Hundreds of Sri Lankan troops surrounded the hotel where the opposition candidate was holed up today as early returns from the nation’s hard-fought presidential election gave the incumbent a comfortable lead.

SRI LANKANS crowded polling stations yesterday to choose between two Sinhalese war heroes — the president and his former army chief — in an election that could be decided by minority Tamils, who suffered most from the government offensive to end the civil conflict.

Sri Lankans crowded voting stations throughout Colombo today in a hard-fought election to decide whether the incumbent president or his former army chief should lead the nation’s recovery from a brutal civil war.

A video purportedly showing troops shooting blindfolded, naked Tamils in the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war has revived calls for a war crimes investigation and cast a shadow over the upcoming presidential election.

SRI LANKA TO RELEASE 136,000 TAMILS

Sri Lanka's president today urged the military to win over the Tamil people and to ensure they live without "fear or suspicion".

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.

Aid groups pushed for access to Sri Lanka's former battlefield today to check on the fate of any wounded civilians stranded there, as the country celebrated a holiday to honour the military's victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels.

SRI LANKA’S president declared his country “liberated from separatist terror” as state television broadcast images of the Tamil Tiger rebel leader’s body after it was recovered from the battlefield.

Sri Lanka's president declared his country "liberated from separatist terror" today as state television showed the body of the Tamil Tiger rebel leader killed by troops.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa delivered a victory address to parliament today, declaring that his country had been “liberated” from terrorism after defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels on the battlefield.

THE Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat in their 25-year-old war with the Sri Lankan government yesterday, offering to lay down their guns as government forces swept across their last strongholds in the northeast.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger leaders remained at large today after the president declared victory in his nation’s quarter-century civil war with the rebels.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today his country has militarily defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka’s military said today it had taken control of the island’s entire coastline and cut off any sea escape for Tamil Tiger leaders trapped in a tiny slice of remaining rebel territory.

Sri Lankan today forces battled to take complete control of the country’s coastline and surround the reeling Tamil Tigers in a final push to destroy the rebel group and end the country’s civil war, the military said.

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.

Sri Lankan troops closed in on separatist rebels in an ever-shrinking coastal war zone, as two prominent guerrillas surrendered and tens of thousands of refugees clutching their belongings fled the fighting in boats.

SRI LANKA’S president ordered a two-day suspension of offensives against Tamil Tiger rebels to enable tens of thousands of trapped civilians to leave the war zone, his office said yesterday.

Masked gunmen armed with rifles and rocket launchers attacked Sri Lanka’s national cricket team in Pakistan today, wounding at least two players and killing five police officers.

Cluster bombs hit the last functioning hospital in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone where Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting a last-gasp battle for survival, the United Nations said today.

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

GOVERNMENT forces captured the Tamil Tigers’ de facto capital in northern Sri Lanka yesterday, dealing a devastating blow to the rebels’ quarter-century fight for an independent state, the president said.

The Tamil Tigers’ capital in northern Sri Lanka was captured by government forces today, dealing a devastating blow to the rebels’ quarter-century fight for an independent state, the country’s

Sri Lanka’s military officials say their soldiers have entered the Tamil Tiger rebels’ de facto capital in the north for the first time in a decade.

Nine suspects have been arrested in a bus bombing that killed 26 passengers outside Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, police said today as air force jets pounded positions of the Tamil rebels blamed for the attack.

A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide attacker bombed the opening ceremony of a marathon outside Sri Lanka’s capital today, killing a powerful government minister, a former Olympian and 12 others, the military said. Nearly 100 were wounded.

A bomb tore through a packed bus carrying mostly elderly Buddhist pilgrims today in central Sri Lanka, killing at least 18 people and wounding 51 others, the military said.

A bomb ripped through a packed bus in Sri Lanka today, killing 23 people as the government officially withdrew from a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels.

At least 34 people across northern Sri Lanka have been killed in the latest spate of violence across the country.