The civilian death toll during the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war was between 3,000 and 5,000, a senior government official estimated Thursday.
Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary in Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, told a British newspaper, The Guardian, that earlier reports of many as 20,000 civilians being killed in the end stages of the years-long Tamil Tigers uprising were unverified and wrong.

Palestinian Fatah has said it was “encouraged” by the meeting between Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and his US counterpart in the White House, while Hamas said the encounter would lead to nothing.
“Palestinians are encouraged by the commitment President Obama and his administration have shown to Middle East peace,” Saeb Erakat, a Fatah member and the Palestinians’ top official said on Friday.

Britain said on Sunday it was hopeful the United Nations Security Council will deliver a resolution against North Korea that includes tougher financial sanctions, after the isolated state’s nuclear test last week.
"There is a genuine world concern, and hopefully a consensus will come from that," Ann Taylor, British Minister for International Defense and Security, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday on the sidelines of a regional defense conference.

Colombo – Amnesty International called Saturday for an independent probe into the number of civilians killed in the final weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war and also urged the UN to reveal its own estimates.
The call by the rights group followed a report in the Times of London newspaper on Friday citing confidential UN reports that more than 20,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan army shelling.
The report followed weeks of allegations that large numbers of civilians had been killed as the army closed in on Tamil Tiger …

Pakistani forces battled militants in South Waziristan on the Afghan border on Sunday as a government official said an offensive in the Swat valley could be over in two or three days.
Pakistani forces have undertaken their most concerted offensive against an expanding Taliban insurgency that has raised fears for the nuclear-armed U.S. ally’s stability and the safety of its nuclear arsenal.
The focus of the fighting has been the former tourist destination of Swat, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, which the Taliban virtually took as the government alternated …

Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide gun and bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 300.
The government said the attack in a high-security area where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.

Israel’s air force on Thursday wrapped up a large-scale four-day exercise which simulated its ability to defend against missile and jet strikes from Syria and Iran, a military official said.
The exercise was aimed at testing the air force’s ability to counter rocket and missile attacks from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and archfoe Iran, as well as the infiltration of jets overland, the official told AFP.
This is the first time the Israeli army has simulated strikes from the Islamic republic, located more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away, he said.

Chad has declared victory after several days of fighting in the eastern desert against anti-government forces.
The claim on Saturday came after battles which left scores of people dead and provoked the government to threaten to break off ties with neighbouring Sudan.
Idriss Deby Itno, the Chadian president, renewed his accusations that the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) is being backed by Sudan, warning that diplomacy between the nations could be cut.