COLOMBO: Sri Lankan forces attacked a rebel-held village in the north with heavy machine gun fire early Monday, just hours after rejecting the Tamil Tigers' call for a truce as a ploy to avoid certain destruction, a rebel-linked Web site reported.The military attacked the small, coastal village of Mullivaikal from the north, south and west about 3:45 a.m. Monday, Tamil Netreported. The village is in a no-fire zone the government demarcated inside rebel territory as a civilian refuge. The Web site said the area was densely populated with tens of thousands of civilians.``Confrontations are taking place,'' military spokesman Brig.Udaya Nanayakkara said. ``We are moving forward.'' The assault came amid growing diplomatic pressure for a cease-fire to allow tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone to escape to safety.The top U.N. humanitarian official, John Holmes, met Sri Lanka's foreign minister Monday to express concern for the estimated 50,000 trapped civilians before flying to a village south of the war zone to inspect displacement camps overwhelmed by the massive influx of war refugees in recent days. The foreign secretaries of Britain, France and Sweden were to travel here Wednesday to try to mediate the conflict.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
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