The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake and his Italian counterpart were “slightly injured” when mortars fell near a helipad after their helicopter had landed in eastern Batticaloa, Sri Lankan officials said.

Sri Lankan officials today said commandoes had found torture chambers at a captured rebel base, but the separatists said the cement cells were for holding prisoners and denied any torture had taken place.

AS dawn breaks over Sri Lanka’s shores, dozens of parents come to the beach where huge waves seized their children a week ago.

AN 11-YEAR-OLD girl yesterday described how she spent more than 24 hours in the sea off Sri Lanka after she was swept away by last Sunday’s devastating tsunami.

THE clean-up operation on the stricken island of Sri Lanka could take months, aid agencies said yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s air force said it bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel naval base in the country’s north-west today, but a guerrilla spokesman claimed the air raid killed 15 civilians in a fishing village.

About 3,000 Tamil civilians braved flooded, mine-laden jungle paths to flee from separatist fighting into government-held areas in eastern Sri Lanka today, officials and witnesses said.

The United Nations today said it was “deeply concerned” about indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in Sri Lanka’s east where tens of thousands of civilians, most Tamils, are caught in fighting.

A day-long fierce exchange of artillery and mortar fire between Sri Lanka’s troops and Tamil Tiger rebels has resulted in the death of 64 combatants from both sides, the military said today.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have not quit a truce despite calling it “defunct,” European ceasefire monitors said today, as the government called for renewed peace talks.

The Sri Lankan military said today it killed at least 19 insurgents in a fierce battle with Tamil Tiger rebels in the east, where many fear escalating violence will lead the country back to full-scale war.

The Sri Lankan military, backed by tanks and war planes, battled Tamil Tiger rebels for over three hours today for control of territory in the east, a military spokesman said, a further escalation of violence in the country’s undeclared civil war.

A prominent Tamil politician was assassinated in the Sri Lankan capital today and naval attack on two Tamil Tiger boats left six rebels dead, officials said - acts appearing to draw the South Asian country closer to full-scale war.

A prominent Sri Lankan politician has died in hospital after he was shot near his home today. One of his guards was also killed.

AT least 45 Tamils were killed and 125 wounded yesterday when government forces fired artillery and rocket launchers toward a Tamil Tiger rebel-held region in eastern Sri Lanka, a senior rebel official said.

At least 45 Tamils were killed and 125 wounded today when government forces fired artillery and rocket launchers toward a Tamil Tiger rebel-held region in eastern Sri Lanka, a senior rebel official said.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a police post in eastern Sri Lanka today, triggering a gun battle that left one officer dead, the military said.

At least 52 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in heavy clashes with Sri Lankan troops, the military said today.

At least 10 soldiers and four Tamil Tiger rebels were killed today in fresh fighting in eastern Sri Lanka, a pro-rebel website said.

Sri Lankan air force jets and artillery pounded Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the country’s north and east for a second day today, peace monitors said ahead of a mass funeral for 64 people killed a bus bombing blamed on the insurgents.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels raided a village in eastern Sri Lanka, abducted 14 Sinhalese labourers and shot 13 dead.

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.

A faction of Tamil insurgents attacked rival Tamil Tiger rebels in eastern Sri Lanka today, killing at least one person.

MOURNERS from across the world wept, prayed and observed moments of silence along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines yesterday to remember those killed by one of nature’s deadliest disasters.

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a pro-rebel legislator as he attended midnight Mass at a church in eastern Sri Lanka, the Defence Ministry said today, sparking fears of a return to civil war in the island nation.

Attackers hurled more than five hand grenades into a political office of the Tamil Tigers in eastern Sri Lanka today, a pro-rebel website reported.

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 Irish Red Cross is to build a new hospital in tsunami-hit Sri Lanka with money donated by the Irish public.

The clean-up operation on the stricken island of Sri Lanka could take months, aid agencies warned today.

Torrential rains have forced more than 100,000 people to leave their homes in eastern and northern Sri Lanka, an official said today.

Fierce fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and a breakaway faction of the guerrillas in eastern Sri Lanka has left at least seven people dead, military officials said today.

Heavy mortar shelling and gunfire erupted today between two Tamil Tiger rebel factions, killing at least eight guerrillas and wounding five, in Sri Lanka’s first battle since a 2002 cease-fire halted its civil war.

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.

The Sri Lankan army has blocked some 130,000 minority Tamil voters from reaching the polls.

At least 19 people were injured today when two bombs exploded in the office of a pro-Government Tamil party in eastern Sri Lanka.

A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber has killed himself and injured three Sri Lankan policemen in an attack near the town of Batticaloa today.

Tamil guerrillas publicly executed a suspected army spy by attaching a mine to his body and exploding it in a rebel-controlled area of eastern Sri Lanka, travellers said today.

Gunbattles between rebels and the Sri Lankan military left at least seven Tamil Tigers and two civilians dead.