The LTTE Peace Secretariat claimed today that 23 children were handed over to the Chairperson of the North East Secretariat for Human Rights (NESOHR) in Kilinochchi.

The LTTE office noted that out of the 23, four children were handed over to their parents today, while the NESOHR is trying to trace the parents of the other 19 children.

Meanwhile the Army which claimed to have saved a teenager from the clutches of the LTTE noted that preliminary investigations have revealed that the two LTTE cadres namely K. Sinnathurai from kalkudah and S.R. Kumar from Valachchenai had abducted the boy when he was riding his father’s motorcycle. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has been informed of this latest incident. Published: Thu Feb 3 12:48:06 EST 2005

Also on Thursday, the government's main disaster management body wrapped up its work.

The Center for National Operations, or CNO, was set up soon after the Dec. 26 disaster, and handled all tsunami related work including maintaining casualty figures.

The agency, however, failed to reconcile a discrepancy between the death tolls of different government bodies.

Based on police reports, the Public Security Ministry reported last month that it had counted 38,195 bodies. The Social Services Ministry, which gathers reports from regional bureaucrats, said 30,957 were dead.

Although the security ministry has stopped releasing casualty figures, the CNO's death toll stands at 30,974. Another 4,698 remain missing. Published: Thu Feb 3 08:27:29 EST 2005

Authorities wanted information about children orphaned by the December 26 tsunami as well as those being cared for by friends and relatives, said the commissioner of Probation and Child Care, Sarath Abeygunawardena, on Wednesday.

"The information we have so far shows there are 995 children who lost both parents and another 3,409 who lost at least one parent," Abeygunawardena told reporters here. More... Published: Thu Feb 3 14:25:24 EST 2005