Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency today, hours after her foreign minister, an ethnic Tamil who led efforts to ban the Tamil Tiger rebels as a terrorist organisation, was assassinated at his home.

The death toll from massive tidal waves that struck Sri Lanka’s coastline leapt to more than 11,500 today as thousands of soldiers and families searched for bodies a day after the disaster.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a passenger bus and clashed with security forces and civilians in the port town of Trincomalee today, leaving one person dead and three injured.