Many civilians feared hurt, killed
A Sri Lankan health official says more than 300 civilians are wounded and scores feared killed by artillery shells fired into a government-designated “safe zone” for ethnic Tamil civilians trapped by fighting between the government and Tamil rebels.
A Web site favoring the Tamil Tiger rebels, TamilNet, meanwhile reports that more than 300 civilians have been killed by government artillery fire into the safe zone in northern Sri Lanka through Monday.
The health official – speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government – said today that it remains difficult to obtain a full account of the casualty toll in the 13.5 square mile area near Mullaittivu.
Wellington, New Zealand
MP3 player holds U.S. military files
A New Zealand man who bought an MP3 player from a thrift shop in Oklahoma found it held 60 U.S. military files, including names and telephone numbers for American soldiers, a media report said today.
TV One News said the 60 files contained personal details of U.S. soldiers, including some who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. A New Zealand security expert said the information should not be in the public domain, but that it did not appear likely to affect U.S. national security.
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the incident.
Similar breaches occurred in Afghanistan in 2006, when U.S. investigators reportedly bought back stolen flash drives that contained sensitive military data from shops outside a main U.S. base in the Afghan city of Bagram.
Chris Ogle, 29, from the northern New Zealand city of Whangarei, said he bought the music player at a thrift shop in Oklahoma, and that he found the files when he linked the $18 device to his computer, TV One News reported.
SAN’A, Yemen
Shots fired near U.S. Embassy
Gunmen in a car exchanged fire Monday with police at a checkpoint near the U.S. Embassy in Yemen’s capital, hours after the embassy received threats of a possible attack, Yemeni and American officials said.
No one was injured and the two gunmen fled the scene, said a Yemeni Interior Ministry official. He said three suspects in the area were detained.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan
Bomb on bicycle kills 5, wounds 20
A bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded in a northwest Pakistani city on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 20 in the latest attack to rattle the volatile region.
The explosion occurred on a major road in Dera Ismail Khan, and most of the victims were either walking by the parked bicycle or traveling in nearby vehicles, area police chief Saeed Ullah said.