* 36 civilians killed and 76 wounded in latest attack on ‘safety zone’

In one of the biggest hospitals in Sri Lanka's north, many women patients wonder why they survived the fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the military that killed so many of their friends.

Despite the massacres, the Tamils will not submit to Sinhala rule.

Whilst Sri Lanka believes its forces are on the brink of wiping out the LTTE after 30 years of war, the world is not so convinced.

16 Sri Lankan troopers have been killed in Ampaarai district in the east in three separate incidents since the beginning of this month, according to LTTE sources.

In fighting that lasted five days, over one thousand Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and an arms storage was seized by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to sources close to LTTE.

Parents of missing Sri Lankan soldiers this week urged the ICRC to approach the LTTE to check whether their sons were in Tiger custody as reports appeared in Colombo media of SLA over running an LTTE detention camp in Visuvamadu area.

Sri Lankan army's gains against Tamil Tigers too dearly bought, some soldiers' families say

Sea Tigers attacked a convoy of Sri Lankan naval crafts patrolling the north-eastern seas sinking two Arrow boats, according to the LTTE officials.

The leadership of the LTTE has named Selvarasa Pathmanathan, a high profile representative of the movement, as the Head of a newly established Department of International Relations, sources close to the LTTE said on Saturday, January 31.

Britain announced that aid to Sri Lanka would be doubled despite the south Asian island’s government refusing to heed to international calls to halt the war it’s waging in which hundreds of Tamils have been brutally killed in the past ten days alone.

The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, in a statement issued on Tuesday, January 27 said his government condemned the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, which has caused "unacceptable sufferings to the civilians," in the country.

As the number of Tamil civilian deaths mounted inside the government proposed safety zone due to artillery bombardment by Sri Lankan forces, the co-chairs and India reacted with varying responses showing disarray within the international community on Sri Lanka’s ongoing civil war.

Backing Delhi's stand on Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on February 3 urged the Sri Lankan government to ‘extend its full cooperation’ to ‘work out a permanent solution which will ensure full devolution of powers and autonomy to Tamils living in northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka’ while washing its hands off the ceasefire demand saying the state government had no right to interfere in the internal affairs of a foreign country.