THE Tamil Tigers have officially acknowledged that their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed a week ago by Sri Lankan government troops, according to a statement from the rebels.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed today to a triumphant Sri Lankan government to “heal the wounds” from three decades of civil war with Tamil minority rebels and urged greater access to camps for the more than 300,000 people driven from their homes.

THE United Nations has accused the Sri Lankan authorities of blocking access to civilians trapped in the former war zone or who have fled to camps for displaced people.

SRI LANKA’S government dropped leaflets across the northern war zone yesterday urging civilians to flee the fighting amid accusations the military pounded the area with artillery shells that killed at least 10 civilians.

Britain today narrowly defeated Spain to win a place on the UN Human Rights Council.

Government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels clashed AGAIN in northern Sri Lanka today, as Britain suspended some aid payments to the country amid the intensified fighting.

Sri Lanka's air force today launched a second day of strikes on Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country’s north, a day after a bus bombing blamed on the rebels killed 64 people.

The killing of a senior Tamil Tiger rebel leader was intended to drag Sri Lanka into a “major war,” the Tigers said today as spiralling violence threatened to derail a tenuous truce.

Tamil Tiger rebels have shelled Sri Lanka army positions and launched a deadly raid on a breakaway faction they say is backed by the Sri Lankan government, while a Tamil civilian was shot dead, officials said, heightening fears of a return to civil war.

Sri Lankan government leaders and Tamil rebels made initial contact today at a secluded chateau outside Geneva, Switzerland, before their first direct talks in nearly three years, hoping to shore up a ragged ceasefire agreement and move peace talks back on track.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed a naval convoy in north-western Sri Lanka today, killing 13 sailors and injuring at least two others, the navy said.

Sri Lankan security forces went on red alert today, military officials said, securing a supply corridor into the restive east following a surge in attacks blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels that have endangered the country’s shaky cease-fire.

THE Pentagon awarded $12 million (€9.3m) in grants yesterday to develop an unmanned "trauma pod" designed to use robots to perform full scalpel-and-stitch surgeries on wounded soldiers in the battlefield.

Tamil Tiger rebels freed two Sri Lankan government security guards held hostage for more than two months today.

TAMIL Tiger rebels say they are ready to resume peace talks with the Sri Lankan government if the negotiations are based on their previously-rejected proposal for self-rule.

The Tamil Tigers today refused to disband its dreaded suicide bomb squad, but reiterated it was committed to peace while negotiating an end to Sri Lanka’s 19-year civil war.

The Sri Lankan government said it is unlikely to prosecute an American journalist who interacted with a banned rebel organisation.