S.Lanka reveals haul of civilian gold from war zone

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government has said its troops collected more than four million dollars worth of gold jewellery during the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Chief government whip Dinesh Gunawardena told parliament on Wednesday that security forces picked up the precious items during the final months of the decades-long civil war last year.

“The army’s 58th division and the military police found 110 kilos of gold jewellery. The value of the jewellery is about 490 million rupees (4.4 million dollars),” Gunawardena said.

The haul “was being legally handed over to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,” he said, without giving further details.

The Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), a Tamil rights group, said the government should trace owners and return all the goods.

“We don’t know where the military found this jewellery, but what is clear is

Actress accuses Polanski of abuse in 1980s

LOS ANGELES: An English actress who appeared in Roman Polanski’s 1986 movie Pirates said on Friday that the director sexually abused her decades ago in Paris when she was 16.

Read the original: 
Actress accuses Polanski of abuse in 1980s

US Gen. Mullen says US is losing war in Afghanistan

America’s highest-ranking military officer admitted that US forces were currently losing the war in Afghanistan and said they had 18 to 24 months to turn around the Taliban’s momentum.

“This is the most dangerous time I’ve seen growing up the last four decades in uniform,” Adm. Mike Mullen told audiences of soldiers and marines, some of whom are weeks away from flying to conflict.

“We are not winning, which means we are losing and as we are losing, the message traffic out there to [insurgency] recruits keeps getting better and better and more keep coming.”

Telling soldiers that he expected to be a tough fight and rising casualties in 2010, he said: “I don’t want to be in any way unclear about that. This is what happened in Iraq during the surge and as tragic as it is, to turn this thing around, it will be a part of this surge, as well.”

Adm. Mullen said the July 2011 date to begin withdrawing US forces is not an end or withdrawal date. “In the long run, it is not going to be about killing Taliban,” he told the marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. “In the long run, it’s going to be because the Afghan people want them out.”

---

US Gen. Mullen says US is losing war in Afghanistan was first posted on December 10, 2009 at 8:14 am.