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Jan 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka police today detained the main opposition United National Party Puttalam District parliamentarian Palitha Ranga Bandara’s official vehicle…

United Nations aid workers rescued 50 critically injured children from intense fighting in Sri Lanka Thursday, another example of the major humanitarian crisis unfolding in the area, a spokesman said.

The UN says it has provided 125 million US Dollars to meet development goals in Sri Lanka in 2008.

COLOMBO (AFP)–Sri Lanka won’t declare a ceasefire despite growing international concern about 250,000 civilians trapped by fighting with Tamil rebels, Human Rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said Friday.

Christian Aid - UK Christian Aid partner organisations are responding to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka.

Fighting has intensified between government troops and the ethnic separatist group, the …

Lanka president has urged LTTE to allow estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in northern war zone to flee to safety.

Sri Lanka will not declare a ceasefire despite growing international concern about 250,000 civilians trapped by fighting with Tamil rebels, Human Rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said on Friday.

(Lanka-e-News, January 30, 2009, 3.45 PM) JVP MP Anura Kumara Disanayaka says at a press conference held yesterday (29) that President Mahinda Rajapakse who vows not to allow jungle law to prevail in the country,…

The IPL has announced an exhaustive list of 111 overseas players who will be considered for the second auction in Goa on February 6.

(RTTNews) - Friday, Sri Lanka’s Department of Census and Statistics reported that the Colombo Consumer Price Index, or CCPI, increased at a pace of 10.7% in January, much slower than the 14.4% in December.

Source: Reuters By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO, Jan 30 (Reuters) — Pressure rose on Friday for Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tiger rebels to free thousands of people trapped in the war zone, after the president pledged safe …

President Mahinda Rajapakse has promised safe passage for 250,000 civilians trapped by fighting in the north-east

(Lanka-e-News 29Jan2009 11.00AM) Reports emerging from Sri Lanka suggest that government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are violating the laws of war…

(Lanka-e-News, Jan. 30, 2009, 1.30 PM) Troops of the Task Force 02 captured an LTTE camp situated in the Udayarkattukulam area,…

(Lanka-e-News, Jan. 30, 2009, 1.45 PM) Sri Lanka Navy destroyed an LTTE suicide boat in the seas east of Mullaithivu today (30) around 3.00 AM.

Naval craft on patrol in the Mullaithivu seas…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka’s president urged the Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday to allow the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the northern war zone to flee to safety following reports of heavy casualties among noncombatants stuck in the shrinking territory.

Reports emerging from Sri Lanka suggest that government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are violating the laws of war by targeting civilians and preventing them from escaping to safety.

More than 300,000 civilians are now trapped in the north-eastern part of Sri Lanka as the fighting between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the army intensifies.

Sri Lanka’s president pledges safe passage for 250,000 civilians trapped by fighting and urges rebels to let them pass.

Sri Lanka’s president urged the Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday to allow the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the northern war zone to flee to safety following reports of heavy casualties among noncombatants stuck in the shrinking territory.

Calls mounted Friday for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka amid growing fears for an estimated quarter of a million civilians trapped by fierce fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

(Lanka-e-News, Jan. 30, 2009, 1.00 PM) President Mahinda Rajapaksa last evening (29) urged the LTTE to allow the free movement of civilians in the North to ensure their safety an security, with the Government’s assurance of a safe passage to a secure environment…

The Indian game that doesn’t enjoy any popular support from any quarter concerned can only be autocratic and will prove to be devastative to the entire island. The present Indian Establishment is incapable of doing anything constructively new, other than destroying Tamil safeguards. India is not only heading for maintaining perpetual trouble in Sri Lanka, [...]

A leading media rights group on Friday urged Sri Lanka’s government to lift a ban on independent reporting from the island’s war-torn north.

Sri Lanka’s President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has given the Tamil Tiger rebels a 48-hour window to allow 250,000 Tamil civilians to leave the small patch of northeastern jungle where the army has pinned the rebels down.

Toronto, Jan 30 : A top Indo-Canadian leader in the Canadian government has urged Sri Lanka to work for a political solution to the Tamil problem.

COLOMBO — A leading media rights group on Friday urged Sri Lanka’s government to lift a ban on independent reporting from the island’s war-torn north.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appealed Friday to the Tamil Tiger rebels to allow the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the northern war zone to flee to safety in the next 48 hours.

Jan 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka Navy in a pre-dawn attack today destroyed an explosive laden LTTE suicide boat in the seas off Mullaitivu coast, the Navy reported.

Hundreds of Tamil civilians, including children, have been killed and wounded in Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers, international relief agencies say, with some calling it a humanitarian crisis.

The African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday called on the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) to hall the war and immediately institute a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid to be brought to civilians caught in the conflict who are in dire need of assistance. The continued conflict in Sri [...]

The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday urged the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) to agree on immediate ‘Humanitarian Ceasefire’. Mr. Miliband said in his statement that “military advances by the Sri Lankan Government against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have come at a severe [...]

A youth allegedly committed self-immolation Thursday in front of Shashtri Bhavan housing Central gov..

Far from heeding charges of human rights abuses and stifling dissent, the government has, this week,..

Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lankan forces captured a key northern crossroads and several bases from the Tam..

In 2002, giving a press conference in Kilinochchi, the late LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham wit..

The Government is in the process of formation of a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power transmis..

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — The conflict in Sri Lanka has reached a “critical stage” as hospitals are overwhelmed with civilians and the army tries to oust Tamil Tigers in the country’s north, the United Nations said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm at the fate of up to a quarter of a million people trapped in a warzone in Sri Lanka.

Taking part in a students’ demonstration of the Murpokku Maanavar Kazhagam (Progressive Students Organization) held opposite Memorial Hall in Chennai Thursday, VCK President Thol. Thirumavalavan demanded the Indian Government to immediately take back all military help extended to Sri Lanka and blamed New Delhi for supplying sophisticated weaponry to exterminate the Tamil people in Vanni. [...]

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up indiscriminate artillery barrage towards the heart of ’safety zone’ since Thursday noon killing at least 44 civilians and causing injuries to 178, initial reports from Vanni said. The shelling has targeted Chuthanthirapuram 100-housing scheme, where at least 8 civilians were reported killed. Five civilians were killed near St. Antony’s [...]

Amid mounting criticism of Sri Lanka?s government and rebels, a convoy took hundreds of civilians to safety.

An organisation headed by a leader, who understands only terrorism, is unlikely to rehabilitate itse..

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — The conflict in Sri Lanka has reached a “critical stage” as hospitals are overwhelmed with civilians and the army tries to oust Tamil Tigers in the country’s north, the United Nations said.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan. 29 (UPI) — With food and medical aid rapidly depleting in the face of an escalating conflict in northern Sri Lanka, humanitarian aid workers say the situation is dire.

Expressing concern at the “rapidly deteriorating conditions facing quarter of a million civilians” and of “alleged human rights abuses, significant number of casualties, as well as huge displacement,” Ms Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a press release issued Thursday said that “[t]he lack of access for independent monitors, humanitarian workers and [...]

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's president on Thursday pledged safe passage for thousands of people trapped by fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels, hours after a convoy carrying more than 200 seriously wounded people left the war zone.

“Sri Lanka government’s attacks on the innocent Tamils in Vanni continue to kill hundreds while injuring many more according to the reports of ICRC, the only International humanitarian agency allowed to be present in Vanni,” said the report issued by Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna (CJPCD) Thursday, the second [...]

Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan said Thursday that the Tigers have been urging the UN, ICRC and other international actors through all available offices to facilitate transportation for the wounded civilialns who were in need of further medical treatment at Vavuniyaa hospital. Blaming that there were elements seeking to feed false [...]

Jan 29, Colombo: The Energy Ministers of the eight South Asian nations in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) met this morning at the Hilton Hotel in Colombo…

Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar also known as Shanthan appeared in Kingston crown court accused of plotting to send military supplies to the Tamil Tigers

Jan 29, Colombo: The 61st Independence Day of the country on February 4th will be celebrated as a one country, Sri Lanka government minister Susil Premajayantha said.

Sri Lanka’s president on Thursday pledged safe passage for thousands of people trapped by fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels, hours after a convoy carrying more than 200 seriously wounded people left the war zone.

Source: Reuters (Adds president’s quotes)

By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s president on Thursday pledged safe passage for thousands of people trapped by fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels, …

Jan 29, Colombo: Sri Lanka Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) today lodged a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the arrest of their party members who were putting up posters on media suppression.

(Lanka-e-News, January 29, 2009, 11.30 PM) A Tamil journalist called S. Muthukumar of Thuththukudi, Tamil Nadu poured kerosene one his head and set fire himself in protest of the…

Jan 29, Colombo: The United States and Japan have offered a Rs. 3.2 billion grant to Sri Lanka government for demining in the Mannar District, one of the recently liberated districts in the North.

ICRC says that it escorted 226 sick and wounded patients requiring urgent medical treatment to Vavuniya Hospital.