our Kfir jet bombers of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) dropped 16 bombs on the premises of the Sencholai children's home in Vallipunam on Paranthan-Mullaithivu road, killing at least 61 schoolgirls who were attending

33 bodies have been taken to Puthukudiyiruppu hospital. Other bodies, in severely damaged state, were being identified.

More than 400 schoolgirls were staying in Chencholai. Kfir bombers were flown to the target without circling over the attack site, civilian sources said.

52 wounded girls were rushed to Mullaithivu hospital. 13 were admitted at Puthukudiyiruppu hospital. At least 64 wounded were taken to Kilinochchi hospital.

Girls from various schools in the Mullaitivu district were staying overnight at the compound, attending a course in first-aid, LTTE officials in Kilinochchi said.

The officials at the LTTE Peace Secretariat denounced the Sri Lankan airstrike as "a horrible act of terror."

They condemned the "deliberate, cold-blooded and inhumane" targeting of the schoolgirls compound by the daylight air raid.

The LTTE Peace Secretariat urged representatives of international agencies in Kilinochchi, including UNICEF, to visit the site of the bombing.

They also urged the international Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), overseeing the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to attend the site.

In September 1999, SLAF jets killed 21 people in a similar daylight raid.

Commenting at the time, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said: "We can confirm that 21 civilians were killed consequent to the air strike at Manthuvil junction ...The ICRC deplores the fact that the air strikes were carried out in a civilian area."

The United Nations children's organisation, Unicef, condemned the air strike as "shocking" in a statement issued in Geneva and New York. Unicef's head, Ann Veneman, said: "These children are innocent victims of violence."

The Tamil Tigers are known to use conscripted child soldiers. But Unicef said its information indicated that those killed in the air strike were schoolchildren attending a first aid course. And there was international concern yesterday at the government's statement that it was prepared to target and kill child soldiers.

The full details of what happened in Monday's air strike near Mullaitivu remain confused. The area where it took place is largely cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by the fighting. But what is clear is that a large number of children and young people were hit. Unicef staff who were allowed to reach the site saw more than 100 people between the ages of 16 and 18 being treated in hospital, many of them critical.

It is also clear that there were deaths. Members of the European ceasefire monitoring mission were also allowed to visit the site, and they saw 19 bodies aged between 17 and 20, according to Thorfinnur Omarsson, the monitor's spokesman.

"Even it is a 17-year-old child in terms of age, they are soldiers who are prepared to kill whoever comes in front of them," Keheliya Rambukwella, a Sri Lankan government defence spokesman, said yesterday. " Therefore the age or the gender is not what is important."

The Tamil Tigers said that 61 schoolgirls were killed in the air strike, but no one has been able to confirm that figure.

The Tigers initially claimed that the air strike had targeted an orphanage, but it has emerged that all the orphans had earlier been moved to another site.

The Sri Lankan government yesterday said that what it hit was a Tiger military base, showing journalists what it said were aerial photographs of firing ranges and weapons stores at the site.

The European monitors said they saw "no evidence of a military installation" during their visit. Unicef says its information is that the compound was being used for a first aid course, and that children from schools nearby were staying overnight for the two-day course.

Unicef estimates that the Tigers currently have 1,300 child soldiers in their ranks, with an average age of 16 ­ a practice Unicef has been working to make the Tigers end. "For us it's not a question of intention," says Dr Haque of Unicef. "What matters is that children are being affected. A child soldier can be any child with a military, whether he or she is peeling potatoes for the soldiers to eat or carrying arms. The responsibility is with both sides to take measures to ensure children are not affected."

Schools were ordered to be closed in government-controlled areas for two weeks for fear of retaliatory attacks on children after a known Tiger front group threatened to target civilians in revenge for the air strike. Fighting continued around the Jaffna peninsula in the north yesterday.

Norwegian mediators have been working without success to persuade both sides to return to a 2002 ceasefire.

The current fighting began when the government launched a ground offensive near Trincomalee, saying it was intended to force the Tigers to reopen a vital water supply they had closed.

But the Tigers have succeeded in spreading the fighting to the Jaffna area, scene of some of the worst battles of the civil war.

A popular Haitian folk singer and political activist has been released from jail more than two years after she was seized by US Marines and incarcerated without charge.

Annette Auguste, better known as So Anne (Sister Anne), was released after her lawyer persuaded a judge in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, that there was no evidence to hold her. Yesterday, freed after 826 days in a Haitian jail, she spoke of her incarceration, telling Democracy Now radio in the US: "The conditions in prison were very bad for everyone. Everybody was suffering." She added: "They had no evidence to condemn me - that is why I'm free."

So Anne, 65, was one of several high-profile supporters of the former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide rounded up and imprisoned with the barest of evidence after he was forced from power in 2004. Her case was highlighted by Amnesty International, which said she had been seized by US Marines - part of an international force deployed to Haiti - who said she had been arrested on suspicion of "possessing information that could pose a threat to the US military force".

Even though the US military admitted it found no weapons or evidence to support the allegations against her, she was taken into custody and held by the interim government of Gerard Latortue, imposed by the US, France and Canada, on suspicion of incitement to violence, though Amnesty said she was never charged with a recognisable offence.

The Latortue government was widely criticised for its suppression of pro-Aristide supporters and his Lavalas political party. Other high-profile figures imprisoned were the former prime minister Yvonne Neptune, freed on appeal last month.

The release of So Anne comes five months after the election of President Rene Preval, who has vowed to release all political prisoners. "This is an important step," said Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. "The struggle continues to release prisoners being held for political reasons who do not have such a high profile."

Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei of the Metropolitan Police was responding to reports that airport security staff could in future select people for searches and questioning based on their ethnicity. Opponents believe it could mean longer waits for non-white travellers.

It follows nearly a week of chaos at airports which has seen passengers miss flights because of the long queues at the security desks.

Pressure to implement the new system grew when David Cameron, the Conservative leader, warned against "making politically correct judgements in Whitehall or Westminster" on passenger profiling. He said: "We have got to be guided by what is right in terms of intelligence and policing and we have got to be guided by the evidence of what would work."

But the Muslim Council of Britain said profiling would lead to "an extreme form of stereotyping". A spokesman said: "Muslims are not an ethnic group and come from many different backgrounds, including from the black community and increasingly from the white community."

Ch Supt Dizaei warned that the police were reliant on the co-operation of Asian communities. "What you are suggesting is that we should have a new offence in this country called 'travelling whilst Asian'," he told BBC's Newsnight.

"That's unpalatable to everyone. It is communities that defeat terrorism, and what we don't want to do is actually alienate the very communities who are going to help us catch terrorists."

Chris Yates of Jane's Airport Review, a security consultant, said passenger profiling was the "cheapest option" available.

More public cash would be necessary if new anti-explosives technology was introduced and the number of security personnel increased at Britain's airports, he said. "The airline industry cannot sustain the sort of costs that we are talking about if we go down the road of profiling plus new technology."

Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for Transport, warned that air passengers must be prepared for more stringent security precautions.

However, airports have relaxed some restrictions on hand luggage. Passengers are now allowed to take on board a bag the size of a laptop computer, although liquids, with the exception of baby milk and medicines, are still banned. The easing of restrictions meant that only 45 flights at Heathrow and 11 at Gatwick were cancelled yesterday, as other airports returned to normal.

Meanwhile, Thames Valley Police said it had deployed extra officers to reassure Muslim communities against a "misguided backlash" following raids in Slough and an alleged arson attack on a mosque in Basingstoke last Saturday.

In a statement, Japan's Foreign Ministry also demanded the immediate release of the surviving crew and the boat, which was seized by Russian authorities after the shooting. Russia claimed the boat had defied orders to stop, Kyodo News agency reported.

The crab fisherman was shot and killed near Kaigara island, one of several islands off the northeast tip of Hokkaido that are administered by Russia but claimed by Japan, Japanese Coast Guard official Kazuhiro Nakaya said. The Foreign Ministry did not immediately confirm the death.

The Japanese boat's crew of four was being taken to nearby Kunashiri island, which is also in the southern Kuril chain, for further investigation, Nakaya said. The remaining three crew members were believed to be uninjured.

Japan dispatched two coast guard vessels to the shooting scene for investigation.

The sparsely populated Kuril islands were seized by the Soviet army in the closing days of the Second World War. Tokyo has called the seizure illegal and wants them returned. The territorial dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal treaty ending wartime hostilities.

The islands are surrounded by rich fishing waters and are believed to have promising offshore oil and natural gas reserves, as well as gold and silver deposits.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to revive a 1956 Soviet-Japanese declaration under which Moscow had agreed to return two of the islands, but Tokyo rejected the proposal as insufficient and talks on the issue are deadlocked.