Making a further thrust into the last coastal stretch held by the LTTE, Sri Lankan forces were today engaged in fierce fighting with the rebels, which left 38 guerrillas dead as the Tigers deployed suicide bombers in desperate bids to stall the offensive.

The three Black Tiger bombers blew themselves up before the advancing columns leading to the death of 10 rebels and injuries to several soldiers as troops moved another 1,000 metres in the four sq km area under the LTTE control in the north, the military said.

The troops' thrust, which was slowed down by suicide bombers and heavy mining, is bringing them closer to a direct confrontation with LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top aides, who the military claims are now "trapped".

"The LTTE leadership, along with their second rung, remains in the small area," military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said.

As fighting intensified, Tamil Tigers accused the forces of firing artillery shells which hit the last remaining hospital in the Tiger territory, killing 49 civilians. The charge was strongly denied by the government.

Pro-LTTE website TamilNet said at least 55 patients had also sustained serious injuries in the attack on the makeshift hospital in Mullivaaykkal. — PTI 

The Supreme Court has admitted for regular hearing a petition by former premier Nawaz Sharif to revisit the case in which he was convicted on the charge of ordering the hijacking of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s plane after sacking him as army chief on October 12, 1999.

A five-member larger bench of the apex court heard arguments on the objections relating to statute of limitation in filing the petition after nine years instead of within the permissible period. It decided to take up the case and issued notice to the federal government.

It is likely to start next week. Sharif was toppled by Musharraf’s loyalist generals while his plane waited in the air to land at Karachi airport on way back from Colombo.

He was tried by an anti-terrorist court and sentenced to death which was later commuted to life imprisonment and disqualification for life to contest election for any public office.

He was later deported to Jeddah for 10 years’ exile under a deal brokered by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris contended that the former premier was deported from the country before the Sindh Court released its full judgment and thus could not file an appeal in the Supreme Court.

He made two determined attempts to return which were thwarted by General Musharraf. On his request, the court exempted Sharif from personally appearing before it. 

Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad
Claiming successes in the ongoing operation in the Swat and Buner area, army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas on Tuesday said at least 1.3 million people had been displaced in the conflict area.

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has described the exodus as worst ever in history within a country. The UN refugee agency chief has asked international community to support hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis fleeing the country's North-West region due to the ongoing anti-Taliban offensive.

High Commissioner Antonio Guterres noted that the speed and scale of the latest displacement require an immediate international humanitarian response in support of the growing number of Pakistanis affected by the conflict.

“I call the international community to support the overall humanitarian effort on behalf of displaced Pakistanis,” said Guterres. “This is a huge and rapidly unfolding emergency, which is going to require considerable resources beyond those that currently exist in the region.”

Guterres announced a UNHCR airlift on Tuesday to rush 120 tons of additional humanitarian supplies to the north-west of the country from its central emergency stockpiles in Dubai.

The chartered Boeing 747 cargo plane will deliver 14,000 plastic sheets, 1,500 large roles of plastic, 10,000 mosquito nets and two large, portable warehouses, bringing the cost of the airlift to $584,000.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly on Monday that Pakistan had sought international help and might hold a donors’ conference to cope with this humanitarian disaster of gigantic proportion.

Abbas said while more people were fleeing the fighting, already 17 camps had been set up for the internally displaced people (IPD). The army and the civilian administration have provided more than 100 vehicles for transporting the IPDs.

Kabul, May 12
Four suicide bombers blew up near government buildings in an Afghan town on Tuesday, and militants barricaded themselves inside a building with hostages for hours until Afghan and Western troops overpowered them, officials said.

The coordinated attacks in the southeastern town of Khost formed one of the most brazen raids in recent months, a sign of the violence that Taliban militants have vowed to step up as more US troops deploy to the country over the next few months.

The suicide blasts killed at least six people — four army soldiers and two civilians — and wounded 13, said Hamid Padshah, a doctor from a hospital in Khost, adding the toll may climb.

Security sources said that apart from the four bombers, three other militants were killed when the building they were barricaded in was stormed.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemaray Bashary said one suicide bomber was killed by police as he tried to break through the gate of the headquarters of Khost’s governor in a vehicle.

Explosives in his car went off and killed the four soldiers, he said. In another part of town, the other three suicide bombers clashed with security forces and their explosive vests were detonated, Bashary told state television.

Three other attackers entered a municipal administration building and held some hostages under siege, said three separate security sources who asked not to be named. The building caught fire after a series of explosions, they said.

After several hours of sporadic exchanges of gunfire, Afghan security forces backed by foreign troops killed the three fighters and rescued the hostages unharmed, they added.

A spokesman for a NATO force with troops in the town said four suicide bombers had blown themselves up but was not immediately able to give any further details. — Reuters

Kathmandu, May 12
Nepal’s largest communist party today intensified government formation talks but caretaker premier Prachanda sought to woo Madhesi parties, whose support is crucial to put together a coalition, in a bid to block the setting up of a new CPN-UML-led administration.

Seeking to break the constitutional deadlock, the CPN-UML, third largest party in the Constituent Assembly today held consultations with the Nepali Congress, the Madhesi front and other small parties in an effort to work out a Common Minimum Programme, UML sources said.

The CPN-UML, which is being backed by the main opposition party the Nepali Congress, has said it was close to finalising an agreement with smaller groups to form a new government.

The Joint Madhesi Democratic Front, the grouping of three ethnic Indian Madheshi parties with a combined strength of 83 seats in the 60-member Parliament, called on Prachanda here in a bid to persuade him to stop the Maoists from disrupting parliament.

Prachanda told the Madhesi parties not to hurry up the process for the government formation. According to Jitendra Dev, member of MPRF, Prachanda told the Madhesi leaders that his party was close to the Madhesis and the Maoists were committed to address the issues raised by the Terai-based parties. — PTI 

Madhav Kumar Nepal emerged on Tuesday as the consensus candidate to lead the next interim government, with CPN-UML and Nepali Congress claiming to have finally secured the support of 340 members of the constituent assembly belonging to 20 different parties.

The breakthrough followed the United Democratic Madhesi Front ( UDMF) extending support of Terai based parties to the new government-in-the-making after Madhav Nepal pledged to address their demands and incorporate them into the Common Minimum Programme.

Nepali Congress Acting President Sushil Koirala and UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal sent their commitment in writing to the UDMF for implementation of the eight-point agreement reached between the then government and UDMF in February, 2008.

“But issues related to the Constitution will be decided through the Constituent Assembly,” the communication read. There were last-minute hiccups as some sections of the UDMF demanded that the Interim Constitution be amended immediately.

But UML leader Raghuji Panta said he was optimistic and the issues would be resolved without a hitch and a new coalition would be in place by Thursday.

Luxembourg, May 12
Steel workers attacked ArcelorMittal’s Luxembourg headquarters, setting off smoke bombs and trying to break through the front door to protest temporary layoffs during the economic slump.

While the company held its annual shareholders’ meeting, some among the 1,000 workers from Belgium and France hurled cobblestones and steel fencing at the building yesterday, which the riot police lined up to protect.

One protestor broke into the building and between 20 and 30 others fought the police at the entrance. Journalists were told to leave the ground floor as smoke filled the halls.

The protest did not affect the shareholder meeting or lunch, which continued on the building’s upper floor.

The police expected some 2,000 workers to join the demonstration, taking some 50 buses from plants in northern France and from Charleroi and Liege in southern Belgium. About 1,000 turned out.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker, has cut production by half as the steel industry rapidly went from boom to bust late last year.

It has shuttered plants across the world, laid off temporary workers and put full-time workers on reduced pay during the output freeze.

ArcelorMittal chief executive Lakshmi Mittal said the cutbacks were a “temporary suspension of production in view of the market conditions” and that he expected sales to recover in the second half of this year. — AP