Sri Lanka leader extends olive branch

SRI LANKA’S president declared his country “liberated from separatist terror” as state television broadcast images of the Tamil Tiger rebel leader’s body after it was recovered from the battlefield.

But in his victory address to parliament, President Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared to reach out to the minority Tamils, for whom the rebels had said they were trying to carve out a homeland. He also alluded to promises to forge a power-sharing agreement with them.

“Our intention was to save the Tamil people from the cruel grip of the (rebels). We all must now live as equals in this free country,” he said, briefly speaking in the Tamil language.