At least 165 soldiers were killed and 20 more went missing in a major battle with Tamil separatists this week, military sources told the news agency on Friday as journalists complained of unofficial censorship.
   With reports of higher casualties emerging — making Wednesday’s clash the bloodiest in recent years — the authorities extended ‘unofficial’ censorship to hospitals and funeral parlours where photographers and reporters were shut out, a media rights group said.
   The death toll from the sources were far higher than official defence ministry casualty figures, which gave 43 soldiers dead and 38 missing from Wednesday’s fighting in the northern peninsula of Jaffna.
   ‘Some of the senior officers have been told that the army lost 185, including 20 who are still listed as missing,’ said a military source who declined to be named. ‘We are trying to establish the fate of the missing.’
   The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Thursday returned via the international Red Cross the bodies of 28 soldiers they had captured.
   The government also reported killing more than 100 rebels and wounding 100 more in the pre-dawn offensive along the Muhamalai front lines on the peninsula.
   The Tigers said only 25 of its fighters were killed.
   Official defence ministry casualties reports and LTTE figures can seldom be verified because the government prevents journalists from visiting war zones and territory held by the rebels.
   The ministry claims 3,105 rebels have been killed already this year — more than intelligence estimates of the number of LTTE fighters, which was put at 3,000.
   Wednesday’s confrontation was by far the biggest battle since Colombo withdrew from a Norwegian-arranged truce in January.
   The Free Media Movement said the authorities had prevented photographers taking pictures of military casualties moved to hospitals in the aftermath of the fighting.
   Soldiers also provided tight security at undertakers to block the media.
   ‘It is highly likely that these measures have been taken after heavy losses faced by the Sri Lankan army earlier this week after fighting intensified in the north,’ the FMM said in a statement.
   The group said it was urging the government as well as the LTTE to respect the right to information.
   ‘The FMM believes that the right of the public to know information and news relating to the ongoing war is severely undermined by the restrictions placed on journalists.’

Hamas leaders handed over on Thursday proposals for a truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, with a timetable for extending it to the West Bank, at a meeting of the Palestinian Islamist group with Egyptian mediators.
   Former Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud el-Zahar and former interior minister Saeed Seyam held talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s main contact with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said.
   A Palestinian official close to the talks said the Hamas delegation would tell Suleiman it is prepared to accept the idea
   of a staged truce, starting with Gaza only.
   ‘Hamas’s position is that they agree to a calm in Gaza and the West Bank but it would begin in Gaza at this stage and then apply to the West Bank after an agreed and specified period of time,’ said the official, who declined to be named.
   Israel on Friday dismissed as ‘not serious’ a Hamas proposal for a six-month truce in the Gaza Strip that could later extend to the occupied West Bank, reports AFP.
   ‘Unfortunately, this appears not to be serious at all,’ government spokesman Mark Regev said after the Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza told Egypt on Thursday that it agreed to implement a ceasefire.
   Regev said Hamas continued to target Israel and build up its military capacity. ‘The quiet they seem to be proposing is the quiet before the storm,’ he said.
   Both sides generally refer to a period of ‘calm’ or ‘quiet’ rather than talk of a formal truce.
   ‘Israel is ready for quiet in the south,’ Regev said, adding however that a truce would only work if Gaza militants stop targeting Israel, Hamas ends its ‘orchestrated terrorism,’ and arms smuggling from Egypt into the Palestinian territory is halted.
   Any period of calm between us and Israel must be reciprocal, simultaneous and comprehensive, and must include lifting the blockade and ceasing all aggression,’ Hamas official Ismail Radwan told AFP.
   In the past Israel has rejected a truce covering all of the Palestinian territories, saying that its operations in the occupied West Bank are essential to prevent militants from launching attacks inside the Jewish state.

The Afghan foreign minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, said that any peace deal between Pakistan and Taliban fighters would only fail and terrorism should instead be tackled globally.
   The United States has also expressed concern about a possible deal after representatives of both sides said Wednesday the new government in Islamabad had drafted an agreement with rebels along the Afghan border.
   ‘We believe that any efforts by any country in our region to have a separate peace deal with international terrorism, such efforts will fail,’ Spanta told reporters.
   ‘Past experiences have proved that such efforts will only result in those who make such efforts becoming the victims,’ he said.
   A peace deal between Pakistan and pro-Taliban tribes in the semi-autonomous tribal regions of North Waziristan in September 2006 was criticised in Kabul, where officials said it resulted in an increase in attacks in Afghanistan.
   That deal was broken after Pakistani troops stormed Islamabad’s Red Mosque to evict militants, leaving 100 dead.
   Spanta said the countries needed to work together with their international partners in a ‘clear, continued and coordinated fight against terrorism.’
   ‘Finding a peaceful way to decrease terrorism in all countries, not only in one place, is an issue that all sides should act upon,’ he said.
   Islamabad launched talks with the Taliban soon after a new government was formed following elections in February, amid concerns that president Pervez Musharraf’s military approach was spawning more violence.
   The aim is to transform a month-long lull in a wave of suicide bombings into a permanent peace with the Taliban, who have fought the government since Islamabad joined the US-led ‘war on terror’ in 2001.

The US senate voted on Thursday to award detained Myanmar democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal, America’s top civilian honour.
   The House of Representatives overwhelming approved companion legislation on December 17 to confer the honour on Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate.
   Past recipients of the Gold Medal include Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and most recently, Tibet’s Dalai Lama.
   The military government in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, violently suppressed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September.
   Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but the junta refused to hand over power and has detained her for most of the time since then. US Campaign for Burma, a rights group, welcomed the senate vote.
   ‘The Burmese military generals have tried to isolate Aung San Suu Kyi from her own people and from the international community by keeping her under house arrest for over 12 years,’ said Aung Din, co-founder of the group.

Chinese officials will meet representatives of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom China blames for a wave of unrest, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday, citing official sources.
   The move marks a change in tactics on the part of Beijing, which has stepped up its vilification of the Dalai Lama since anti-government protests hit Tibet and rippled across ethnic Tibetan parts of China in the past weeks.
   ‘In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days,’ Xinhua quoted an official as saying.
   A spokesman for the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, said he had not received any communication from China about a meeting and China’s Foreign Ministry said it had no details.
   China denounces the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Communist rule, as a traitor and has accused him of orchestrating the unrest, a charge the 72-year-old Nobel laureate denies.

Syria accused the United States on Friday of involvement in last year’s Israeli attack on Syria that Washington said struck a suspected nuclear reactor built with North Korea’s help.
   A Syrian statement said, ‘The US administration was apparently party to the execution’ of the September raid by Israeli warplanes on eastern Syria. The statement did not give details. A US official said on Thursday that Washington did not give Israel any “green light” to strike the area.
   The United States presented on Thursday what it described as intelligence showing that North Korea had helped Syria build a suspected nuclear reactor that was targeted by the Israeli warplanes in September.
   The White House said the United States was convinced that North Korea had helped Syria to build a secret nuclear reactor. The comment came after intelligence officials briefed US lawmakers about the raid.
   The Syrian statement repeated Damascus’s denial of involvement in nuclear activity and dismissed Washington’s accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.
   ‘The Syrian government regrets the campaign of lies and falsification by the US administration against Syria, including allegations of nuclear activity,’ said the statement, which was issued on the state news agency.

United States accused the Zimbabwe president, Robert Mugabe, on Thursday of delaying their election results because he had lost and joined a call for an arms embargo to push for change.
   In a sign of the growing international pressure on Mugabe, China said a shipment of arms for the country was being recalled after South African workers refused to unload the vessel and other regional countries barred it from their ports.
   The top US diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, on a tour of Zimbabwe’s most influential neighbours, said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appeared to have won the March 29 presidential vote – for which no results have been announced.
   ‘This is a government that is essentially rejecting the will of the people. If they had voted for Mugabe we would have the results,’ the assistant secretary of state, Frazer, told reporters in Pretoria.
   ‘As far as we know in the first round Morgan won and people voted for change.’
   Movement for Democratic Change leader Tsvangirai has said he won the presidential poll and accused Mugabe of delaying results to rig victory and keep his 28-year hold over Zimbabwe, whose economy lies in ruins.
   The outcome of a parliamentary poll which the opposition won is also in doubt because of partial recounts.
   The recount in 23 of 210 constituencies could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF losing its majority for the first time.
   The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has recounted nine constituencies, Utoile Silaigwana, ZEC deputy chief election officer, said. He said candidates that were originally declared winners retained their position, without elaborating.
   Frazer said she expects to meet Tsvangirai in the next 24 hours, possibly giving him diplomatic leverage in his relentless regional tour aimed at persuading leaders to push Mugabe aside.
   Mugabe has capitalised on his status as a former African liberation hero. But regional countries awed by his struggle against former colonial power Britain are taking a tougher line against him in the election crisis.
   Frazer is due to visit Zambia, chair of the SADC regional group of nations, and African oil power Angola.
   The poll deadlock has raised fears of widespread bloodshed in Zimbabwe, which could have dire consequences for a region that already hosts millions of Zimbabweans who have fled economic collapse.
   The recall of the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang, carrying 77 metric tons of assault rifle ammunition, mortars and rifle grenades, came after unprecedented regional opposition in addition to Western pressure over the election.
   Frazer stood behind a British proposal for an arms embargo to put pressure on Mugabe.
   ‘It will send a great warning to those who would send arms into Zimbabwe, including the Chinese,’ she said.
   The European Union already has an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, part of sanctions in place since 2002. Washington has also imposed sanctions and Britain wants a wider arms embargo.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain challenged Democrat Barack Obama’s approach to diplomacy on Thursday, saying US charges that North Korea gave nuclear assistance to Syria showed the folly of unconditional talks with foreign adversaries.
   McCain said US disclosures that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel last year cast a new light on Obama’s willingness to meet unconditionally with a leader like North Korea’s Kim Jong-il.
   Without naming Obama, McCain said those who would meet with a leader like Kim ‘should explain to the American people how talking unconditionally to dictators like Kim Jong-il in the aftermath of recent disclosures advances American interests.’
   An intelligence document released on Thursday said the United States concluded North Korea helped Syria on a covert nuclear program before and after Israel destroyed the reactor in last year’s raid.
   McCain has clinched the Republican presidential nomination and is waiting to learn whether he will face Obama or Hillary Clinton in November’s election. The two Democratic senators are locked in a gruelling struggle for the nomination.
   ‘Our diplomacy must be based on more than hope,’ McCain said in a jab at one of Obama’s campaign themes.
   Hillary previously attacked Obama’s promise to talk to troublesome foreign leaders without preconditions as naive, but the Illinois senator has made his willingness to speak to both allies and enemies a centrepiece of his call for a new approach to diplomacy and governing.
   Hillary, a New York senator, defeated Obama in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, prolonging the Democratic race at least until the next contests in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6 and keeping her slender White House hopes alive.
   Obama, an Illinois senator, is a heavy favourite in North Carolina, where Clinton campaigned on Thursday. Indiana is viewed as a toss-up.
   ‘This is going to be a hard-fought election in North Carolina. I know that I’m starting off behind, I get it, but I’m still going to reach as many voters as I can,’ Hillary told a crowd of several hundred in Fayetteville.
   McCain campaigned on Thursday in New Orleans, where he toured a neighbourhood ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and criticised the storm response by the Bush administration.

Democrats in the US senate stepped up their attacks on OPEC oil producers on Thursday, threatening to block billions of dollars in arms sales to suppliers such as Saudi Arabia if they fail to take action to tame record oil prices.
   Democratic senators Charles Schumer of New York, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and others called on the White House to ‘jawbone’ OPEC members to boost output or risk Congress blocking arms deals with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other OPEC members.
   ‘The Saudis have to understand this is a two-way street,’ Schumer told reporters. ‘We provide them weapons, our troops provide them protection, and then they rake us over the coals when it comes to oil.’
   The Bush administration is in a delicate position on Middle East policy, and record-high oil prices near $120 a barrel are just one of many thorny regional issues.
   The president, George W Bush, has repeatedly nudged OPEC members like Saudi Arabia to boost output, but is also trying to use US arms sales to offset Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
   The lawmakers’ plan is ‘the wrong approach when it comes to our security and our energy,’ White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, criticising Democrats for blocking plans to drill for oil in an Alaska wildlife refuge.
   ‘Arms sales to our allies are made because they are in the national security interests of our country, not because they are a bargaining chit,’ Stanzel said.
   The Bush administration has notified Congress it plans to sell Saudi Arabia bomb-guidance kits worth about $120 million.
   Over the past six months, the White House has proposed almost $14 billion worth of weapons sales to Middle East OPEC members, the senators said.
   That includes a Patriot missile deal with the United Arab Emirates worth up to $9 billion and $2 billion in arms sales to Kuwait, they said in their letter to Bush.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, signed into force changes to a law on Friday that Kremlin critics say will further stifle democracy by curbing the topics that can be put to referendums.
   The restrictions provoked a walkout by the main opposition Communist party faction when it was put to a vote in the State Duma lower house of parliament on April 4.
   The amendment to existing legislation was still passed when pro-Kremlin parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to curtail future referendums that might affect presidential powers or budgetary issues.
   Putin’s signature is the final step necessary before it becomes law.
   ‘The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed the federal law making changes to federal law about referendums in the Russian Federation adopted by the State Duma on 4 April 2008 and approved by the Federation Council on 16 April 2008,’ stated the Kremlin on Friday.
   Communist deputies said the changes forbid any referendum on any matter that comes under the competence of federal authorities such as taxation, the presidential term of office or legal amnesties.
   Deputies from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party say it will halt speculative attempts to hold referendums on issues that could violate the constitution.
   Following Putin’s signature, referendums can now only be called on local matters. Communists say it gags them from attempting to organise a nationwide vote on federal matters.
   Parliamentarians from the United Russia faction control 315 of the 450 seats in the lower house following December elections.
   Kremlin opponents in Russia and Western governments have accused Vladimir Putin of backtracking on democracy.
   He signed the changes into law two weeks before he will hand over power next month to his favoured successor, Dmitry Medvedev, though he will serve as prime minister and has agreed to become United Russia’s chairman.
   In Putin’s eight years in office direct elections for governors have been scrapped and a number of opposition parties have been barred from running in elections.
   Western observers have said parliamentary elections last December and a March presidential election were both neither free nor fair.

The World Food Program lacks crucially needed funds to help feed Haiti’s poor, and international donors must provide urgent and massive aid, a spokesman for the United Nations agency said on Thursday.
   ‘The situation is particularly serious because 56 per cent of the Haitian population was already living with less than one dollar a day,’ the WFP regional public information officer, Alejandro Lopez, said.
   ‘We don’t have enough food to face the demand and we will need even more funds than what already requested.’
   He said the agency had a $37.8 million shortfall in the $45 million budget anticipated for this year in the Caribbean nation, where recent food riots killed six people.
   The program aims to feed 1.7 million Haitians but predictions show the number needing help to cope with the current food crisis could reach close to 5 million.
   The Haitian government and other partners are working on new budget figures that will be presented to donors in the coming days, according to WFP officials.
   ‘We expect donors to be as generous as they have been in the past,’ said Lopez, who said children, pregnant women and nursing mothers would be given priority during food distributions.

Iraq’s government has kept thousands of dead, injured or absent policemen and soldiers on the payroll as a way to compensate or care for their families, an audit found.
   The practice is just one example of why there are no reliable numbers on how many Iraqi forces are on the job at any given time, says the report being made public Friday by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
   ‘There are continuing uncertainties about the true number ... who are present for duty at any one time,’ Bowen said of Iraqi policemen, soldiers, border guards and other forces.
   Bowen said another part of the problem is that Iraqi ministries lack automated accounting systems needed to keep good data.
   ‘I would not call it a damning report. I would say it’s reflective of the difficulty of assessing troop strength ... and, more importantly, capabilities,’ Bowen said in an interview Thursday.
   Bowen had been asked to assess last month’s Defence Department report on Iraq, one in a series of quarterly documents required by Congress to measure progress toward military and political security there.
   The $20 billion US program to train Iraqis to provide their own security is key to when US troops levels can be reduced in Iraq. And the problem of assessing the Iraqi forces is not new.
   Bowen noted that efforts have been made to improve the quarterly report’s data on the number of Iraqis forces that have been authorised, trained, are being paid and are on duty.
   ‘However, the details included in the reports and other available information suggests a continuing need for caution in relying on the accuracy and usefulness of the numbers,’ Bowen said.
   He did not give any details on how many might be receiving pay while being absent, but noted the Pentagon once reported the actual number of present-for-duty soldiers was about one-half to two-thirds of those being paid.
   Bowen said that for his report, commanders in charge of the training gave him an updated figure, saying early this month 70 per cent of soldiers on Iraq’s Army payroll may be present for duty on any given day.
   In addition to keeping people on the payroll though they are not serving, Bowen found that changes in how the numbers are reported make it difficult to compare information from one report to another.
   He also noted that Iraqis have a shortage of officers and still rely on coalition forces for substantial logistical support – two common themes also previously acknowledged by commanders in the field. Because the focus has been on internal security need, Iraq’s longer-term job of setting up a force against outside threats remains, Bowen noted.

The leader of an East Timor group which tried to assassinate the fledgling country’s president and prime minister is close to surrender, a UN spokeswoman said Friday.
   She said authorities were in talks with Gastao Salsinha, the right-hand man of major Alfredo Reinado who was killed leading coordinated armed attacks on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta on February 11.
   ‘He is in a house in a village near Gleno in Ermera (district). He has agreed not to leave this house and as soon as his men join him he will hand himself over to the authorities,’ UN spokeswoman Allison Cooper said.