MANILA - Philippine President Benigno Aquino has said he hopes the new leaders who take over China next month can improve ties strained following a stand-off last year at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. Relations had slightly improved due to recent talks, Aquino said, and since Philippine ships pulled out of the Scarborough Shoal. He said Chinese vessels had been in and out but there was freedom of navigation. But the core issue - who has sovereign rights over the tiny, uninhabited rocks off the northern Philippine island of Luzon - has not been resolved and overshadows relations. AP
COLOMBO - The last leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, who is wanted by India over the assassination of former premier Rajiv Gandhi, has been freed from military custody. Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who was arrested in August 2009 and who has an Interpol arrest warrant initiated by India against him, was no longer in detention and was free to carry out work for a charity he had formed, the defence ministry said. Pathmanathan, the chief international arms buyer for the Tigers, was appointed the head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by its elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran just before he was killed by Sri Lankan troops in 2009. AFP