Sri Lankan leaders are gung-ho about capturing by the year-end the country's northern regions the Tamil Tigers now control.

But ground realities do not match the optimism, say military observers who are predicting a military stalemate rather than an outright victory for either party.

Whatever suffering the Sinhala state and its international allies inflict on us, we are not going to give up now.

Sri Lanka has received six tenders from three foreign companies for oil exploration in its northwestern offshore Mannar basin, the country’s petroleum resource minister said on Thursday.

The blocks being put up for bids are estimated to contain 1 billion barrels of oil and would significantly alter the country’s energy sector and economy.

The head of the LTTE political wing has written to the Secretary General of the United Nations, urging him to "recognize Tamil sovereignty as a constructive approach to end the unending five decades long, large scale, and serious rights violations against the Tamil people."

Japan has told Sri Lanka that it has no plans to suspend development aid to the island nation as reported in the international media.

Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi told Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona over the phone Friday that his country had not changed its aid policy vis-à-vis Sri Lanka and it would stick to the commitments it had made.

While attempts by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to breach Tiger defense lines to advance into LTTE territory have become daily occurrences in Mannaar-Madu theatre of battle, civilians have become the silent casualties bearing the brunt of SLA rage.

Hundreds of families have been displaced and live in refugee camps, and many have been traumatized by injuries and deaths to family members due to aerial attacks, SLA mortar fire, and claymore attacks by SLA's Deep Penetration Units (DPUs).

A high-frequency surface wave radar, hailed as the only one of its kind in the world and developed with Canadian taxpayer's money at a cost of $39 million has been sold to Sri Lanka.

A Canadian defence firm, with the help of a state agency, has sold the high-tech radar system to the Sri Lankan government which, earlier this year, unilaterally terminated the Norwegian sponsored ceasefire agreement that was in place for the past six years plunging the island back into a bloody war.

The Sri Lankan government is not declaring formally that a military operation into Vanni has already begun.

Allow space for the Tamil Diaspora to provide much needed humanitarian assistance to their people'

We will not be deterred by thinly veiled threats, trying to undermine the morale of the military and save separatist terrorism'