Sri Lanka breaks up Tamil remembrance of war dead

Armed troops broke up Tamil memorials for Sri Lanka's civil war dead and beat up journalists covering one ceremony in a former battle zone, residents and media organisations said yesterday. Grieving relatives were forced out of cemeteries on the weekend as they attempted to light lamps at graves of loved ones who died in the island's decades-long conflict, which ended in 2009. The Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions said Tamil journalists covering a memorial in Mullaittivu, a northeastern fishing town where the war's final battle was fought, were assaulted by troops.

Pak mob set fire to police station

Thousands of people mobbed a Pakistani police station, setting fire to it and nearby checkposts after demanding that officers hand over a man accused of burning the Holy Quran, police said yesterday. The crowd of up to 5,000 people surrounded the police station in Charsadda town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday night, also setting fire to more than 30 cars. Yesterday morning, around 2,000 people remained outside the police station burning uniforms of officers. "The mob stormed the police station asking to hand over the man to them so they could burn him alive like he burnt the Holy Quran," district police chief told AFP.