In a shocking revelation Indian intelligence authorities have warned the Tamilnadu police the Karuna Group in Sri Lanka might infiltrate the state and abduct political leaders in order to put the blame on the LTTE, Indian media said yesterday.

All police stations in Tamilnadu have been alerted following this warning and security has been tightened in areas where political leaders, especially the anti-LTTE leaders live, the report added.

OVER two thousand Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and four thousand wounded in the battles of 2007, the commander of the SLA, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told a conference at Army Headquarters last week, the Sunday Times reported. He claimed over five thousand Tamil Tigers were also killed last year. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has forbidden military officials from giving interviews and launched a hunt for those leaking details to the media.

Sri Lankan Army Chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka, who is on a week long visit to Pakistan, will hold talks with his counterpart there on various issues including purchase of arms for his forces, embroiled in an intense battle with Tamil Tigers.

Lt Gen Fonseka, who left for Pakistan on Sunday on an official tour, is slated to discuss several issues including defence purchases, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry has come under attack for engineering a health disaster in LTTE administered Vanni by blocking medical supplies to the region.

Sri Lanka Army Media Director V.U.B Nanayakkara, USP has sent the following response to an article which appeared in The Sunday Times under the headline “Life in Jaffna: The seen and the unseen, the told and the untold”

Norway last week urged India to play a more proactive role in the Sri Lankan conflict by mediating between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and said it stands ready to fully support such an initiative.

However Sri Lanka dismissed any Norwegian involvement in future peace efforts and said it will not issue a special invitation to its ‘big brother’ to play the role of mediator.

Tamil Nadu leaders, including Chief Minister of the state called on the Indian government to stop supplying weapons to the Sri Lankan state and assist in finding a last solution to decades long ethnic conflict.
Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi suggested that India organise negotiations between the warring parties in Sri Lanka to bring peace to the island nation.

Despite continuing human rights violations including intimidation of media personnel, abductions and killings attributed to state security forces, the US has announced $ 12 million in aid to Sri Lanka.

The U.S. government announcement comes, even as the U.S. congress ruled out Sri Lanka for a debt cancellation programme due to its human rights situation.

Sri Lanka’s garment industry is worried that the duty free access it enjoys to European markets will soon be cut due to the gross human rights violations related to the government’s pursuit of a military solution to the long-standing ethnic conflict.

A panel of top international legal luminaries told Sri Lanka's government on Tuesday to clean up its human rights record, saying an escalating war against Tamil Tigers had brought with it grave abuses.

A French aid agency that operated in conflict areas in Sri Lanka and lost 17 of their local workers in a single incident two years ago has labeled the massacre as a ‘war crime’ and decided to withdraw from Sri Lanka.

High global food and fuel prices are damaging Sri Lanka's economic growth more than its ongoing civil war, the central bank governor said on Tuesday, but shrugged off suggestions it could miss a 7 percent target.

The Asian Development Bank said earlier this month growth would probably slow to 6 percent this year and next on high interest rates and global economic weakness.

As the polling day for the Provincial Council election nears, election related violence is on the increase according to media reports.

Complaints regarding at least 49 incidents of violence related to the forthcoming provincial elections have been lodged at various police stations in Eastern province until Saturday, May 3, according to the Police.