The blast took place at a crowded refugee camp in Vishvamadu, a town in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation which had been a stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The town was recently captured by the Sri Lankan military as part of its ongoing offensive to corner the Tigers and end a 25-year civil war, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. An estimated 20 soldiers were killed along with at least 8 women and children, he said.

"A large number of civilians are coming in seeking protection from the army," said Nanayakkara. "When we were checking this female - by a woman soldier - she exploded herself. It shows their desperation at this stage in the war." More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 9 07:39:14 EST 2009

Speaking from an undisclosed location, Sonali Samarasinghe told the Guardian she had had to flee the country after the government "did nothing" to catch her husband's killers.

A month after he was murdered on his way to work by a gang on motorbikes, the police have still not published a description of the murder weapon or asked for help in tracking down the assassins, she claimed. More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 9 23:41:01 EST 2009

After Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected president of Sri Lanka in 2005, there was only a brief respite before the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE) provoked him into prosecuting an all-out war. His predecessor, the architect of a ceasefire who was considering devolving power, was defeated largely because of the Tiger-enforced boycott of the Tamil electorate in the north. Now the irony is that the terrorist outfit is on the receiving end as never before.

The Sri Lankan army, with its superior firepower, has pushed the Tigers into a small area. The LTTE have taken more than 150,000 civilians with them as a human shield - and the danger is that large numbers of these people could now be in peril. More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 9 23:39:35 EST 2009