'Over 870 kg of banned polythene bags and packing materials were seized from a shop,' a Chandigarh administration spokesman said.

The use and sale of polythene bags in Chandigarh has been banned with effect from Oct 2, 2008.

The airports of Santiago de Compostela, La Coruna, Vigo Asturias, Santander, Burgos, Valladolid, Salamanca and Leon were affected by the closure which was set to last until 2 p.m. (1200 GMT), the aviation authority AENA said.

The cloud of ash arrived overnight and is affecting part of Portugal as well.

According to the Meteorological Institute in London Saturday, the ash cloud could linger over northern Spain through Sunday and spread eastwards towards the Mediterranean region and Italy.

Friday, Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management reported that volcano under the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier, 120 km south-east of Reykjavik, was again spewing increased amounts of ash.

In the preceding days the volcano was 'producing less lava and more volcanic ash', agency spokesman Agust Gunnar Gylfason said.

Seema Banerjee, 28, was arrested Friday evening from Matlupur area, police officer D.K. Sharma said in Mau, some 300 km from Lucknow. 'The tortoises were recovered from two air bags she carried.'

She has said she worked for a gang involved in the illegal supply of tortoises and animal skins to clients in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Nepal as well as various states of India.

Police said tortoises that were still alive were handed over to forest officials.

Ravi Roshan, a Class 6 student of Don Bosco Academy, was kidnapped Friday. His family has got calls demanding ransom.

'After Roshan failed to return till evening, I came to know about it,' said Ravi's father Upendra Kumar, head of a village body in Dhanarua area, 30 km from Patna.

Kumar has lodged a case of kidnapping with the police. 'We received ransom calls from the abductors who have threatened to kill my son if the money is not paid,' Kumar told IANS.

Patna Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said efforts were on to trace the boy.

In the last one month, more than a dozen cases of kidnapping have been reported across the state.

Human Rights Watch urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take steps to ensure accountability through an independent international investigation into the alleged laws-of-war violations.

The announcement of a commission on 'lessons learnt and reconciliation' came after a months-long campaign by Colombo to prevent Ban from setting up a panel of experts to advise him on accountability in Sri Lanka.

In May 2009, after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was crushed, President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a joint communique with Ban promising that 'the government will take measures to address allegations related to violations of international humanitarian and human-rights law'. But no substantive steps have been taken.

'Every time the international community raises the issue of accountability, Sri Lanka establishes a commission that takes a long time to achieve nothing,' said Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

'Ban should put an end to this game of smoke and mirrors and begin a process that would ensure justice for all the victims of Sri Lanka's war,' Adams said.

The government has yet to publish the findings from a committee established in November 2009 to examine allegations of laws-of-war violations despite an April 2010 deadline.

When the committee was announced, Human Rights Watch warned that it was just a smokescreen to avoid accountability.

According to conservative UN estimates, 7,000 civilians were killed and more than 13,000 injured from January to May 2009. Other estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 were killed.

Government officials, including the president, have repeatedly insisted that no violations by government forces took place.

On Thursday, the Sri Lankan government announced it will establish a commission to report on the lessons learned from the conflict and reconciliation efforts.

According to the government statement, the committee will consist of seven Sri Lankans, located in Sri Lanka and abroad, but will have no international involvement.

The quake struck at 11:22 a.m. local time (0322 GMT), with the epicentre 68 km northwest of Raba regency of West Nusa Tengara province, at a depth of 10 km below sea bed, said Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Physical Geography Agency (BMG).

Friday, an undersea earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck eastern Indonesia, with the epicentre at 246 km southeast of Melonguane town in North Sulawesi province.

Indonesia sits on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called the 'Pacific Ring of Fire'.

'We got a call on Thursday night that the chief minister's life is in danger for the next 72 hours. So as a precautionary measure we have stepped up her security,' a Delhi Police official said.

'We are trying to trace the call,' the official added.

The raid took place on a ship in Colombia's main Pacific port of Buenaventura. Six 20-tonne containers, in which liquor, cigarettes, candies, shoes, perfumes, toys and office equipment and other merchandise were stored to be sold here in the capital city, were seized, the national police said Friday.

The shipment of contraband was part of an asset-laundering operation, police said.

US citizen Williams Bonaparte allegedly hired three women to recruit young girls and shoot pornographic movies in his apartment at Puerto Plata, Prensa Latina quoted officials of law enforcement agencies as saying Friday.

On raiding his home, police found a camcorder, a VCR, lights, CDs with pornographic material, and marijuana, the officials said.

In 2009, Dominican Republic police had dismantled another pornography ring that operated with Haitian girls here in the capital city of Santo Domingo.

Ademir Meza played for Pumas Morelos, the second team of Mexican football giants Pumas de la UNAM. He was shot dead late Thursday inside his car, on a Mexico City avenue.

Police said the defender had resisted an attempt by two people travelling in another vehicle to rob him.

The city's Justice Ministry said Meza and a passenger had been followed by another vehicle, possibly a taxi, that tried to block their way in the Pedregal de Santo Domingo neighbourhood.

The authorities said one of the attackers had a firearm and shot the player. The paramedics deployed to deal with the emergency could not save Meza's life. The person who was travelling with him was unhurt.

This is the second case of a shooting involving a football player in Mexico City this year.

Top striker Salvador Cabanas, a pillar of the America team in Mexico and of the Paraguay national team, was shot in the head at a bar in January. Cabanas was seriously injured but survived and is currently recovering in Argentina, although the bullet remains lodged in his head and his return to professional football is uncertain.