Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee cancelled his engagements to hold urgent talks with senior colleagues on the situation. More..

[Listen] Published: Tue May 23 21:25:48 EDT 2000

More.. Published: Tue May 23 19:37:51 EDT 2000

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaranatunge spoke with CNN about the war and her personal involvement in the government (Note: Cleared by Sri Lankan censors) [Watch]

India is Seeing an influx of refugees from the war [Watch] Published: Tue May 23 15:52:56 EDT 2000

Meanwhile 'Reporters Sans Frontiers' an international media organization, also issued a statement today which protested against a Sri Lankan Government decision yesterday to shut down the press of The Sunday Leader and its sister paper.

A staff member of The Sunday Leader told Lacnet the news paper plans to take legal action against the State decision to keep it closed for a period of six months. Similar to 'The Uthayan' newspaper in Jaffna, 'The Sunday Leader' too had about 100 employees on its staff. Published: Tue May 23 09:52:58 EDT 2000

The three day visit by the norwegian delegation takes place while fierce fighting rages in the Jaffna peninsula in the northern part of Sri Lanka. The LTTE-gerilla, the so-called Tamil tigers, are now fighting to regain lost territory.

The norwegian peace intiative in Sri Lanka, to bring the parties of the confict to the negotiations table, is vinning more and more support from the United Nations, USA and the European Union. Almost 60000 people have lost their lives on the island during the last two decades. More... Published: Mon May 22 11:58:17 EDT 2000

Brigadier Palitha Fernando, military spokesman today denied the Tigers are in control of 13 kilometeres of the A9 highway.

Brigadier Fernando also refuted claims by the rebels last week which alleged they had offered for troops in the North to surrender in order to avoid a bloodbath. The LTTE also claimed that in the event soldiers took the rebels up on their offer they would be safely handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) within 24 hours of a laying down of arms.

Brigadier Fernando said the military was not aware of such an offer being made by the Tigers and in the event it is brought to the armed forces notice there is no way the military will agree to a surrender. "We will fight to hold Jaffna," he said.

Meanwhile the rebels are reported to be making repeated calls over its clandestine radio asking civilians in the Thenamarachi division to move out or construct bunkers to protect themselves from heavy artillery fire by both the Tigers and Government troops. Published: Mon May 22 10:01:49 EDT 2000

Tamil news services reported that the radio said that another four civilians were killed at Kallikaadu in Kaithady this morning when artillery was fired on the village.

There is no independent confirmation of this report. Published: Mon May 22 10:01:49 EDT 2000

The funds were given to Tourist Board of Sri Lanka to launch an aggressive marketing campaign aiming at the arrival of 533,000 tourists this year. During the first three months of this year, the arrival of tourists marginally fell by 0.2 percent compared to last year's figures.

The figures fell after separatist Tamil Tigers exploded a series of bombs during rush-hour traffic at Rajagiriya two months ago which claimed the lives of over 22 persons. Just after the explosions, two passenger vessels MB Victoria and MB Oriana carrying 2,750 passengers pulled-out, cutting short of their stay in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Colombo city hotels are preparing to scrape the dregs of the diminishing tourist arrival. The hotels were targeting the visiting foreign journalists in Sri Lanka to cover the ongoing northern battle between government troops and LTTE cadres. Some of the hotels were offering special packages to visiting journalists.

Government sources said that during the past three weeks at least 150 journalists from all over the world had arrived to cover the latest battles. Published: Mon May 22 09:19:14 EDT 2000

The 'Uthayan' newspaper in Jaffna was sealed last week for not adhering to censorship rules. The Sunday Leader since the censorship was introduced has for the last two weeks shown the Censor, Mr. Ariya Rubesinghe to be acting in a foolish manner. The paper also stated in this article that the present censorship introduced by the government was not to protect national security but to safeguard the government before a parliamentary election is held.

In a second lead story published yesterday the newspaper reported a more or less accurate description of the war this last week, written however in the negative. The report had not been submitted to the Censor. Published: Mon May 22 08:40:26 EDT 2000