"It holds grave fears for the safety of one UN national staff member and three dependent family members who were forcibly recruited over the weekend by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) inside the government declared no fire zone," the office said in a statement.

The statement added that another of its national staff members recruited two weeks ago has yet to be released. More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Mar 16 12:49:00 EDT 2009

The United Nations said the forced conscriptions came at the weekend, when nearly 2,000 people fled Sri Lanka's shrinking war zone as troops fought toward the final showdown in a 25-year war with the separatist Tamil Tigers.

It is the second time the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have forced a U.N. worker into its ranks. The United Nations and witnesses say hundreds of civilians have been forced to fight or build defenses against a military onslaught.

"The U.N. in Sri Lanka has protested to the LTTE that U.N. national staff, as well as children in general, are protected under national and international law from recruitment by armed groups, and has called for their immediate release," a U.N. statement said.

More...Discuss this story Published: Mon Mar 16 11:26:46 EDT 2009

``They (the LTTE) cannot come back. No way. Their time is over. They might carry out small, small attacks for a year or so but they are finished,’’ Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, popularly known as Colonel Karuna, told HT.

The rebels, Karuna added, still had about 1500 trained cadres and were surrounded by about a 100000 civilians in a small patch of land in the north-eastern district of Mullaitivu.

Prabhkaran, he claimed, had moved out of the battle zone and was now hiding in the thick jungles of Semamadu or Muralikulam in western or northern Lanka. More... Discuss this story Published: Sun Mar 15 17:12:00 EDT 2009