Instead, the little 10-year old seems fated to become a household name because the government has denied her access into Vishaka Vidyalaya on grounds of nothing more than her ethnicity. Nethmi Yogendra is a Tamil. And a Buddhist. Her father, also a Tamil Buddhist, schooled at Ananda College Colombo. During her short life as a student at President’s College, Nawala, Nethmi has studied in the Sinhalese medium.

Like Royal College and Ananda College are the preferred choice for boys, Vishaka Vidyalaya is one of the leading girls’ schools in Colombo, much sought after by scholarship winners from around the island, in particular because of its exacting education standards. Like free education, the Year V scholarship examination is one of the greatest gifts the state of Sri Lanka bestows upon its children, enabling the brightest students from the most remote corners of the island access to the very best schools in the country, based on their performance at the competitive examination held each year. More... Discuss this story Published: Sun Feb 17 18:24:39 EST 2008

Twelve rebels were killed in clashes the Jaffna peninsula yesterday, it said adding, one soldier also lost his life during the gun battle.

As many as three Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres were killed in Muhamalai in Jaffna yesterday while one rebel was gunned down in the same area later in the day, the Defence Ministry said. More... Discuss this story Published: Sun Feb 17 13:38:43 EST 2008

''A false propaganda saying our leader Prabhakaran is injured is being carried. Nobody can approach our leader,'' LTTE political head B Nadesan told the Tamil Daily Thinakkural in an interview on Saturday.

While the Sri Lankan security forces were claiming success in their clashes against LTTE, Nadesan said the ''people of Sri Lanka will realise the futility of such a claim in times to come''. More... Discuss this story Published: Sun Feb 17 13:26:01 EST 2008