PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - A SUICIDE bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a military fort in a northwestern Pakistani town late on Thursday, killing four civilians and wounding 40 others, officials said.

The bomber detonated his car in the main bazaar of Jandola town, near the tribal region of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, a security official said.

COLOMBO - SRI LANKA said on Thursday it planned to return most of the nearly 300,000 civilians displaced by civil war to their homes this year as the president called on the country to be magnanimous in victory.

The fate of the ethnic Tamil civilians in the overcrowded, fenced-in camps has caused great concern among the minority throughout the country.

LONDON - BRITAIN announced Thursday a climbdown over settlement rights for Gurkha veterans, saying all of the Nepalese fighters who have served at least four years can apply to live here.