A round-up of today's world news in brief
56 claimed dead in Sri Lanka clashes
COLOMBO:Sri Lankan troops killed 31 Tamil Tiger fighters in a series of clashes in the north of the island, as planes bombed rebel training camps yesterday, the military said.
Rebels said they killed 25 soldiers. The military said only two soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in the clashes with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the northwestern district of Mannar and neighbouring Vavuniya, the focus of renewed civil war. - (Reuters)
Bloomberg gets Bono's approval
NEW YORK:Bono sang the praises of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday after meeting him, declaring that his fellow philanthropist "could do an awful lot of good inside or outside the White House". Mr Bloomberg has been tipped by the media to run as an independent candidate for US president next year, but he has denied having any plans to run. - (AP)
At least 21 illegals drown off Italy
ROME:At least 21 illegal migrants drowned last weekend in two shipwrecks off southern Italy, the Italian coastguard said yesterday.
Egyptian state news agency MENA reported earlier that the death toll could be more than 140 people. A spokesman at the Italian coastguard said there were 12 confirmed dead off the Sicilian town of Siracusa and nine dead off the province of Calabria. - (Reuters)
End to death penalty sought
UNITED NATIONS:More than 70 countries opposed to the death penalty launched a fresh bid yesterday to have the UN general assembly pass a resolution urging an end to the practice, diplomats said.
Two previous similar attempts failed, due partly to opposition from the United States where many states still perform executions.
This time, the text stops short of an outright demand for immediate abolition. - (Reuters)
Czech woman (85) jailed for 1950 death
PRAGUE:A Czech court sentenced an 85-year-old former communist prosecutor to eight years in prison yesterday for her part in the hanging of a pro-democracy politician in 1950, news agency CTK reported.
Former prosecutor Ludmila Brozova-Polednova was found guilty of complicity to murder for helping lead the case against Milada Horakova, whose show trial became one of the most notorious of the communist era. - (Reuters)
Italy tightens expulsion rules
ROME:Italy's centre-left government, long accused by critics of being soft on immigration, has toughened its posture with a decree allowing police to expel European Union citizens believed to be a danger to society.
The decree was signed by Italy's president yesterday and followed a spate of violent crimes - many blamed on immigrants from Romania. "In the first seven months of the year, Romanians made up 75 per cent of the arrests of those who raped, stole, killed. We clearly have a specific problem," said Rome's mayor Walter Veltroni, citing crime statistics in the capital. - (Reuters)
Eritrean rebels say they killed 23
ADDIS ABABA:Eritrean rebels say they have killed 23 Eritrean soldiers and freed prisoners jailed in the Red Sea state's remote Afar region, Ethiopia's pro-government Walta information service reported yesterday.
Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people, and tensions are rising again ahead of a deadline this month for them to demarcate their disputed frontier.