■ Sri Lanka
Security database planned
The government plans to register citizens living in government-held areas in an electronic database for security reasons amid surging violence that has threatened a return to all-out civil war, a police official said yesterday. A national census will begin next week with enumerators going door-to-door collecting personal data on citizens, Deputy Inspector General of Police Pujitha Jayasundara said. The nation's capital Colombo, a city of 1.1 million residents, will be the first area surveyed. Jayasundara said the data will be fed into a central computer system at the Presidential Secretariat. With the touch of a button, investigators will be able to retrieve information such as where people work.
■ Vietnam
Remains uncovered
Soldiers have uncovered the remains of 11 men, probably communist fighters killed during the Vietnam War, in a mass grave in the center of the country, the military said yesterday. It took a dozen soldiers three days to recover the remains in Que Son District, Quang Nam province, some 800km south of Hanoi, said Truong Xuan Phuc of the district military command. The remains, none of which were identified, were reburied on Thursday at a military cemetery, Phuc said. Authorities believe the remains were of commandos killed by US-backed South Vietnamese forces during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
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