COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
Rebels advance on strategic peninsula
In the worst fighting since a 2002 cease-fire, ethnic rebels advanced toward Sri Lanka’s strategic Jaffna peninsula Saturday as government jets bombed rebel positions and truce monitors were told to stay away.
The military said it had lost 27 soldiers and killed 100 rebels. No casualty figures were offered by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Jaffna is the most important prize in this war, strategically and symbolically.
Currently in government control but under the influence of the Tamil Tigers, it sits on the northern reach of the island nation, sandwiched between the sea and the rebel-held jungles called the Wanni. The Tamil Tigers claim Jaffna as the Tamil homeland.
TOKYO
Poll: Japanese not hungry for U.S. beef
Eighty percent of respondents in a Japanese newspaper survey said they were concerned, either greatly or to some extent, about the safety of U.S. beef, whose imports resumed recently.
The Yomiuri Shimbun survey also found that only 19 percent of respondents said they had no concerns about the beef’s safety.
Asked whether they want to eat U.S. beef, nearly 90 percent of respondents had negative views, with 45 percent of the respondents saying they did not want to eat it, and 43 percent saying they would like to decide after more consideration.
Only 10 percent of the respondents said they wanted to eat U.S. beef.
The survey was conducted Aug. 5 and 6 on 3,000 eligible voters nationwide, of whom 1,741 people, or 58 percent, gave valid responses.
KABUL, Afghanistan
3 GIs killed, 3 hurt as U.S. pushes north
Three U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded in a firefight in northeastern Afghanistan after militants attacked an American patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, a military spokesman said Saturday.
U.S. troops used artillery to repel the attack in Nuristan province Friday, and helicopters rushed the wounded soldiers to medical care, said Col. Tom Collins. A civilian was also injured.
U.S. forces in recent weeks have been pushing to their northernmost points along the mountainous Afghan- Pakistan border, including Nuristan, opening military bases in one of the wildest regions in the country.
Their mission is to crush militants loyal to the Hezb- e-Islami militant group of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the toppled Taliban regime and remnants of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
LEGAZPI, Philippines
President pays visit to volcano evacuees
The Philippines president Saturday visited villagers forced to flee their homes by the Mayon volcano’s activity and ordered officials to speed up efforts to improve conditions at cramped evacuation centers.
Scientists told President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in a briefing that Mayon, the Philippines’ most active volcano, appeared to be ready for a major eruption since it began quietly oozing lava a month ago.
Following successive ash explosions Monday, officials ordered the evacuation of villages on the southern and southeastern slopes of the volcano, which are most vulnerable to a violent eruption.
More than 40,000 people have been evacuated to schools, where villagers complained of overcrowding.
DENVER POST WIRE SERVICES
