Tamil Nadu prepared for a total shut down on February 4, Sri Lanka’s Independence Day to protest against the killing Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to little more than enough for six weeks of imports. And Japan, traditionally the island’s biggest donor, is cutting aid globally.

In his dream of monumental importance in the modern human history, Dr. King declared that all men are created equal and that they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

Whilst political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the main opposition BJP, called for the removal of the ban on LTTE, the Congress led central government again requested Sri Lanka for the extradition of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan from Sri Lanka.

Children can be more traumatized by the war than adults, but there are things we can do about it

The Sri Lankan government which is adamant that the local currency, Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR), will not be devalued continued spending large sums of its already dwindling foreign reserves trying to prop up the Rupee at its current levels against the US Dollar.

Three thousand Sri Lankan soldiers were killed fighting the Liberation Tigers in the past three months, the Sunday Island newspaper reported this week, quoting government Defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.

SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka on Sunday January 18 said that as there were only a thousand Tamil Tigers left and they were “boxed” into a small jungle area in Mullaitivu, the war would soon be won.

Lasantha Wickrematunghe, editor-in-chief of The Sunday Leader, who was gunned down in an execution-style shooting on Thursday, January 8, writing from his grave pointed the finger at his killers. Three days after the killing, Wickrematunge's newspaper published a haunting, self-written obituary in which he says he was targeted for his writings and adds: "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."

"There are no words to describe the plight of the civilians who say that they prefer to face death on the spot rather than succumbing to serious injuries or ending up in the hands of the invading Sri Lankan forces, which many of them regard as genocidal military and fear that their young men and women would be 'filtered' away, tortured or killed by it," reported a TamilNet correspondent from an outskirt of Puthukkudiyiruppu last Sunday evening amid artillery fire.

The LTTE doesn't obstruct the civilians of Vanni or instruct them on what direction they have to take in fleeing the current phase of war, but people want to stay in LTTE areas for security reasons argues the head of a Vanni welfare organisation.

Indiscriminate fire by the Sri Lanka Army from all corners of a shrinking territory already overcrowded with civilians has worsened the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the Vanni.

Following the capture of Kilinochchi and Elephant Pass Sri Lankan defence establishment started psychological operations targeting the Tamil Diaspora spread across the globe, according to informed sources.

Tens of thousands of people, on the run because of fighting between Sri Lankan government troops and the LTTE, have no safe passage, the Red Cross said Friday.