ENGLAND’S worst World Cup fears were realised yesterday when their leading one-day batsman and former Irish star Eoin Morgan was ruled out of the tournament with a fractured finger.

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.

THOUSANDS of civilians braved rebel fire yesterday to break out of Sri Lanka’s war zone, the military said, as health workers abandoned the only hospital in the area – leaving hundreds of wounded behind – because of unrelenting shelling.

The British Foreign Secretary arrived in Sri Lanka today for talks aimed at convincing the country’s government to accept a temporary ceasefire in its war with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Two small Tamil Tiger planes attacked Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo today bombing a tax office.

ZIMBABWE: President Robert Mugabe’s party said yesterday it is prepared to form a government on its own if the opposition won’t join it — a move certain to anger the West.

A bomb blamed on Tamil Tiger separatists ripped through a packed passenger train today killing seven people and wounding 70 others near the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s ruling party today won disputed regional elections in the country’s Eastern Province.

A female suicide bomber blew herself up at the main railway station in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo today, killing six people and wounding 95 others, the military and a hospital official said.

A bomb tore through a passenger bus in southern Sri Lanka today, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, police said, a day after six people died in a similar bus blast near the capital.

INTERNATIONAL truce monitors have warned it is likely hundreds of civilians have been killed so far this month in Sri Lanka’s worst violence since a 2002 ceasefire.

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.

Sri Lanka’s military launched airstrikes on Tamil rebel bases today after navy craft came under attack, and a pro-rebel web site reported at least 12 people killed as the nation appeared to head back into full-scale fighting.

Norwegian envoy Eric Solheim arrived in northern Sri Lanka for crucial talks with the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels today, amid fears the island could return to civil war after four years of relative calm.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have recruited 137 children into their ranks since the Indian Ocean tsunami, nine of whom were taken directly from relief camps, the UN children's agency said today.

The couple claiming tsunami Baby 81 were arrested today after they stormed into the Sri Lankan hospital where the baby is being treated.

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.

Hundreds died when a train carrying 1,000 passengers from the Sri Lankan capital Colombo to Galle, on the southern tip of the island, was thrown off its tracks by Sunday’s waves.

Rescuers scoured waterlogged coasts across Asia today after an earthquake of epic power struck below the Indian Ocean and sent huge walls of water crashing onto beaches in at least nine countries, killing more than 14,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

MORE THAN 11,500 people were killed in seven countries as tidal waves from a massive undersea earthquake smashed into coastlines across Asia yesterday.

Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima was tonight involved in the first high-profile security breach of the Olympic Games as a spectator watching the men’s marathon accosted the long-time race leader.

The political alliance led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga won the largest number of seats in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections, officials said today, apparently forcing aside her longtime rival, the former prime minister.

At least nine people were killed and another 21 injured in a blast at a fireworks store in the heart of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo tonight.