A Sri Lankan air force raid on a Tamil rebel training base in the island’s north may have killed or wounded as many as 70 guerrillas, the Defence Ministry said today.

Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers raided a university, seizing computers and detaining a student, in the northern Tamil heartland where the government has been battling separatist rebels, the military and a pro-rebel website said today.

PAKISTAN’S top envoy has escaped a mine blast which killed seven people as Tamil Tiger rebels accused Sri Lanka of bombing an orphanage and killing 61 amid ferocious battles elsewhere.

A pro-rebel website today reported that Sri Lankan jets bombed a children's home in the country's rebel-held north-east, killing 43 schoolgirls who were there taking a first aid course.

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.