Washington: Police shot dead a gunman to safely free three persons ending hours of standoff after he had taken them as hostages at the Discovery Channel headquarters in the suburb of Silver Spring.

The Indonesian branch of the Buddha Bar, an international chain of upmarket bars, has been ordered to close because its name caused distress to Buddhists, local media reported on Wednesday.

Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will meet the Tamil Diaspora in London next week, an email invitation said. Other members of the British Parliament and the European Parliament will also be present during the meeting.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment says it is awaiting a report from the Sri Lankan embassy in Jordon over issues concerning the salary of Sri Lankan maids after Sri Lanka decided to suspend sending maids to the country.

Detention hearings begin today for the nearly 500 Tamils seeking asylum in British Columbia, Canada.  The refugees are currently in detention in Vancouver while it is determined whether they are truly refugees and not ‘undesirables’ of another sort.

An estimated 490 Tamil migrants who arrived on a ship seeking refugee shelter in Canada will be investigated to determine whether there are "human smugglers or terrorists" among them, Canada’s Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said.

French prosecutors have charged a woman in her 40s with murder, saying she confessed to killing her eight newborn babies and burying their remains.

David Warren, an Australian scientist who invented the black box flight data recorder, has died, at the age of 85.

Canada is watching out for a ship reported to be carrying illegal Tamil migrants after the media warned the vessel could be headed for British Columbia, CBC News said. 

MUMBAI, India (AP) - At least 92 people were sickened, eight of them critically, when they inhaled chlorine that leaked from a cylinder in an industrial part of India’s business capital Mumbai, officials said Wednesday.