Sri Lanka's Minister of Highways and Road Development, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, was killed in a bomb blast at the public playground in Weliweraya, located in the Gampaha district of Western Province, around 8:00 a.m. April 6.

Fourteen others were killed and 60 wounded in the attack that took place while the minister was waving a flag to start off a marathon race in connection with the Tamil and Sinhala New Year celebrations.

Faced with stiff resistance from the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka has ordered emergency military supplies from Pakistan, according to official sources in India.

In a development noted with some concern by the Indian establishment, the Sri Lanka Army has sought 150,000 rounds of 60 mm mortar ammunition and as many hand grenades for immediate delivery, the sources said.

In the aftermath of Sunday’s attack which killed Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and 14 others and injured more than 83, the International Community Monday reiterated the urgent need for a negotiated political solution to end the longstanding ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

The European Union, the United States and Australia in separate statements called for an end to hostilities and the resumption of peace talks as the only way forward if peace was to return to Sri Lanka.

The highly venerated statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as ‘Our Lady of Madhu’, was removed from one of Sri Lanka's most revered catholic shrines for the first time in more than four centuries because of intensifying fighting.

Meanwhile the Sacred Heart Church in the Madhu Shrine complex was completely destroyed by Sri Lankan Army shelling.

Amidst a boycott by the main opposition and the main Tamil party on the island, the Sri Lankan government party and a paramilitary group allied with it claimed victory in the Batticaloa Municipal Council polls held earlier this month.

An emerging picture in recent times in Europe and North America is the active and successful participation of Tamils in the local politics. The new impetus seems to be coming from the younger generation of Eezham Tamils. Twelve candidates of Tamil origins have been elected to the local bodies of Paris and suburbs in the local government elections concluded last Sunday in France.

Heavy casualties and flooding of battle zones due to heavy rain has forced a pause in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) operations in the north, specifically in north-western Mannar region.

Over 55 SLA soldiers were killed in heavy fighting between the SLA and the LTTE on Saturday, March 22 at Iththikkandal in Paalaikkuzhi, Mannar.

ALL too many regions of the contemporary world are afflicted with recurring outbreaks of warfare between nation-states and ethnic or sectarian minorities. One of the worst has been festering for the past quarter-century in Sri Lanka, where 70,000 people have perished in intermittent fighting between a government dominated by a Sinhalese Buddhist majority and minority Tamils, who are mostly Hindu.

FOR 25 years, the dirty little war on the island in the Indian Ocean has stretched its octopus arms across the world. The ethnic Tamil diaspora has provided vital funding for separatist Tamil Tigers; remittances from Sri Lankan workers abroad have propped up the economy; the government has relied on foreign assistance to battle the insurgency.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu, including ones in the India’s coalition central government, have said that military aid to neighboring Sri Lanka should be stopped.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), constituents of the Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam -led DPA in Tamil Nadu, on March 13 accused the Central government India of functioning in contravention to Tamils' expectations on the Sri Lankan issue.

Expatriate Tamils in London last weekend held a remembrance ceremony for Rohan Rajasingham, an accomplished sportsman who strove against institutionalized Sinhala majoritarianism to better the conditions for aspiring Tamil sportsmen and women in Sri Lanka. Rajasingham passed away on January 8, 2008 after a brief battle with cancer, aged 50.

Flash floods triggered by torrential rain have affected more than 170,000 people in the war-torn Mannar and Batticaloa districts of Sri Lanka.

Over 50,000 people in Mannar and 120,000 in the eastern Batticaloa District have been affected by flooding caused by heavy rain which also left five dead, the National Disaster Relief Services Centre (NDRSC) said on 19 March.

Carrying the red and yellow flag, an impressive number of South Africans of Indian Origin, demonstrated outside the Indian Consulate in Durban on Thursday, March 20, to register their collective opposition to the military oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan Government.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from its Head Quarters in Vanni March 10 released a statement condemning the Indian 'State welcome' extended to Sri Lanka Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and the statements made by Indian military chiefs in this context.

"The Indian State must take the responsibility for the ethnic genocide of the Tamils that will be carried out by the Sinhala military, re-invigorated by such moves of the Indian State," the statement said.