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In the World

Female Afghan official is slain

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A female provincial official known for fighting for women's rights was gunned down yesterday in southern Afghanistan, after a day of fighting in the region that left 22 militants dead, officials said.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmedi, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Gunmen killed Sitara Achakzai outside her home in the city of Kandahar and then drove off, said Matiullah Khan Qateh, police chief of Kandahar province. He said four men had driven up on two motorcycles and shot Achakzai as she was getting out of her car.

Achakzai, a dual German-Afghan citizen, spent the years of Taliban rule in Germany and returned to her native country to fight for women's rights, said Shahida Bibi, a member of the Kandahar women's association who worked with Achakzai. - AP

Sri Lanka briefly halts offensives

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's president ordered a two-day suspension of offensives against Tamil Tiger rebels to enable tens of thousands of trapped civilians to leave the war zone, his office said yesterday.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa directed the armed forces to restrict operations during the Sri Lankan New Year today and tomorrow to a defensive nature, and he renewed his call to the rebel group to "acknowledge its military defeat and lay down its weapons and surrender," a statement said. He said the rebels must renounce violence permanently.

His call came amid increasing international pressure on the government to protect civilians trapped along with the remaining guerrillas in a government-declared "no-fire" zone of just 7.7 square miles. The United Nations says about 100,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone, with dozens dying every day. - AP

IRA dissidents threaten attacks

DUBLIN, Ireland - Irish Republican Army dissidents threatened yesterday to kill top Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness and resume attacks in England as part of their efforts to wreck the IRA cease-fire and Northern Ireland power-sharing.

An Easter statement from the outlawed Real IRA distributed to Irish media branded McGuinness a traitor because he holds the top Irish Catholic post in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government with British Protestants.

It warned McGuinness, a former IRA commander, that "no traitor will escape justice regardless of time, rank or past actions." Supporters later read out the statement at small rallies beside the graves of IRA dead in Belfast and Dublin. McGuinness offered no response. - AP

Elsewhere:

Conservationists have found a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia, on the eastern edge of Borneo island, giving a rare boost to one of the world's most endangered great apes.

Fiji's armed-forces chief, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, tightened his grip on the country yesterday, posting censors in newsrooms and roadblocks on the capital's streets.