The New Nation - Internet Edition

Tigers shell Lankan military base as fighting kills 53

AFP, Colombo

Tamil Tiger rebels shelled a key military base in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, officials said, as the defence ministry said dozens of rebels were killed in new fighting.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked the Thallady military camp in the district of Mannar early Tuesday, drawing retaliatory fire from security forces, a military official said.

He said a dozen soldiers were injured. There was no immediate word from the Tigers about the clash.

The shelling came as the defence ministry said 42 Tamil Tiger rebels and 11 soldiers were killed in new clashes across the island's embattled north on Monday.

The fighting in the Weli Oya area also left 35 security personnel and 21 rebels wounded, a defence official said.

According to the defence ministry, 1,168 rebels and 62 government soldiers and police have been killed so far this year.

Casualty figures given by the government cannot be independently verified as journalists and human rights workers are not allowed to enter the battle zone.

The Sri Lankan government last month officially pulled out of a defunct truce with the rebels, who have fought for more than three decades for an independent ethnic homeland in the Sinhalese-majority island.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of

According to the defence ministry's latest tally, 1,168 rebels and 62 government soldiers and police have been killed so far this year.

Casualty figures given by the government or the Tamil Tigers cannot be independently verified as journalists and human rights workers are not allowed to enter the battle zone.

The Sri Lankan government last month officially pulled out of a defunct truce with the rebels, who have fought for more than three decades for an independent ethnic homeland in the Sinhalese-majority island.

Twin car bombs kill 22 in Baghdad

AP, Baghdad

Twin car bombs targeted a meeting of Sunni tribal leaders Monday, killing as many as 22 people in the latest attack against U.S. allies who have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

The U.S. military blamed al-Qaida in Iraq.

The attackers managed to penetrate heavy security to leave bomb-rigged cars near a Baghdad compound hosting chieftains from the western Anbar province, where the so-called Awakening Council movement against al-Qaida emerged last year.

The blasts were also near the offices of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. But Iraqi authorities said the apparent target was the Sunni tribal heads.

Insurgents - either led or inspired by al-Qaida - have stepped up assaults against fellow Sunnis who are credited with helping drive out extremists from key parts of Baghdad and surrounding areas. Sheik Ali Hatem al-Sulaiman, deputy chief of Anbar province's biggest Sunni tribe and a leading member of the Anbar Awakening Council, said six of their bodyguards were among those killed.

New Thai govt to consider self-rule for Muslim south

AFP, Bangkok

Thailand's new government will consider granting some degree of self-rule to Muslim-majority provinces hit by bloody separatist unrest, Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said Tuesday.

More than 2,900 people have died in the southern provinces along the Malaysian border since separatist violence erupted four years ago. The violence has become increasingly deadly over the last year, despite repeated olive branches offered by the previous military government.

In the latest unrest, a 40-year-old Buddhist man was shot and set ablaze in Pattani province late Monday, while three others were shot dead in nearby provinces early Tuesday, police said. "I want to reaffirm that autonomy is possible, but we will have to discuss what type of autonomy it would be," Chalerm told reporters.

He said that Thailand would consider China's westernmost Xinjiang region, which is autonomous and predominantly Muslim, as a possible model.

"We cannot afford to allow so many deadly bombings. We must take measures to improve the situation and not just wait to be killed," he said.

Chalerm said that unlike his predecessors, he would not make frequent trips to the Muslim south, saying such trips only spark more violence.

11 killed in Pakistan election violence

AFP, Islamabad

A suicide bomb killed at least nine people heading to an election rally in Pakistan Monday, while a political worker died in a clash between rival parties as a wave of pre-poll violence intensified.

The attacks raised new fears about the security of the elections in one week's time, with candidates keeping a low profile since the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at a political rally in December.

Police said Monday's bombing in the tribal region of North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, targeted the convoy of an election candidate as he travelled to a political meeting.

Troops patrol ETimor as President recovers from surgery

AFP, Dili

Troops and police enforced a state of emergency across East Timor on Tuesday as President Jose Ramos-Horta recuperated from an assassination bid that doctors said he was lucky to survive. Residents packed local markets as usual, oblivious to the emergency imposed after audacious attacks by renegade soldiers on the president, who was hit in the chest and back, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped unscathed. Gusmao told a meeting of communities from Portuguese-speaking nations at a hotel here that the situation in the fledgling nation was "normal, and all is stable." "We all hope that Dr Jose Ramos-Horta will soon recover from this difficult phase and resume leading the country," he said. The assaults heralded a renewed crisis for violence-weary East Timor, where Australian-led peacekeeping troops and UN police were deployed in 2006 to quell unrest between military and police factions that left at least 37 dead.

US troop presence in Iraq 'attracts terrorists': Mubarak

AFP, Cairo

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday that the presence of US and other foreign troops in Iraq will lead to more terrorism and harm the whole region, the official MENA news agency reported. "The continued presence of US and other foreign troops in Iraq will lead to more terrorist acts in the country and harm the security of the whole region," he told reporters on his way to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Egypt is a key regional ally of the US and receives the second largest amount of aid from Washington after Israel. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad on Monday he favoured a short pause in troop drawdowns from Iraq after about 30,000 American soldiers have been sent home by July. Gates said in July that Egypt was concerned the US might "withdraw precipitously from Iraq, or in some way that is destabilising for the entire region."

Israel to build 1,000 new homes in Jerusalem area

Reuters, Jerusalem

Israel's housing minister said on Tuesday preparations were underway to build more than 1,000 new homes in and around Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as capital of a future state. Housing Minister Zeev Boim said the municipality of Jerusalem was preparing to issue tenders for 750 housing units in a northern area known as Pisgat Zeev, as well as 307 units to the south in what is known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim. U.S.-backed peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas bogged down late last year after Israel announced plans to build hundreds of new homes in Har Homa. "We are building in Jerusalem everywhere within its municipal boundaries," Boim told Israel Radio. A Housing Ministry official said the construction projects mentioned by the minister had long been planned. Under U.S. pressure, Olmert has imposed a de facto halt to new construction in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, but he has not called off plans to build new homes within the boundaries of Jerusalem as defined by Israel.