Fonseka draws flak

COLOMBO: An angry Sri Lankan government on Wednesday lashed out at former army commander and the opposition’s Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka for bringing back “international focus” on alleged war crimes committed during the last phase of war against the LTTE. “We are looking into taking some sort of legal action against general Fonseka in line with the constitution and the laws of the country,” said Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. The Minister said Fonseka had unnecessarily brought back focus on the war crimes’ issue.

India’s climate stance

NEW DELHI: A day after Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh came under attack in Parliament for India’s shifting stance on climate change, climate expert RK Pachauri came out in his support. Presenting his report on the Copenhagen Accord, RK Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change said that if India does not get a legally binding accord by the end of 2010, then India would be losing valuable time. Pachauri said the Accord does not compromise India’s sovereignty and no one can challenge India on the voluntary action it takes. He also spoke about the consensus on the two degrees Celsius temperature rise and that India is a major player in the climate programme.

Afghan Senator killed

Kunduz: An Afghan Senator was killed when he drove through a police ambush set for Taliban militants in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday. Mohammad Younus — also known as Shirin Agha, or Dear Sir — was going home in the early hours when he was shot dead in Puli Khumri, capital of troubled northern Baghlan province, said Mohammad Akbar Barikzai. Barikzai said Younus, a member of Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament representing Baghlan, failed to stop at a police checkpoint set up as part of a planned ambush of Taliban militants. “They continued to drive after being ordered by police to stop so the police opened fire,” an interior ministry statement said. “Unfortunately the senator and his driver were killed and a third person accompanying them was wounded,” it said. President Hamid Karzai ordered an “immediate” investigation into Younus’s killing. The Afghan senate called his death a “huge loss”.