Today's other stories in brief
EU puts Tamil Tigers on banned list
BRUSSELS - The European Union listed Sri Lanka's rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a banned terrorist organisation yesterday amid a sharp escalation in clashes between it and the military, EU diplomats said.
"One of the consequences is the freezing of the [ group's] assets," an envoy said of the decision taken at a regular meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.
The EU freeze on assets could hurt the war chest of the Tigers, who have used past trips to Europe during peace talks to raise funds from expatriate Tamils. - (Reuters)
Hamas rejects call for referendum
PUTRAJAYA - Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar yesterday rejected as a waste of time and money a referendum President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to call unless Hamas changes its policy toward Israel.
Mr Zahar is a senior Hamas leader and his remarks were the Islamic militant group's clearest rejection yet of a referendum, underlining the widening rift between Mr Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas, the governing party.
"Nobody will recognise Israel. There is no need for a referendum," said Mr Zahar. - (Reuters)
UN peacekeepers held hostage
KINSHASA - Militia fighters in Congo are holding hostage seven Nepali UN peacekeepers captured during a clash in the east in which a Nepali soldier was killed, UN and Congolese sources said yesterday.
The UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo said investigations were under way to try to discover the whereabouts of the peacekeepers, who were on an operation on Sunday in the vast central African country's violence-prone Ituri district. - (Reuters)
Soldier killed in Darfur ambush
KHARTOUM - One African Union soldier was killed and another critically wounded when heavily armed men ambushed a patrol not far from their base in west Darfur, the United Nations said.
"The number of attackers is unconfirmed between six to 12 and they were reportedly armed with RPGs [ rocket-propelled grenades] and AK-47 rifles," the UN said. - (Reuters)
75 on hunger strike in Guantánamo
MIAMI - Seventy-five prisoners at the US naval base in Guantánamo were on a hunger strike yesterday, joining a few who have refused food and been force-fed since August, a military official said.
Cmdr Robert Durand, a spokesman for Guantánamo, called the hunger strike an attempt by the prisoners to gain media attention and pressure the US to release about 460 men held there as enemy combatants. - (Reuters)
Body of diplomat found in Naples
NAPLES - The body of a man found in a Naples manhole with a knife in his abdomen has been identified as a Canadian diplomat who has been missing since March, Italian police said yesterday.
He has been identified as Lewis Brooks Miskell (49), a diplomat based in Vienna, Austria. Mr Miskell arrived in Italy on March 6th for a holiday but went missing shortly afterwards. - (PA)