2 killed, 6 hurt in US graduation party shooting

Two people were killed and six others two of them children were wounded in a shooting at a high school graduation party, police said on Sunday.

A 37-year-old man was taken into custody after a four-hour standoff with police at a house in Mesa, east of Phoenix, Mesa Police Sgt. Ed Wessing said.
Preliminary information indicated that the suspect was an invited guest at the party who got into a physical fight with his ex-wife late Saturday, Wessing said.
The suspect allegedly went to his vehicle, got a gun, returned to the party and opened fire, killing his 38-year-old ex-wife and a 32-year-old man, Wessing said.
He said six others had minor injuries. They included a 10-year-old boy who was grazed on the head and an 8-year-old boy injured by bullet fragments.
Wessing said that when police arrived patrol cars were hit by gunfire and one officer was shot in the left arm. The officer's injuries were not life-threatening and no other officers were hit.

LTTE admits Prabhakaran is dead, finally

London Velupillai Prabhakaran, who led a ruthless struggle for nearly three decades for a separate Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, was killed in last week's final battle in the northern region, the LTTE on Sunday admitted for the first time.

LTTE's international relations head Selvarasa Pathmanathan told BBC in an interview that their "incomparable leader attained martyrdom".
The Sri Lankan Army had on Monday last said it has killed the rebel leader when he tried to flee in an ambulance.
A day after, the troops recovered his body near a lagoon in the 'No Fire Zone' in the Wanni region. However, Pathmanathan said 54-year-old Prabhakaran died on Sunday last, but did not give details of the circumstances that led to his death.
In its 30-year-struggle for a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka, the LTTE decimated a number of Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhalese leaders and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
In a statement signed by Pathmanathan, the rebels said they had declared a week of mourning for their dead leader, starting Monday, it reported.
The statement calls on Tamils all over the world to "restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief."
Pathmanthan said the Tigers would now use "non-violent" methods to fight for the rights of Tamils.
Sri Lankan Army had yesterday said that they have cremated Prabhakaran's body.
Started in 1972 as Tamil New Tigers by a group of young boys headed by Prabhakaran and renamed as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 1975, the outfit became more aggressive after the infamous Wellikade jail massacre in which separatists leaders Kuttimani and Jagan were eliminated by the forces.
Though the LTTE occasionally paused for diplomacy, first initiated by India in Thimpu in 1985 and later by Norway in 2002, there was no looking back for the dreaded organisation from its chosen path of gun.
Prabhakaran led the LTTE from secret jungle locations in Wanni in northern Sri Lanka and survived many a battle but he current assault from the Lankan forces ended his dream as well as his life.

'Maoists using children as human shields'

RAIPUR: Maoists are forcibly taking away children from villages and using them as human shields against security forces, alleges a Chhattisgarh legislator, whose constituency is badly hit by Left extremist insurgency.

"Maoists are forcibly picking up boys and girls from their houses and schools in the interiors to use them as shields in the war against (security) forces," Mahesh Gagda, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Bijapur, told IANS.
Gagda, 33, who has Z category security cover due to the Maoist threat, says that nearly 100-odd villages in his constituency are now considered rebel strongholds. He says that the rebels run a parallel administration in the region.
"Maoists have completely halted development in about 100 villages out of 272 villages that form Bijapur constituency," Gagda said.
Bijapur is part of the mineral-rich Bastar region, which is spread over 40,000 sq km in the state's southern part.
"Kids in Bijapur are carrying arms, even AK-47s. Maoists deliberately put arms on children's body and then cover these with a school dress or other simple clothes to dodge police security and frisking. Maoist leaders always keep armed kids around themselves and whenever they want to kill anyone, they use the weapon being carried by the kid," Gagda said.
"The Maoist menace has reached its flashpoint in Bijapur. They are forcibly recruiting boys and girls in their rank and file and generally girls are also sexually exploited."
With schools being targeted by the Maoist rebels for recruitment of children as human shields and child soldiers, Gagda said he will ask the BJP government to open more residential schools in insurgency-hit areas where police escort can be provided to the students.
Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has a separate unit for the child soldiers, called Krantikari Adivasi Balak Sangh. In April, the Chhattisgarh government extended the ban on the Maoists and its six frontal organisations, including the Sangh, till 2010.
The Maoist insurgency has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as one of the gravest threats to the country's internal security. In Chhattisgarh, over 1,500 people have been killed in the insurgency since the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in November 2000.

Top Naxal leader killed in AP encounter

Maoists in Andhra Pradesh suffered a jolt with top Naxal leader Patel Sudhakar Reddy and another cadre being killed in an encounter with police near Hyderabad on Sunday. Reddy was allegedly involved in several cases including a bid on the life of former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.Reddy, a member of the central committee of CPI-Maoists, and Venkataiah were killed in the Lavella forest area in Tadwai Mandal of Warangal district about 6 am, Warangal SP V C Sajjanar said.Police received specific information about the presence of Maoists in the Lavella forest area following which a team conducted combing operation in the forest area, he said.The Maoists opened fire on seeing the policemen which was retaliated, resulting in the death of two Naxals, he said.Venkataiah was a member of Maoists district committee, he said, adding post-mortem was conducted on the bodies at a government hospital.Reddy, a native of Kurthirao Cheruvu in Mahabubnagar district, was allegedly involved in the bid on the life of Naidu at Tirupati in 2003 and killings of then home minister A Madhava Reddy in 2000 and also senior IPS officers K S Vyas and Umesh Chandra.Sudhakar Reddy was also allegedly involved in an attack on the elite Greyhounds policemen in Balimela reservoir in Andhra-Orissa border last year in which over 30 jawans were killed.Reddy alias Srikanth alias Suryam carried a reward of Rs 12 lakhs on his head. He was currently in-charge of Maoists activities in Karnataka, police said.He joined the Naxal movement in the early '80s when he was pursuing Post-Graduation in Osmania University in Hyderabad, police said.Venkatiah Alias Pranay belong to Inapur village in Cheryal Mandal of Warangal district, they said. Meanwhile, human rights activists alleged that the encounter is fake."There are reports that Sudhakar Reddy was caught before the elections and killed now. This encounter is fake. There should be an inquiry into the encounter to establish the truth," revolutionary writer and human rights activist Varavara Rao said.Reddy's encounter is the latest in the killing of several top police officials in the last decade.Santosh Reddy, Naresh, Sudarshan, Mattam Ravi Kumar, Madhav were among several Maoist leaders killed in encounters.

12 labourers buried aliv

RALLIVAGU DAM SITE (ADILABAD DT.): Twelve migrant labourers from Palamur (Mahabubnagar) were buried alive on Sunday when they were at work at the Rallivagu dam site, about 6 km from Mancherial town. The workers were levelling a trench at the ground level at a depth of about 15 feet when the mud on one side caved in on them.

The dead persons included eight women and a 12-year-old boy. Four of them were members of a single family, including a newly wed couple.
A trench was dug on three sides of a HT electricity pylon of APTransco to strengthen the base of the iron tower. The tower stands on the guide bank of Rallivagu and the 6-foot wide trench was dug around it.
The bodies were extricated with the help of earth-moving machinery in an operation that lasted about five hours.
The labourers belonged to a group of 40 Scheduled Caste persons from different villages of Devarakadra mandal of Mahabubnagar district. In charge Collector Vijay Kumar announced ex gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to each of the persons who died in the accident, including Rs. 50,000 from Apathbandhu funds.
Those killed in the accident have been identified as Kalla Venkatamma, 45, Kalla Rameshwari 18, Kalla Buran 20 and his wife Kalla Maheshwari, 18, from Rekulapalli village, Dandu Ashanna, 45, and Dandu Anil 12 from Rasala village, S. Balakrishnamma, 40, from Chinnachintakunta village, Undyala Nagamma 40 from Undyala, Rasala Manemma 18 from Maddur, Undyala Krishnaiah 24 from Undyala, Maddur Jyothi 30 and Kaddila Chittemma 40 from Maddur. Maddur Ramesh escaped with injuries.

1984 riots: Court to give order on June 3 on victims’ plea

New Delhi: A Delhi court said on Saturday today that it will pronounce on June 3 its order on the plea of victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots that they should be heard before deciding on CBI's probe report giving a clean chit to former union minister Jagdish Tytler. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit fixed the date after hearing arguments on the part of victims and the CBI. The victims' associations Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and November '84 Carnage Justice Committee had earlier filed the application pleading that the court should decide their right to be heard in the matter. The CBI, on the other hand, opposed their plea saying they had no locus standi in the matter. "The injured or aggrieved parties do have a right to be heard. The investigating agency is bound to give notice to such parties and if they fail to do so, the court is bound to hear us as settled by the Supreme Court," Rebecca M John appearing for Lakhwinder Kaur, a widow of the victim killed during riots, said. The counsel also claimed CBI never approached the widow during its investigation into the case. "We have recommended prosecution of one accused Suresh Kumar Paniwala. Nobody was named in the FIR. It is only on the recommendation of Justice Nanavati Commission that we investigated role of Tytler and filed closure report finding no evidence against him," CBI counsel A K Srivastava submitted.

US offers migration talks to Cuba

Washington has offered to resume talks on legal immigration by Cubans to the US, the US state department says.
It says the move aims to "reaffirm both sides' commitment to safe, legal and orderly migration".
The talks were halted in 2003 after Havana refused to give exit permits to people who had been granted US visas.
In March, President Barack Obama eased restrictions on visits to the Communist island by Cuban-Americans and allowed them to send money home more easily.
Curbs on sending medicines and food were also eased.
The legislation overturned rules imposed by the Bush administration which had limited travel to just two weeks every three years and had confined visits to immediate family members.

'Seeking dialogue'
On Friday, State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan said President Obama wanted "to ensure that we are doing all we can to support the Cuban people in fulfilling their desire to live in freedom". "He will continue to make policy decisions accordingly," the spokeswoman added.
Cuba has so far not commented on Washington's latest offer. President Obama has recently indicated he would be open to dialogue with Cuba's leaders. But he has said that, like previous American presidents, he will only consider a full lifting of the embargo - in place since 1962 - once Cuba makes significant moves such as the holding of democratic elections. Cuba's President Raul Castro has said he is prepared to negotiate with the new US administration, providing there are no preconditions.

North Korea conducts nuclear test

North Korea has staged a "successful" underground nuclear test, the state-run KCNA agency reports.
The agency says it was more powerful than the previous one in October 2006.
A number of external agencies have confirmed a powerful explosion took place, suspected to be associated with a nuclear test. US President Barack Obama described the North Korean action as a threat to international peace. Crisis talks were being held in South Korea. Preparations for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later on Monday are under way.

'Safeguarding sovereignty'
An official communique read out on North Korean state radio said another round of underground nuclear testing had been "successfully conducted... as part of measures to enhance the Republic's self-defensive nuclear deterrent in all directions". It said the test had been "safely conducted at a new high level in terms of explosive power and control technology". The test would "contribute to safeguard the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism", the communique said.
The US Geological Survey said a 4.7-magnitude quake was detected at 0054 GMT, 10km (six miles) underground. Geological agencies in both South Korea and the US said the tremor indicated a nuclear explosion. Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying said its systems had detected a blast of "between 10 and 20 kilotons" - making it much bigger than the 2006 test, which the US said was less than a kiloton. Just hours after the test, North Korea appeared to have test-fired a short-range missile, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Pyongyang has so far not commented on Yonhap's report. The US state department said it was still analysing the available data from the test. But in a strongly worded statement, President Obama said the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles threatened peace and was in "blatant defiance of the United Nations Security Council". "The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants action by the international community. We have been and will continue working with our allies and partners in the six-party talks as well as other members of the UN Security Council in the days ahead," his statement said. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said any nuclear test by the North would be unacceptable". Another government spokesman said action would be sought at the UN Security Council.
Russia's UN ambassador said an emergency meeting of the Security Council would be held later on Monday. The European Union said that the development was "very worrying".
South Korea's stock market fell 4% on the news, over fears that regional tensions would rise. Rocket condemnation The North gave no details of the location of the test. However, South Korean officials said earlier that a seismic tremor was detected in the north-eastern part around the town of Kilju - the site of North Korea's first nuclear test. Last month, Pyongyang pulled out of six-party talks on its nuclear programme, in protest against international condemnation of its test-firing of a rocket on 5 April. The UN Security Council adopted a statement calling on North Korea to comply with a 2006 resolution banning missile tests. Pyongyang says its rocket carried a satellite, but several nations viewed it as cover for a missile test. The six-party talks - involving the US, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas - have stalled over the failure of Pyongyang to verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear plant. North Korea had agreed to dismantle the facility as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal and, in response, the US removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist. But the North now believes it is no longer bound by its previous bilateral agreements with the US and agreements under the six-party talks, reports the BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul, South Korea.

Deadly bombing hits Mogadishu base

At least seven people have been killed in a suspected suicide car bomb attack outside a Somali security forces base in Mogadishu. The attack on Sunday came a day after 8,000 people fled the Somali capital amid the ongoing wave of violence, UN officials said.
"There was a suicide car bomb in our camp and we lost six soldiers and one civilian also died nearby," Lieutenant-Colonel Abdulahi Ousman Agey, the commander of Hamadhwr camp, said.
"The bomber tried to enter inside the camp but he was stopped by the guards and exploded his car." There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but al-Shabab fighters linked to al-Qaeda and Hizbul Islam forces have stepped up their campaign to topple the government of Sharif Ahmed, the Somali president, in recent weeks.Earlier, mortar rounds were fired at the presidential palace and African Union (AU) peacekeepers. At least 53 people are believed to have died in the violence since Friday morning, when Somali forces launched attacks on several areas of Mogadishu which are controlled by the opposition forces.During a lull in the fighting on Saturday at least 8,000 people joined tens of thousands of others that have fled the city."Unfortunately, due to heavy fighting on Friday 22nd, the number of displaced from Mogadishu sharply increased," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. "An estimated 8,000 were displaced on Friday only, bringing the total number to 57,000," it said in a statement.People continued to leave Mogadishu on Sunday, walking out of the city with whatever they could carry."I call on the international community and the aid agencies to react very urgently to the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia," Mohamud Abdi Ibrahim, Somalia's minister for humanitarian affairs, said. Barigye Bahoku, the AU peacekeeping force spokesman in Mogadishu, told Al Jazeera that despite the heavy fighting there was little his forces could do to protect civilians."What can we do? We are doing what we were mandated to do. We cannot adjust our mandate or operate outside it," he said. "We feel frustrated; we feel anger that the whole of this world is being held at ransom by about 2,000 armed people beginning with their own nationals - the Somalis - and ... the impact is felt by the rest of the world, including you and me." The AU, which has some 4,300 peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda in Mogadishu, is protecting key sites but its mandate limits the force to defending itself when attacked.But Mohamed Abdi Gandi, Somalia's defence minister, struck an optimistic note and insisted that government troops would defeat anti-government fighters.
"It was our plan to make peace in our country and restore law and order," Gandi said."Our security forces, with the help of our people in the operation, have reached their target and are in defensive positions." Meanwhile, the AU has called for a no fly-zone over Somalia and a sea blockade off its coast to stem the flow of weapons from Eritrea.Eritrea, which denies supporting the armed opposition, has recalled its AU ambassador in response. Somalia's neighbours and Western governments fear the Horn of Africa nation, mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a haven for Islamist fighters unless the new government can defeat them.

Canada convicts Rwandan of genocide

A court in Canada has found a former Rwandan militia leader guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in murders, torture and rape during the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Desire Munyaneza could face life imprisonment after a Quebec Superior Court convicted him on Friday. "Desire Munyaneza intentionally killed dozens in Butare and its surroundings that were not directly involved in the conflict, raped several women, and pillaged homes and businesses of people who also had nothing to do with the unrest," Andre Denis, the judge, said. "As such, you have been found guilty of committing war crimes as defined under Canadian law," he said to the accused. Munyaneza was the first person to be tried under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which allows residents to be tried for crimes committed abroad.

Witnesses
Munyaneza's two-year trial heard from 66 witnesses in Canada, France, Rwanda and Tanzania.
The court was told that Munyaneza, the son of a wealthy Hutu beer distributor, set up roadblocks in southern Rwanda to select Tutsis and moderate Hutu as victims based on their ethnicity or allegiances. One man who was imprisoned in Rwanda for his own role in the genocide testified that Munyaneza orchestrated the massacre of between 300 and 400 Tutsis in a church. "The accused's criminal intent was demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, as was his culpable violence," Denis wrote in his judgement.The UN estimates that more than 800,000 people were killed during the violence. "I'm very happy he was found guilty. I want to thank and congratulate Canada," Caesar Gashabeze, a survivor of the genocide, said. "We have been waiting for this."

Appeal

The defence said it would appeal the conviction after repeatedly questioning the testimony of witnesses and highlighting the fact that most were unable to identify Munyaneza's prominnent facial scar. "The evidence did not justify a conviction," Richard Perras, Munyaneza's lawyer, said. Munyaneza was arrested in Toronto in 2005 after seeking asylum in Canada, which Canadian immigration officials rejected. He had fled to Cameroon after the genocide.The prosecutor said that the case illustrated Canada's commitment to bringing war criminals to justice. "The case was very challenging as it involved events dating back 15 years in a foreign country, Rwanda," Pascale Ledoux said.Munyaneza will be sentenced in September.