Sri Lanka is facing a severe crisis after Cyclone Ditwah caused widespread flooding and landslides, resulting in numerous deaths and displacement. India has launched 'Operation Sagar Bandhu' to provide relief. The situation is expected to remain critical with rising river levels and continued rainfall.
Sixty people were killed in an explosion in eastern Sri Lanka on Friday. According to the authorities, a container carrying material for road construction work accidentally exploded in eastern Batticaloa district
Since the IPKF's withdrawal from Sri Lanka in March 1990, the LTTE's once-powerful influence in Tamil Nadu has faded.
Ravi Sinha is described as "highly tech-savvy", and credited with infusing modern technology in the field of intelligence collection.
The anti-government protests near the presidential secretariat in Colombo resumed on Sunday after the authorities lifted the nation-wide curfew to celebrate the Vesak -- what we call Buddha Purnima in India -- festival.
Presenting the Union Budget for the year 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said that the United Progressive Alliance government is committed to ensuring that the Sri Lankan Tamils enjoy their rights and legitimate aspirations within the territorial sovereignty and framework of the country's constitution.
According to a report in The Times, The People's Liberation Army was founded in eastern Sri Lanka four months ago and has vowed to launch attacks against government and military targets unless its demands for a separate Tamil homeland are met. "This war isn't over yet," Commander Kones, head of the PLA's Eastern District military command said.
At least 21 civilians were killed and over 20 others injured when a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels opened indiscriminate fire at them in eastern Sri Lanka, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday. "According to latest reports received, the death toll at the LTTE village massacre on Saturday at Kirimetiya has risen to 21 civilians, while over 20 others including children had sustained serious injuries," it said.
At least three children were among 26 killed in the bombing, the latest in a string of attacks by the rebels amid spiralling fighting in the north which has claimed 300 lives in the two weeks since the government announced its decision to scrap the ceasefire.
Fourteen construction workers from the majority Sinhala community had been abducted and shot by the LTTE, said the Army.
Solheim said the visits were an important part of preparations for a meeting in Tokyo next week of Sri Lanka's key international financial backers who are to review their support of a faltering peace process.
Eight security force personnel were also killed in various incidents in Sri Lanka's north-western Mannar district.
The Italian ambassador Mariani had a head injury and was admitted to the Batticaloa hospital while the US envoy had minor injuries, doctors said.
The mine, planted near an electricity transformer, was targeted at a bus taking constables home on leave, a police official said.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam set off the mine, planted near an electricity transformer, targetting a bus taking constables home on leave, a ministry spokesman said.
The attack came a day after Tamil Tigers carried out their first ever air raid, bombing a military airbase near the international airport here killing three airmen and injuring 16.
The Sri Lankan Air Force this evening destroyed an artillery gun position of the Tigers at Pooneryn, just south of the Jaffna peninsula.
The blast ripped through the crowded bus as passengers were getting off at a military check point just outside the town of Ampara, 350 km east of capital Colombo, police said.
The army attributed the killings to factional fighting within the LTTE.
The Karuna factor is 'one of the main obstacles' to a negotiated settlement between the Government and the LTTE at the peace talks scheduled in Geneva Saturday,
Bomb attack on mosque kills four in Sri Lanka
The faction controlled by renegade commander V Muralitharan alias Karuna fired mortars and small arms fire for nearly two hours across the Verugal river.
Malaysia recently claimed it had arrested a man who was plotting major strikes in India. This is significant for India as it has links with the arrest of Sri Lankan operative Shakir Hussain in Chennai.
Terror groups are building a base in south India and using the sea route to smuggle in arms and drugs.
'What happened last Sunday is a great tragedy, an insult to humanity'
'Sirisena will keep both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe on tenterhooks till the next general election due in 2020,' says Aditi Phadnis.
Even as the polity find ways and means to address the genuine concerns and fears of the society, the Sri Lankan State apparatus would have to unravel these mystery-questions with convincing answers, and a road-map to the future, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
China has invested millions in Sri Lankan infrastructure.
Building relations in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi has gifted naval vessels to Mauritius, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, even as China eyes the same locales.
The recent episode in which a supposedly Pakistani boat destroyed itself at sea, apparently by setting itself on fire, has aroused a great deal of comment in the media. There have been some positive words for the Coast Guard which responded to the developing situation, such as it was, but also doubts about what had actually transpired.
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