A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Tamil Tigers commit to ceasefire
GENEVA - Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels have pledged support for a four-year-old ceasefire after two days of talks aimed at preventing a return to civil war.
"Both sides committed to respecting and upholding the ceasefire agreement and are committed to taking all necessary means to ensure there will be no intimidation [ and] acts of violence," they said in a statement yesterday.
The two sides will meet again next month in Geneva.
More than 64,000 people were killed two decades of civil war. - (Reuters)
FBI complained about Guantánamo
WASHINGTON - FBI agents accused US military personnel at the Guantánamo prison of using illegal "aggressive interrogation tactics" on detainees but senior military officials rejected FBI concerns, documents made public yesterday showed.
The documents, released by the American Civil Liberties Union after being obtained under a court order, shed new light on the rift between the FBI and the Pentagon on the treatment of terrorism suspects imprisoned at the naval base in Cuba. - (Reuters)
Fujimori to stay in jail in Chile
SANTIAGO - Chile's supreme court has ruled that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori must stay in jail while Chile decides whether to extradite him to Peru to face charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
It is the second time Chilean courts have denied a request for bail for Fujimori (67) since his arrest in November. - (Reuters)
Celebrities join festivities in Brazil
SALVADOR - U2 frontman Bono and British DJ Fatboy Slim are among the foreign celebrities joining carnival festivities in Salvador, north- eastern Brazil, one of the world's biggest street parties.
Bono was due to watch last night in a VIP area with Brazil's culture minister Gilberto Gil. - (Reuters)
13 workers killed in Bangladesh fire
CHITTAGONG - At least 13 workers were killed and 75 injured when a fire razed a textile factory in Bangladesh's Chittagong port city last night, police and witnesses said.
Police said the fire at the KTS Textile Mills in the city's Kalurghat area was believed to have started when a boiler exploded. - (Reuters)
Journalist jailed for libel in Egypt
CAIRO - A Cairo court has sentenced a journalist to a year in jail for libel, raising protests against President Hosni Mubarak who promised two years ago to abolish custodial sentences for press offences.
The journalist, Abdel Nasser el-Zuheiri, and two of his colleagues were also ordered yesterday to pay 10,001 Egyptian pounds (€1,462) each in damages to former housing minister Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman. - (Reuters)
Donors urged to aid east Africa
NAIROBI - Donors have just weeks to send more emergency aid to avert a famine menacing 11 million people in drought-stricken east Africa, the United Nations said yesterday.
The new UN special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Kjell Bondevik, said deaths from famine had so far been "fairly limited" but would quickly grow in the absence of a fast, co-ordinated response. - (Reuters)
Poland 'will reject' EU constitution
PARIS - The EU constitution has virtually no chance of being ratified by Poland, the country's president, Lech Kaczynski, said in an interview with France's Le Figaro newspaper to be published today.
Mr Kaczynski said he hoped for a constructive meeting with French president Jacques Chirac. - (Reuters)