It is a major process, but the monitors would be packed up and out within the deadline, which was set for Jan, 16, Pia Hansson, one member of the Monitoring Mission, told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten over the telephone.

"On a personal level, we are all disappointed," she added.

The monitors must leave Sri Lanka after government officials formally announced this week that they are terminating a ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The ceasefire had been hammered out nearly six years ago by Norwegian peace brokers. More... Discuss this story Published: Fri Jan 4 22:30:44 EST 2008

January 4, 2008

Before consummating the arms deal, buyers for a South Asian rebel group needed an expert.

So they turned to Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, a citizen of Sri Lanka and a member of the Tamil Tigers, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Prosecutors say he knew how to inspect the fully automatic weapons and surface-to-air missiles to determine whether they had flaws.

Varatharasa was arrested in Guam after inspecting the military hardware during a clandestine meeting with undercover American agents from Maryland.

In U.S. District Court in Baltimore yesterday, the 37-year-old father of two received a sentence of almost five years in federal prison on charges of conspiracy to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization and the attempted exportation of arms and munitions.

Varatharasa is one of six More... Published: Fri Jan 4 23:41:47 EST 2008

"I wish to underline that the termination of the CFA (Ceasefire Agreement) does not in anyway hamper the process of moving towards a negotiated political settlement," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogallagama told reporters.

"In fact it gives us a broader space to pursue this goal in a manner that involves all sections of the Sri Lankan polity, which remained sidelined due to the CFA," he said after talks with heads of various missions on the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement.

He said President Mahinda Rajapakse had made it clear that the doors remain open for the LTTE to join this process. More... Discuss this story Published: Fri Jan 4 14:18:56 EST 2008