National Television of Thamil Eelam will be beaming programmes to European nations from an undisclosed location in Sri Lanka's northeast.
With India voting against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the government and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham should spell out the steps they had taken to prevent attacks on ethnic Tamils during the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Rajaratnam, 52, founder of the Galleon Group, was indicted on October 16 for insider trading. The litigants have accused him of knowingly financing the LTTE and providing it with other forms of support through front organisations.
Amid protests over the alleged brutal killing of slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran's son, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday called off the 20th Asian Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Chennai in July, saying Lankan players have no place in the state.
The Centre on Tuesday termed as "completely baseless" a Sri Lankan newspaper report about existence of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam camps in Tamil Nadu, saying there was no such facility anywhere in the country.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa helped the Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance's performance in Tamil Nadu during last year's parliamentary elections by agreeing to halt the use of heavy weapons against the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam in the final stages of the civil war, a top Sri Lankan official has claimed.
Britain and Norway made a last minute bid to save the lives of two Tamil Tiger leaders but in vain as Sri Lankan troops closed in, the media reported on Saturday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's political chief, B Nadesan, and peace secretariat head, S Pulidevan, had attempted to surrender, The Daily Telegraph said, in a report quoting Vijay Nambiar, the United Nation Secretary-General's envoy.The men were later found dead.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam deployed aircraft for the first time in a combat mission.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko has convened a two-day international seminar on the alleged atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils in New Delhi on January 10-11, 2009.
The Human Rights Watch called on both the Government and LTTE to allow thousands of civilians to flee the war zone. The rights group said the civilians in the area were at garve risk from the fighting.
Sri Lanka on Friday dismissed as "baseless" the United Nation's internal report on the failure of the world body to protect Tamil civilians in the final months of country's brutal war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, saying it was an attempt to castigate the nation.
Sri Lankan forces eliminated surrendering Tiger leaders on the orders of the defence secretary who had instructed that 'all Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leaders must be killed,' ex-army chief General Sarath Fonseka has claimed, prompting the government to describe it as a 'great betrayal.'
The Human Rights Watch, in a statement, expressed its deep concern for human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law committed by both sides since the renewal of major hostilities this year.
The Indian government extended the ban on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by another two years on Friday, following intelligence reports that remnants of the Sri Lankan Tamil terror outfit were trying to re-group in Tamil Nadu.
The LTTE said on Tuesday that they were entering talks although they had little confidence that the government will deliver on promises made to restore normality.
The victims were on their way to reinforce government troops battling Tamil Tiger rebels in the same area.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagamchief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday said Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's statement -- that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's cadres were still trying very hard to revive the conflict -- was aimed at diverting the world's attention from the alleged human rights violations in the island republic.
India reacted strongly to Sri Lanka's allegations of the presence of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam camps in the country on Thursday, and 'categorically' denied the existence of such camps in Tamil Nadu. It has also asked Colombo to 'desist from reacting to speculative and uncorroborated reports.'
Five Tamil protesters forced their way on Monday into the Indian High Commission and smashed bullet proof glasses while thousands agitated against the Sri Lankan military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, prompting the mission to seek "adequate security" to protect its offices.
The claim came a day after the Tiger rebels blew up an army bus in Colombo, killing one soldier, and overran a naval base where they claimed 35 sailors died.
Eighty-two Tamil Tigers were killed by security forces in Sri Lanka's north, including 51 who died in an army raid on a key Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam base, as fighter jets pounded another area in the embattled region targeting a rebel gathering, officials said on Thursday. The rebel toll in Wednesday's attack on the LTTE-held Vidattaltivu town in Mannar, which was captured by security forces, reached 51, according to the military.
'We have also been very, very clear with the government that the purpose of fighting terrorism is to bring the benefits of a democratic government to the people,' US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said. The US feels the Sri Lankan government 'hasn't worked hard enough to bring that democratic government to the people of the area and frankly, to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.'
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Central Investigating Agency's former chief investigating officer K Ragotham speaks about the conspiracy and the hurdles that were faced in a probe in which many aspects were hushed up.
"Despite heightened ground confrontations between troops and LTTE at the Wanni battle theatre, it was reported that three bombs were dropped by LTTE on Sunday at the military forward defence lines in Welioya at around 1.45 am," a defence spokesman said.
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its troops killed more than 100 Tamil Tigers while it lost 43 soldiers, with another 33 missing in action. The LTTE, however, claimed that at least 100 Sri Lankan troops were killed in the clashes and put their own losses at 16.
A delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu will be leaving for Sri Lanka tomorrow to get first hand account of the conditions prevailing in the camps housing Lankan Tamil refugees displaced by the war between the island army and the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam.
On the brink of capturing the entire rebel-held territory, Sri Lankan troops killed at least 150 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres in the island's embattled north, where a ship carrying biggest-ever food supplies for displaced civilians was ambushed by suspected guerrillas, officials said on Sunday.
The Tamil Nadu police on Wednesday refuted media reports about possible intrusion of Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam cadres in the state following the discovery of some boats with bullet marks along the Rameswaram coast recently.
A man handed over a parcel to the bag counter of the store before entering, and a few minutes later, walked out without collecting it from the counter, sources said quoting shop assistants.
India would arrange for a dialogue between Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam to stop the hostilities in the island nation if the government suspended military operations against the Tigers and the outfit laid down arms, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said in Chennai on Sunday.
Making his first public appearance after claims of injuries he sustained surfaced over three months ago, Tamil Tiger leader V Prabhakaran paid homage to a slain pro-LTTE lawmaker in the rebel-held Wanni area in northern Sri Lanka. Attired in combat fatigues, Prabhakaran offered floral tributes to K Sivanesan, a Tamil National Alliance MP who was killed in the blast.
At least 64 people were killed in fierce ground clashes and shelling of a key military base close to a Catholic church by Ta mil Tigers in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials have said.
Sri Lanka rules out Oslo, Norway as venue for truce talks with LTTE.
Intelligence officials on Wednesday questioned local fishermen to verify reports that their boats had been used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to attack a Sri Lankan Navy vessel.
Sri Lankan troops on Wednesday captured the last remaining Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-held area in Jaffna, establishing total government control over the strategic northern peninsula. A senior LTTE Sea Tiger leader identified only as 'Thiru' was killed during the battle to take over the Chundikulam area, Military spokesperson Uday Nanayakkara said.
The blast inside the private bus, heading to Anuradhapura from Kandy, occurred at 7.05 am local time at a bus stand in Dambulla town, located 148 km from the capital Colombo, the army said.
Ruling out the possibility of any sudden fall of its last bastions of Killinochchi and Mulaitivu, Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran has said that his group still had thousands of fighters and was also working to "rebuild" relationship with India.
Sri Lanka on Thursday blamed strategic alliances and domestic political issues, an apparent reference to politics in Tamil Nadu, for the UNHRC resolution that was backed by India to censure Colombo for its alleged war crimes during the ethnic conflict with the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam.
"The Government of Sri Lanka, without any justification, has now unilaterally withdrawn from the ceasefire agreement. The LTTE wishes to state that even at this juncture, it is ready to implement every clause of the CFA agreement and respect it 100 per cent," LTTE political head B Nadesan said in a statement.
The LTTE has been conducting multi-pronged war exercises at the facility when it was hit by the jets, the defence ministry said. "The LTTE's Kilinochchi leadership is yet to reveal losses," the army said citing intercepted communication.