Colombo, May 24
UN chief Ban-ki-Moon has warned Sri Lanka that "history could repeat itself" if issues of reconciliation and social inclusion were not dealt with, even as he demanded "unimpeded access" to aid agencies to the camps that housed 300,000 displaced Tamil civilians.

"Moon said if issues of reconciliation and social inclusion are not dealt with, history could repeat itself," UN said in a statement after Ban met President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday.

Ban asked Colombo to initiate a political process of accommodation, dialogue and reconciliation to solve the three-decade old ethnic conflict in the country.

"Sri Lankans of every ethnic and religious identity - Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims - must enjoy equal justice, economic opportunity and security under the law, as President Rajapaksa declared in his recent address to Parliament," Moon said.

Rajapaksa and Ban have agreed that addressing the grievances of all communities, including Tamils, and working towards a lasting political solution was fundamental to ensuring long-term socio-economic development of Sri Lanka, a joint statement said.

While discussing the critical issues of the post-LTTE scenario, the two leaders agreed that the new situation offered opportunities for long-term development of the North and for re-establishing democratic institutions and electoral politics after 25 years, it said.

The government should also undertake certain confidence-building measures to "clearly and unmistakably" signal its good intentions in addressing root causes of Tamil and Muslim grievances, Ban said.

"To do so effectively, I have told the President and Foreign Minister (of Sri Lanka) that the UN and other international humanitarian agencies need immediate and unimpeded access to the camps," the statement quoted Ban as saying.

Rajapaksa has said that access to the war ravaged regions would be given to those who will "genuinely" help in the rehabilitation of the displaced Tamil civilians.

The first priority, Moon stressed, was to help the Sri Lankan government meet urgent humanitarian needs.

Ban, during his meeting in the North-eastern city of Kandy yesterday, assured President Rajapaksa that the UN would extend all assistance to Sri Lanka in facing up to this new challenge following the ending of hostilities in the country. — PTI

Colombo, May 24
Ending its stoic silence over the death of Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE today said the top rebel leader was killed in last week's final battle with the Sri Lankan military in the north.

"We announce today, with inexpressible sadness and heavy hearts that our incomparable leader and supreme commander (Prabhakaran)... attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression," the LTTE's head of International Relations Selvarasa Pathmanathan said in a statement today.

"For over three decades, our leader was the heart and soul and the symbol of
hope, pride and determination for the whole nation of people of Tamil Eelam,"
Pathmanathan said.

The Sri Lankan Army had on Monday last said it has killed Prabhakaran when he tried to flee in an ambulance.

But, the LTTE immediately rejected the army claim, saying Tamil Tiger supremo was alive and safe.

The Tigers had dismissed the announcement by the Sri Lankan government about Prabhakaran's death as "engineered rumours".

However, in today's statement, Pathmanathan said 54-year-old Prabhakaran died fighting the military but did not give details of circumstances that led to his death.

He also announced a week of mourning for their dead leader, starting tomorrow.

The statement calls on Tamils all over the world to "restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief."

"His (Prabhakaran) final request was for the struggle to continue until we achieved the freedom," Pathmanathan said.

Pathmanthan said the Tigers would now use "non-violent" methods to fight for the rights of Tamils. — PTI

Toronto, May 24
A Saturday morning fire at a Sinhalese restaurant here further fuelled tensions between the two Sri Lankan communities in Canada.

While the Sri Lankan consul general blamed Tamil Tigers for the fire, Tamil leaders hit back by asking Canada to expel him.

There are over 3,00,000 Sri Lankan Tamils as against about 50,000 Sinhalese in the Toronto area.

The early morning fire that gutted the Lanka Gardens restaurant in the Brampton area infuriated Sri Lankan consul general Bandula Jayasekara so much that he said Tamil Tigers were “on the rampage” in Toronto.

Jayasekara, highly critical of the Canadian authorities for their handling of Tamil protesters since January, said the fire was the handiwork of Tamil extremists.

“It is really about what the Tamil Tigers are up to. They are on the rampage here in Toronto,” he said.

The consul general, who visited the gutted restaurant, said Tamil extremists had been threatening the eating place owner for some time. However, the police refused to say whether it is a case of arson.

The Sri Lankan diplomat said the owner of the restaurant called him at 4.30 am to inform that his restaurant “is under attack” from Tamil Tigers. He said the trouble was over in Sri Lanka after 30 years, but not in Canada.

The restaurant owner said LTTE flag-waving motorcyclists had been threatening him for some time, adding that the front glass of the restaurant had been broken just two weeks ago.

The Sri Lankan diplomat’s reaction angered Tamil leaders who called for his expulsion from Canada.

“While we whole-heartedly condemn the fire incident and want our police to get to the bottom of the truth and bring the culprits to justice, the behaviour of the Sri Lankan diplomat is absolutely undiplomatic,” said Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman David Poopalapillai.

The fire at the Sri Lankan restaurant comes just days after a similar incident at a Sinhalese temple in the Scarborough area of Toronto.

The Sinhalese community has blamed supporters of the Tamil Tigers for that incident also. — IANS

Nepal's Prime Minister designate Madhav Kumar Nepal is all set to form a small Cabinet inducting 3-5 members from the coalition partners immediately after he takes the oath of office from President Ram Baran Yadav amidst on Monday.

According to Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Nepal and Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala have agreed to form a small Cabinet from the major coalition partners without deciding their portfolios.

“Three to five members from the UML and the NC are likely to be appointed within a day or two,”" he said, adding: “The duo have reached an understanding to finalise the portfolio division and give the Cabinet a complete shape within a week.”

Meanwhile, just a day after the UML leader Nepal was elected to the post of Prime Minister, major political parties - the UML, Congress and the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) - in the UML-led future coalition intensified internal homework to form the new government.

Both a meeting of the UML standing committee and a meeting of senior leaders of the NC have formed separate panels of the party to talk to other political parties on forming a cabinet.

Kathmandu, May 24
India today assured Nepal that it would continue to support the country in taking the peace process towards its logical conclusion as the weeks-long political crisis came to an end with the election of a new Prime Minister.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood met Prime Minister-elect Madhav Kumar Nepal and extended India's wishes to the new government to be headed by him.

Sources said Sood told the veteran Communist leader that India would continue to support Nepal, especially in taking the peace process towards its logical conclusion.

They said the Prime Minister-elect and the Indian envoy discussed issues of bilateral interest during the meeting. — PTI

Kathmandu, May 24
Nepal's Premier-elect Madhav Kumar Nepal today promised a probe into the blast in a church here which killed two Indians, a teenage girl and a women, in a first such incident targeting a Christian shrine.

A day after he was elected Nepal's Prime Minister, Nepal visited the Catholic Assumption Church located at Dhovighat, the biggest Christian shrine of Nepal established in 1995, where a powerful blast took place yesterday.

Besides two people killed, 15 others were injured, which included four Indians. He also visited hospitals where the injured are undergoing treatment, said a CPN-UML leader Krishna Shrestha.

Nepal also condemned the attack at the religious place and expressed sadness over the human casualties.

He also expressed best wishers for the early recovery of those injured in the blast. Church security has been tightened.

The explosion occurred yesterday when a Mongolian faced girl carrying a bag came and left it on the floor pretending to go to toiled, according to the church officials.

The explosion took place shortly after that at a time when some 300 people were busy attending Saturday prayer.

Today, some 500 people gathered at the church to pay homage to the deceased persons and to wish for early recovery of those injured in the incident. — PTI

Jerusalem, May 24
Israel's right wing government today refused to withdraw to the Jewish states' pre-1967 war borders and even rebuffed US President Barack Obama's advice to dismantle settlements in Palestinian land, linking it to a comprehensive peace plan.

Hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ruled out withdrawal saying that it will further endanger Israel.

"A return to the borders of '67 in today's circumstances, as they are pressuring us (to do), this is not peace, not security and it is not the end of the (Israel- Palestinian) conflict", Lieberman said before the weekly cabinet meeting today.

"The result will be the transfer of the conflict to inside the '67 borders," the hardliner Foreign Minister said.

Israel's close ally, the US, has been pressurising Jerusalem to take steps to dismantle illegal outposts in the West Bank in a gesture that could rekindle stalled peace process with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"The evacuation of outposts needs to be part of a sensitive, comprehensive programme and not piecemeal," the controversial anti-Arab leader said. — PTI

Former President General Pervez Musharraf (retd) on Sunday confirmed that he had vacated “on his own” the Army House after living there for 11 years and debunked reports he would not return to Pakistan.

“Nobody has compelled me to leave the Army House where I lived with special permission from Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani after retirement from the army in November 2007,” Musharraf told the Pakistani media in London.

He said although he had purchased a flat in London, he would return to Pakistan on completion of his present trip later next month.

“I will live in my new house in Chak Shehzad in Islamabad’s suburb and face all that is being said and done against me,” he said, adding that he was satisfied with the security provided to him in the new house.

He pleaded lack of knowledge that he, former premier Shaukat Aziz, and other residents of Chak Shehzad were being provided electricity on subsidised rates.

He refused to answer question regarding his role in the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawaz Akbar Bugti by the army that blasted his case hideout in 2007.

Musharraf’s wife Sehba supervised family’s shift from the Army House on Saturday. Truckloads of huge boxes and other household goods were moved under strict security provided by the army.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who continues to live in the house he occupied after becoming chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in 2004, is likely to shift to the Army House in a week or so.

The former military dictator left the country about a month ago on a lecture trip to Europe and the United States.

He has yet not returned amid reports he may stay abroad. But his aides denied these reports saying he intended to live within Pakistan.

Islamabad, May 24
Moving from street to street, Pakistani troops today wrested several key areas in the Swat valley's main town Mingora from Taliban as their offensive to regain the control of the restive tribal region entered the decisive phase.

Security forces have secured eight crossings and encountered at least 12 roadside bombs in Mingora, which is under the control of Taliban.

The forces have retrieved Wattakai Chowk, Nawakilli Chowk, Nishat Chowk, Sirafe Chowk, Gulshan Chowk, Green Chowk, Haji Bab Chowk and Sohrab Chowk.

The military said in the last 24 hours, 10 militants were killed in various areas of Swat during exchange of fire between miscreants and security forces, while 14 have been arrested. Three security forces personnel were also killed and 6 were injured, it said in a statement.

Five "miscreants-terrorists" were killed in various areas of Mingora, while 14 miscreants have been arrested by the security forces.

Meanwhile, eight militants and two civilians were killed as Pakistani fighter jets bombed militant hideouts in Orakzai tribal agency, officials and witnesses said.

Witnesses and a senior official said the fighter planes hit areas in Upper and Lower Orakzai agencies early morning.

A telephone exchange also came under shelling, causing civilian casualties, locals said. — PTI

London, May 24
Taliban militants have burnt down more than 200 schools in Pakistan’s restive Swat valley in the last two years and made all efforts to prevent girls from receiving education, a media report here said today.

The militants had told the residents in the valley that if they were good Muslims they would stop sending their daughters to schools, ‘The Sunday Times’ said in a report from Mingora, the capital of Swat.

“Every evening Maulana Fazullah (Taliban commander) , nicknamed ‘Radio Mullah’, broadcasted the names on the radio of girls who had stopped going to school - it would be, ‘Congratulations to Miss Kulsoon or Miss Shahnaz, who has quit school’. Then he warned others if they continued with their education they would go to hell,” the paper said.

The Taliban had torched over 200 of Swat’s 1,500 schools in the last two years, it said. The newspaper also gave a graphic account of the havoc created by the Taliban in Swat. A 22-year-old medical student from the valley had secretly catalogued the horrors of life in Swat under the Taliban.

The burning down of schools, bodies hanging upside down, public lashings and decapitated heads with dollars stuffed in their nostrils and notes reading, ‘This is what happens to spies’, were all captured on the student’s mobile phone at great personal risk, the report said.

The medical student’s account was corroborated by Ziauddin Yusufzai, who ran two schools in Swat and was the spokesman for private school association until he fled the bombing three weeks ago.

Fazlullah’s call for the restoration of Islamic law was broadly supported. The Taliban were seen by many as a class movement - occupying homes of wealthy residents.

Yusufzai estimated that by the end of 2007 the Taliban controlled 30 per cent of Swat. Two army operations intended to remove the Taliban merely tightened their grip, the paper said.

“The army would tell people to leave their villages, but instead of clearing them of militants it seemed they were cleared for militants.”

It was the combination of international pressure and the militants’ proximity to the federal capital Islamabad that finally persuaded the army to act. — PTI

London, May 24
Eating too much fast food can ruin your kid's performance at school, concludes a new study. The study, which involved 5,500 primary school children, found that pupils achieved lower scores in tests after eating takeaway meals such as burgers and chips more than three times a week, reports The Telegraph.

Some children's scores in literacy and numeracy dropped by up to 16 per cent compared to the average, the study claimed.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee tracked the eating habits of children aged 10-11 and compared it to performance in reading and maths tests.

They found just over half of pupils had eaten at fast food restaurants such as McDonald's up to three times in the last week.

In total, children scored between 58-181 points in the reading tests, gaining an average score of 141.5.

But after taking other factors into account, pupils who ate fast food between four and six times a week scored almost seven points below average.

Children snacking once a day fell 16 points, while pupils indulging three times a day dropped by 19 points. Similar trends were noted in maths. — ANI

London, May 24
An American scientist, Robert Furchgott, who shared the Nobel Prize in 1998 for his work that led to to the development of the anti-impotency drug Viagra has died at the age of 92.

The BBC reported today that the scientist's family announced that he died on Tuesday in Seattle.

Furchgott shared a Nobel prize in 1998 for work showing that the gas nitric oxide played an important role in the cardiovascular system.

The discovery that the gas could help enlarge blood vessels was a factor in the development of Viagra by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer. — IANS

Edwards Air Force Base Calif, May 24
US space shuttle Atlantis capped an extended 13-day mission to rejuvenate Hubble Space Telescope today with flawless landing at Edwards Air Force base in California.

The touchdown under clear blue skies came at 1539 GMT after foul weather stymied two days of landing attempts at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"Welcome home Atlantis, congratulations on a very successful mission giving Hubble a new set of eyes that will continue to expand our knowledge of the universe," radioed astronaut Greg Johnson from Mission Control in Houston.

"It was a thrill from start to finish," replied Atlantis commander Scott Altman.

Altman and pilot Greg Johnson began the hour-long glide back to Earth by firing Atlantis' twin braking rockets to leave orbit, shedding 257 feet per second (78 metres per second) to align the ship for a fiery freefall through the atmosphere.

The Atlantis astronauts were the fifth and final crew to work on the Hubble telescope, which was launched in 1990.

An initial servicing mission in 1993 fixed a problem with the telescope's prime mirror, giving Hubble a unprecedented view of the universe. — AFP

The announcement comes at a time of rising costs and flagging public enthusiasm for the space mission. — AFP

A senior State Department official confirmed the new policy but did not specify when it would take effect, the report said. — PTI