Sri Lankans were voting today for a new Parliament, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa looking to consolidate his political dominance after winning re-election in January and then detaining his chief rival.

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.

The United States asked the Sri Lankan government to open to foreign inspection areas of the country where government forces are alleged to have shelled displaced Tamils early this year in the final weeks of a 25-year secessionist rebellion.

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.

More than a thousand Sri Lankans protested outside the British Embassy in Colombo today, accusing the British government of supporting the Tamil Tiger rebels and burning an effigy of Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Four top Tamil Tiger officials, including the supreme leader’s eldest son, were killed in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, the military said today.

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.

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

Forty-nine patients were killed in a shelling attack on a hospital in Sri Lanka’s war zone today, a health official said.

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 Lankans raised flags and held a moment of silence today in honour of the military, as troops pushed deeper into rebel-held territory in the north in their offensive aimed at crushing the Tamil Tigers and ending the 25-year-old civil war in the country.

A series of blasts thought to be caused by a ruptured gas pipeline set off a fire in a hotel in the Bangladeshi capital overnight, injuring at least 45 people.

TEN people were killed and 86 wounded yesterday in a suicide bomb attack on a bus carrying riot police in the Sri Lankan capital Columbo.

WEST INDIES claimed a 2-0 series triumph over Sri Lanka after the third one-day international was abandoned following heavy rain.

Nathan Bracken’s five-wicket haul inspired Australia to a comfortable 128-run victory over an out-of-sorts Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

KEVIN PIETERSEN’S contentious dismissal on the opening day of the second Test between England and Sri Lanka sparked calls for a revision of the way technology is used in international cricket.

A series of powerful earthquakes jolted Indonesia in less than 24 hours, sending a 10-foot tsunami crashing to shore and damaging hundreds of houses as panicked residents fled to the hills.

A second powerful earthquake in as many days jolted Southeast Asia and triggered a regional tsunami warning today, damaging hundreds of buildings along Indonesia’s western coast and sending panicked residents fleeing inland.

FILM fans are hoping to curry favour with India’s movie bosses in a bid to bring the Bollywood Oscars to Ireland.

FIGHTING between Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces has forced at least 204,000 people from their homes in the eastern and northern parts of the country, the UN food agency warned yesterday.

The Tamil Tiger rebels ruled out peace talks as battles raged in Sri Lanka’s north and east.

A SUICIDE bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a car carrying Sri Lanka’s third-highest ranking military officer yesterday and blew himself up, killing the general and three other people, officials said.

PREVENTING another Kevin Pietersen show was hot on the agenda as England and Sri Lanka prepared for the third npower Test at Trent Bridge.

Kylie Minogue has paid credit to tsunami orphans during a surprise visit to Sri Lanka to meet a theatre group she sponsors.

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.

Sri Lanka’s newly elected president today said he would resume peace talks with Tamil rebels in an effort to end decades of ethnic conflict in the island nation.

Sri Lankans today voted for a president to shape peace efforts in a country bloodied by more than two decades of civil war and devastated by last year’s tsunami.

The Sri Lankan government today asked parliament to extend an emergency rule decree imposed after the assassination of the country’s foreign minister by suspected Tamil rebels, as European peace monitors held talks with guerrilla leaders.

Sri Lanka’s government said today it will not unilaterally violate a ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but would do everything necessary to safeguard its citizens after the military accused the rebels of assassinating the country’s foreign minister.

Sri Lanka’s government today signed a deal to share international tsunami aid with the Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said, despite bitter protests by critics who said it threatened the country’s sovereignty.

Security concerns again plagued tsunami relief efforts, as rebels in Indonesia’s Aceh province accused government troops of ditching an informal truce.

Rebels in Indonesia’s tsunami-devastated Aceh province accused the government today of abandoning an informal ceasefire after the military said it had killed scores of suspected guerrillas to protect aid deliveries.

ASIA’S tsunami death toll soared past 175,000 yesterday as Sri Lanka confirmed thousands more dead, while fears re-emerged over the safety of aid workers in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

The Sri Lankan military struggled today to clear the devastated railway line where a train was ripped from the tracks by the power of the tsunami.

American and Indian troops engaged in relief efforts for Sri Lanka might use the operation as a cover to spy on Tamil Tiger rebels, a rebel leader charged today.

ONE Irish family, who have just returned from Sri Lanka, spent the past three days knocking on neighbours' doors and furiously sending out emails as they try to rush through money to a makeshift camp in the south of the country.

Sri Lankans climbed onto the roofs of their houses while others fled in their cars away from the coastline after officials urged them to move to higher ground after fresh quakes sparked fears of new tsunamis today.

The massive tidal waves that slammed into Sri Lanka flung a train off its tracks leaving its 1,000 passengers dead or missing, police said today.

AFTER the couple had laid the body of their daughter in a deep pit, a bulldozer poured sand and the little girl disappeared from their view forever.

AT first, American tourist Matthew O’Connell thought the rising sea was the sign of a good day’s surfing ahead.

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.

The Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka’s government must take immediate steps to resume peace talks or the country could return to civil war, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warns.