"I have four daughters back home in Jaffna, and I am dead scared for them," said Arul Seeli, 56, who was interviewed Friday in Colombo. "I sent my other children abroad to save them from all this. I talked to them on the phone from Germany this morning, but they were afraid to tell me what they've heard, because they don't want to frighten me even more." More.. 4

In Colombo, it seems that most of the people The Straits Times spoke to actually do not really care anymore.

At the Galle Face Green, an open plot of land facing the Indian Ocean, the young and the not so young converge every evening for a game of cricket or just to enjoy the breeze the ocean brings.

To them, life goes on. More..

The government blamed the rebel Tamil Tigers for the shelling but there has been no independent confirmation of this. The shells, which were fired into the Gurunagar area in the south-east of the town, injured nine people. More..

The Sri Lanka Air Force on Friday claimed that it had bombed the LTTE's supply point to the peninsula at the Sangupiddy jetty on Friday, 12 May.

The Uthayan paper, however, said in its columns on Sunday that the SLAF had bombed Pallikudah, a coastal hamlet in the Pooneryn sector, and published the list of civilians who were killed in the Kfir bombing on Friday. More..

TULF leader, V.Anandsangari told TOINS, ``Once again, her resolve to solve the problem through constitutional means was very clear.'' The UNP, is also scheduled to meet other smaller parties separately to discuss the war scenario. More..

The escalation in fighting at Nagerkovil, which was located on the East coast of Jaffna, has added a new dimension as it was still not clear whether the LTTE was attempting to shift its fighting units to open a new front to enter the peninsula, analysts said. More..

Sri Lanka's Buddhist clergy, long an influential force in national politics, are stepping forward to rally the nation in its darkest hour. The string of defeats suffered by the army at the hands of separatist rebels, which has stunned and demoralized this island nation, has also drawn the monks out of their temples to try to hold the country together. More..

The People's Liberation Front (JVP) said that after waiting nearly two hours for Kumaratunga, they decided to table their proposals for ending the country's drawn out Tamil separatist conflict and walk away.

"The government did not even have the decency to explain or apologise for the president's delay at a meeting that was supposed to be of high national importance and urgency," the JVP general secretary Tilvin Silva said. More..

The aim is to 'flush out' Tamil Tiger rebels, who may have 'infiltrated' the besieged city and the army fears they may be there for purposes of sabotage. More.. l

Skimpy details of the offensive reaching here indicated continued offensive between the Tigers and the Government troops on the fringes of Jaffna town. Ground troops, backed by the limited air attacks by the Air Force, have, for the moment, checked rebel advances, which have not seen any major shift in the territorial balance during the past few days. More..

Unanimous domestic support could be a difficult objective, especially since the opposition UNP is now engaged in a political counter-offensive. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe spent the afternoon trying to convince leaders who had met the President not to support the government's efforts, which he says are leading Sri Lanka to ruin. More..

It said that the civilian casualties took place when the LTTE fired artillery shells into Gurunagar from the rebel controlled areas in Pooneryn, situated across the Jaffna lagoon. More..

Norway has offered to host talks between the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and has appointed Erik Solheim as an envoy to try and find a way to end the 17-year war. More..

Last Thursday, Parliament approved an additional 12 billon for defence expenditure. This increased the defence spending to 64 billion from last year's spending of 54 billion. That's not at all: The government' s all time borrowings increased to Rs 20 billion.

Economists say that increase in the defence spending is likely to create pressure on interest rates and inflation. There were also speculations that Sri Lankan currency rupee is likely to depreciate against dollar.

That's was not all: The chief, the director of government's information ministry later lodged a complaint with his minister who pacified him saying this "they are only testing your patience". The war has a funny side too.

"Terrorists appear to be in a state of disarray presumably due to large number of casualties they suffered during the earlier confrontations", the release from government's special media information center said.

Meanwhile during a confrontation in eastern Trincomalee two police constables were killed and five others wounded when Tiger rebels carried out a raid on a police checkpoint.

In a press release issued from the Tiger's international secretariat in London they said, "Strategically important city outskirts of Ariyalai, Manianthodam, Columbuthurai, sections of Passaiyur, Pungankulam, Nedunkulam, have already fallen to the Tigers making the city centre vulnerable to LTTE assault."

"Heavily armed Tamil Tiger troop formations who have moved in large numbers from LTTE bases in Vanni into the Jaffna theatre of war are gearing up for the decisive battle."

The Tiger press statement further claimed that despite a curfew imposed by the military in Jaffna, civilians are moving out of the battle zones into safer areas.

The LTTE also alleged that "Israeli built Kifir fighter-bombers have launched blind and indiscriminate bombing on civilian areas in the Jaffna peninsula and in Poonagarin. Five civilians, including two children, were killed and ten seriously injured when Israeli combat aircrafts bombed a fishing village at Pallikuda in the Poonagarin area around 5.30p.m. Friday May 12, 2000."

The statement by the Tigers is followed by the government today moving in thousands of ground troops to help armed forces bases in Jaffna. The government also claims that planes have been successful in holding back rebel advances towards Jaffna.

Gun-toting commandos stand on guard with whirring helicopters above them and naval boats cruise the Palk Straits near the coastal town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu state, just an 18-km (11-mile) boat ride from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. More..

As fighting in the north of the country escalates, Colombo's residents seem to have a cause for greater concern. The last thing they want is for the war to spill over again into the guarded peace in "Fortress Colombo". More..

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge meanwhile has reiterated that she will not allow for some half a million people in Jaffna to come under rebel rule.

The military meanwhile reiterates that fierce rebel onslaughts have been repulsed. The government while admitting that fighting continues to rage in the area of Colombuthurai, said that troops fought back attempts by the LTTE to breach its defences. The rebels launched fresh attacks beginning Friday on the Elluthumaduval-Kilali road which is situated north of Elephant Pass.

Meanwhile additional reinforcements are being sent to the area. Major General Janaka Perera Thursday flew to Colombo to brief the President on the situation in the north.

But three days after claiming that Jaffna was "as good as gone", the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to be at the doorstep of the city and failed to break through the defences mounted by the air force.

Neither Sinhalese nor Tamil commentators could come up with any convincing explanation for the continuing lull. More..

At one stroke, Karunanidhi has lent credibility to the charges that Sri Lanka has been making over the years that the Tigers have been supported from India with money and materials, given refuge, trained in special camps set up for the purpose, (against the advice of successive chiefs of army staff, I might add), all to make life more difficult for the Sri Lankan government. More..

The temple's sanctum sanctorum is believed to have been built by Parakrama Bahu, the King of Ceylon, in the 12th century A.D. More..

On the controversial question of whether India was asked to help fight the LTTE, Mr Kadirgamar said the Sri Lankan government had conveyed such a request to the Indian government through the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, Mr Shivshankar Menon. More..

"It is not just new weapons and ammunition that is being sent up north, but also troops reinforcements to ensure that the Tigers are resisted," a military official said. More.. l

The human rights group said it was the responsibility of both the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE to adhere to international humanitarian laws related to war. More..

A government statement issued in Colombo said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were firing artillery and mortars at densely populated locations of Jaffna town, the cultural capital of their would-be homeland. More..

"That's pie in the sky. There was no such axis," he said. "As a sovereign state we don't require the help or permission of any other state to establish relations with another state." More..

"The ban on LTTE was to expire on Sunday and the government has extended it for another two years", Advani told reporters here. More..

"We have reliable reports that the Tigers are inside Jaffna," a Western diplomat who requested anonymity said on Friday. "But this is nowhere near over." More..