MASS funerals of thousands of tsunami victims got underway in Sri Lanka yesterday as volunteers pulled more decomposed corpses from washed out trains, cars and smashed buildings.

Sri Lanka’s hardline president installed a new prime minister today who immediately called on neighbouring India to help revive its frozen peace process amid post-election threats of a new civil war by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The alliance of President Chandrika Kumaratunga emerged as the largest winner in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections, but fell eight seats short of a majority and plans to seek a partner to forge a ruling coalition.

The political alliance led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga won the largest number of seats in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections, officials said today, apparently forcing aside her longtime rival, the former prime minister.

The Sri Lankan military today began deploying soldiers to help police maintain security on the eve of parliamentary elections that could result in a hung Parliament with no clear winner.

Irish MEP John Cushnahan has travelled to Sri Lanka to head a team of EU monitors overseeing the country’s upcoming general election.

Tamil Tiger rebels warned today that the Sri Lankan president’s decision to dissolve Parliament and call snap elections was “a grave setback” to the island’s frail peace process.

EU external relations commissioner Chris Patten arrived in Sri Lanka today to strengthen efforts to resume stalled peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Norwegian envoys who are trying to help broker Sri Lanka’s peace with its Tamil Tiger rebels headed for the island nation today while its president and prime minister remained locked in a power struggle that has thrown uncertainty on the peace process.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga is lifting the state of emergency she announced two days ago, a government spokesman said today, but she was preparing a new measure to boost the authority of the armed forces to respond to threats.

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet is trying to reconvene Parliament in defiance of a two-week suspension by the president in her power struggle with the prime minister over how to resolve Sri Lanka’s two-decade conflict with Tamil rebels, officials said.

SRI LANKA’S president has declared a state of emergency, deepening the country’s political crisis as her political rival was set to meet with US President George W Bush in Washington.

SRI LANKA’S president sacked three of the country’s most powerful cabinet ministers yesterday, suspended parliament and ordered troops out in the streets of Colombo, throwing the island into a constitutional crisis.

Sri Lanka’s government was plunged into crisis and its peace process jeopardised when the country’s president deployed troops around the capital and fired three key ministers who were trying to coax Tamil rebels back into talks to end a 20-year civil war.

The Sri Lankan president put her country on high alert today after the Tamil Tiger rebels suspended peace talks with the government.

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 has lifted a ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels, paving the way for peace talks to end the island nation’s 19-year civil war.

Rival politicians have brawled on the floor of the Sri Lankan Parliament amid bizarre claims that the president had carried a bomb into a cabinet meeting.