Building bombed

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s air force planes bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel meeting place in the island’s north on Friday, the military said. Air force bombed a building in Puthukudiyiruppu village of rebel-held Mullaithivu district where the guerrillas were meeting, a defence official said. — AP

Top official gets death

BEIJING: A former vice governor in China’s Anhui province has been sentenced to death for graft, state press said on Friday, the third top official from the area to receive the punishment in four years. He Minxu was convicted of using his position for personal gains worth $1.1 million. He was given a two-year reprieve on the sentence, meaning it is likely to be commuted to life in prison. — AFP

Veteran actor dies

BEIJING: Sun Daolin, a veteran Chinese actor and director whose seven-decade career included more than 100 films and plays, has died, news reports said on Friday. He was 86. Sun died on Thursday of an unspecified illness at a Shanghai hospital. Sun performed in more than 100 movies and plays and supplied voices for Chinese dubbing of a dozen foreign titles, including “Hamlet,” according to Xinhua. — AP

Reddy dies at 59

Hyderabad: Senior Congress party leader and Andhra legislator P Janardhan Reddy, a bitter critic of Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, died on Friday. He was 59. The former minister collapsed while coming out after a function this morning. He breathed his last while being shifted to a nearby hospital. Doctors said he died of cardiac arrest. PJR, as he was popularly known, was representing Khairatabad constituency in the state capital and was the most powerful dissident leader in the party. He had a huge mass support. — HNS