One of the world’s largest Banks, Deutsche Bank, has filed an arbitration claim against the government of Sri Lanka in a dispute related to oil derivatives entered into by Sri Lanka’s state-run petroleum utility.

The head of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has admitted that the country confronts significant economic problems and hoped the long anticipated military victory in the decade's long ethnic conflict would improve the fortunes of the island’s economy

Sri Lanka's government finances had been busted in 2008 with revenues 95 billion rupees below target, 118 billion rupees being printed by the central bank, while foreign financing turned negative, a local media reported citing the latest official data show.

SLA extensively used chemical weapons on LTTE combatants at Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) during the weekend, according to Lawrence, a senior commander of the LTTE, who personally encountered the attack and escaped, LTTE sources told TamilNet Tuesday, April 7.

As India gears up for general elections, the plight of Eelam Tamils is taking center stage in the election scene in Tamil Nadu for the first time in several years with all major political parties, including ruling DMK, main opposition AIADMK, Congress, BJP PMK, MDMK, CPI(M) and CPI, saying that the Eelam Tamils issue will figure prominently during the election campaign.

Majority of people in Tamil Nadu want the Indian government to support the LTTE in Sri Lanka, according to an opinion poll.

Even as his humanitarian affairs chief warned of an impending ‘bloodbath’ in Sri Lanka, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon refused to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

Responding to the spontaneous protests staged by Tamils in Norway demanding an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka, Norwegian international development minister Erik Solheim has said that he ‘cannot cause miracles’.

Sri Lanka on Monday 13 April stripped Norway of its role as broker of the island's moribund peace process, a government official told AFP.

THE horror that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it.

As in the medieval Mahavamsa, so today, the Tamils are no longer human.

As the Tamil diaspora in the United States and around the world staged huge protest rallies and launched hunger strikes, in a massive show of solidarity with Eelam Tamils being subjected to a genocidal war, in an unprecedented move, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake (via video conference) met a group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka.

In a statement released by the US embassy in Sri Lanka, the co-chairs of the now defunct Norwegion initiated peace process ‘expressed urgent concern for the safety of more than 100,000 people trapped by the conflict’ and ‘stressed the importance of a humanitarian pause and of ensuring that adequate supplies of food, water and medicine reach the civilians in the zone,’

The United Kingdom has again appealed for the urgent need for humanitarian ceasefire in Sri Lanka saying that it was concerned at the plight of civilians caught up in fighting between the Government troops and Liberation Tigers.