The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	96 killed in Yemen as suicide bomber strikes at army parade Sanaa, May 21 A Yemeni soldier packing powerful explosives under his uniform blew himself up in the middle of an army battalion in Sanaa today, killing 96 troops and injuring 300 others, a military official and medics said. The suicide attack was the deadliest in the country's capital since newly-elected President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi pledged to oust Al-Qaida militants from Yemen's mostly lawless and restive southern and eastern provinces. Medics, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the casualties were being treated in seven hospitals across Sanaa. All the dead and injured were soldiers, they added. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the massive blast which, according to witnesses, echoed loudly across the city, causing panic among residents. The unidentified bomber detonated his explosives as soldiers from the government's central security forces, commanded by a nephew of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, rehearsed for an army parade to mark the 22nd anniversary of the unification of north and south Yemen, according to the military official. Yemen's Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed was present at the time of the explosion but escaped unharmed, the official added. A man claiming to speak for militant group Ansar al-Sharia said in a telephone call to Reuters it was behind the attack. An Ansar al-Sharia spokesman subsequently confirmed the claim, saying it was in response to the "crimes" of the security forces who are fighting to dislodge militants from theirstrongholds in the south of the country. The authenticity of the claim could not immediately be verified. — Agencies
	Fonseka gets pardon, finally walks free Chandani Kirinde in Colombo Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka walked free from jail on Monday with a pardon from President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who appears to have bowed to growing international demands that he release his highest-profile rival. Ex-General Fonseka kissed his hands and raised them to a group of 2,000 supporters who cheered "Victory to our war hero! Victory to our leader!" and lit firecrackers outside the maximum-security prison. Some waved the national flag, emblazoned with a lion and a sword, as he released a white dove symbolising peace. “I am a free man,” Fonseka told his supporters, who had gathered outside the prison walls in downtown Colombo to welcome him. Fonseka drove through an open roofed jeep along with several opposition supporters waving to crowds and said he would join with them soon to make the country better place to live in. Regarded by many as a hero for helping end Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, Fonseka fell out with the government and was imprisoned after a failed presidential bid against former ally Rajapaksa two years ago. Arrested by soldiers who had been under his own command, Fonseka was stripped of his rank as a four-star general. He trailed Rajapaksa by 17 points in the last presidential election and with the next one not due until 2016, he is not seen as an immediate political threat. His health has deteriorated in prison, increasing pressure on Rajapaksa to free him. (With agency inputs)
	IAEA chief, Iran hail ‘intensive’ nuclear talks Tehran, May 21 International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano and Iran's lead negotiator, Saeed Jalili, hailed "intensive" and "very good" talks on Iran's nuclear programme today, state television said. The upbeat assessment was seen as a positive note ahead of broader, more substantive talks to take place on Wednesday in Baghdad between an Iranian delegation led by Jalili and representatives of world powers in the so-called P5+1 group. "We had expansive and intensive talks in a positive atmosphere," Amano was quoted as saying by the Persian language broadcaster IRIB, which added that he lauded the "good atmosphere" of the discussions. "Certainly the progress of these talks will have a positive effect on Iran and the P5+1 negotiations. Of course, these two issues are different from one another, but can underpin each other," he said. Jalili said of the discussions Amano held with him and with Iran's atomic energy chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani: "We had very good talks with Amano and, God willing, we will have good cooperation in the future." He and the IAEA chief said the discussions revolved around nuclear disarmament, halting nuclear weapons proliferation, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy as permitted under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. They also discussed "consolidating" the UN nuclear surveillance agency to make it more effective in pursuing those goals, IRIB said. — AFP
	Aftershocks rattle Italy, residents sleep outdoors Finale Emilia (Italy), May 21 Thousands of people in northern Italy slept in tents and cars overnight as more than 100 aftershocks rocked the area hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that killed seven persons and inflicted heavy damage to centuries’ old cultural sites. "The fear that your house will collapse on your head is great, so it was good to be able to sleep in this tent," said one man who spent the night outdoors, cold but safe, in the town of San Felice sul Panaro. Heavy rainfall added to the misery of people who had to abandon their homes and made conditions more difficult for civil protection workers. But most residents said they were content with the relief effort. "They set up these tents very quickly. I felt safe," an elderly woman said. Sunday's earthquake killed four factory workers who were on the night shift, an elderly woman who was hit by a beam and two women who died of shock. It also caused an estimated €200 million damage to agriculture and left a swathe of destruction across the Emilia-Romagna region, felling ancient churches and severely damaging a castle that had withstood wars and invasions for seven centuries. —Reuters
	nato summit Obama refuses to meet Zardari Washington, May 21 In a rebuff to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, US President Barack Obama did not meet him on the margins of the NATO Summit in Chicago as the two countries failed to strike a deal on reopening the NATO supply lines to Afghanistan. Zardari, who flew to Chicago with hopes of lifting his stature with a meeting with Obama, was preparing to leave empty-handed as the two countries continued to feel the repercussions of a NATO airstrike last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, an incident for which the US President has offered condolences but no apology. As the two-day NATO summit opened in Chicago last evening, Obama remained at loggerheads with Zardari, refusing even to meet him without a deal on the supply routes, which officials in both sides acknowledged would not be coming soon, US media reported today. But White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Obama could not meet Zardari as he had a "full slate of summit meetings to attend”. “The two bilateral meetings, really, that he did, or President (Hamid) Karzai for obvious reasons given the focus on Afghanistan here, and the Secretary General of NATO given that it's traditional for the host to make sure that we're aligned with the Secretary General heading into the summit. But we don't anticipate any other bilateral meetings so we didn't draw that linkage. We're going to continue to work through the issue with the Pakistanis," he said. However, a deal to reopen the supply lines fell apart as Obama began talks on ending the NATO alliance's combat role in Afghanistan in 2013, The New York Times said. The failure to strike a deal ahead of the summit injects new tension into the relationship, it said. — PTI
	UK visa: Indians to be screened for TB London, May 21 Indian citizens besides those from 66 other "high risk" countries seeking to enter Britain for over six months will need to be screened for tuberculosis before they are granted a visa, the Home Office here announced today. The costs of screening and subsequent treatment will be met by those people applying to come into the UK, the Home Office said, and added that the screening is specifically targeted at migrants from India and 66 other "high risk" countries. The tuberculosis screening programme will be rolled out in the countries over the next 18 months from July. Currently there are screening facilities at British airports, which will be removed under the programme. The measure is expected to save 40 million pounds. Recent figures indicate that there were over 9,000 new cases of tuberculosis in the UK in 2011, a five per cent increase on 2010. "The programme is targeted at migrants after research showed non-UK born people accounted for three quarters of all new TB cases diagnosed - 20 times higher than in the UK born population", the Home Office said. Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "Tuberculosis is currently at its highest level in the UK for 30 years. "Pre-entry screening, followed by treatment where necessary, will help to prevent the risk of TB in the UK and will also save lives", he said. The minister added, "Removing screening facilities at airports will save the taxpayer 25 million pounds over ten years and further National Health Service (NHS) savings will be made by preventing the importation and spread of TB in the UK". The UK Border Agency will build on existing pre-screening undertaken by international partners including the USA, Canada and Australia, the Home Office said. — PTI
	Syrian forces kill 9 deserters Beirut, May 21 Syrian forces ambushed and killed nine army deserters near a north Damascus suburb as fighting between armed rebels and troops raged around the capital during the night, a monitoring group said today. The deserters were killed as they were retreating under cover of darkness from the village of Jisr al-Ab near Damascus's Douma suburb, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. — AFP