World highlights

¤ A slain pro-rebel politician was buried in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday as mourners blamed the government for his death and international monitors said the country may be sliding back into civil war. The government blames Tamil Tiger rebels for a string of attacks on soldiers that have stretched a 2002 truce to breaking point. But supporters of Joseph Pararajasingam, a member of Parliament for Tamil National Alliance - the Tigers' political proxies - said they believe the army or government-backed paramilitaries gunned him down at a Christmas mass.

¤ Indonesia's military pulled the last of its soldier reinforcements from Aceh province yesterday, fulfilling one of the major conditions of a landmark peace agreement with separatist rebels. The withdrawal of 2,500 soldiers yesterday comes after the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) disbanded its military wing this week.

¤ The main Czech airport at Prague-Ruzyne resumed full operations yesterday after halting departures for several hours because of heavy snow overnight. A spokesman for Airport Prague, the airport authority, said planes were cleared for take-off at around 12.30 p.m. (1130 GMT).

¤ A suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Russia yesterday, but there were no other casualties, witnesses said. The man blew himself up in the Muslim region of Dagestan near a gathering of people mourning a security services officer who was killed two days ago, they said.

¤ Landslides in Yemen have destroyed a small village near the capital Sanaa, killing at least 30 people including women and children with dozens more missing, officials said yesterday. A Yemeni official said rocks had slid off a mountain late on Wednesday and collapsed into the al-Dhofair village - about 20 kilometres southwest of Sanaa - destroying its 27 houses.

¤ A small home-made bomb exploded under a car in Madrid yesterday, but it caused no injuries and police ruled out a terrorist attack, a police source said. Police went to inspect the car in Vallecas, on the outskirts of Madrid, after a passer-by reported a suspicious object underneath it. When police were inspecting it, the bomb exploded, a police spokesman said.

¤ A Croatian Serb recognised in a harrowing war video was jailed for 15 years yesterday for killing unarmed Bosnian Muslim prisoners during the Srebrenica massacre, state news agency Hina reported. A court in the Croatian capital found Slobodan Davidovic guilty of killing six prisoners after Bosnian Serb soldiers overran the Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia in July 1995.