chance to destroy evidence of Prabakaran’s duplicity as it rapidly retreated on the Wanni front before being surrounded by the Army on the Mullaithivu coast,” the Defence Ministry said.

Colombo, May 9
At least 35 Tamil Tigers were killed when Sri Lankan troops successfully smashed through an earth bund built by the rebels in their last stronghold after days of fierce fighting, the island nation’s defence ministry said today.

Amid fierce resistance from the rebels, troops of the army’s 58 Division last evening “gained total control over the entire earth bund built by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in Karayamulliavaikkal”, the defence ministry said in a statement issued here.

According to sources, Karayamulliavaikkal and a couple of other villages are located inside the 6-sq km sandy coastal land strip where the LTTE has now been cornered.

“Fierce fighting commenced on May 6 and lasted for days as terrorists made their fullest strength to hold the earth bund built to resists the security forces’ offensive march,” the statement said. — IANS