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Sri Lanka held remembrance ceremonies in various parts of the island nation to mark the fourth anniversary of the devastating tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, that claimed over 40,000 lives and displaced more than half a million people..
An island-wide two-minute silence was observed Friday morning as friends and relatives of those...
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 Two Sri Lankan police were killed in a claymore mine
explosion while escorting a Japanese official on a visit in eastern Sri Lanka, a
region recaptured from Tamil rebels. It had been under the control of
separatist rebels for more that 25 years. The Japanese aid convoy was visiting
an agricultural irrigation project in Vavunathivu...
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...the 166th day of 2007 with 199 to follow.
The moon is new. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Prince Edward of England, son of Edward III and known as the "Black Prince," in 1330;...
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The editor of an anti-government newspaper was shot and seriously injured in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo Thursday morning, police said.
The editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, Lasantha Wickrematunga, was shot near his office by an unidentified gunman in Attitiya, 12 kilometres south of the city centre.
The newspaper has...
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Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday demanded that Tamil rebels release civilians "held hostage" in the country's war zones.
He alleged that civilians have been prevented from leaving rebel-held areas in the northern part of the country.
Some 300,000 civilians are living in rebel-controlled areas, where the...
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Fighting continued in northern Sri Lanka amid increasing casualties on both sides as government troops moved closer to strategic locations, military officials said Friday.
The army said its troops confronted rebels in several areas surrounding the town of Kilinochchi, 370 kilometres north of the capital, Colombo, on Thursday,...
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Heavy fighting raged between government troops and Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka as soldiers inched their way into rebel-controlled areas amidst mounting casualties on both sides, reports from the area said, officials and rebel sources said Thursday.
Tamil rebels claimed they killed 89 soldiers in fighting outside Kilinochchi...
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Two soldiers were killed and 13 others were injured in an accidental shooting at a military training camp in north-central Sri Lanka on Friday, military officials said.
The incident occurred in Nochchiyagama, 180 kilometres north of the capital, where a group of soldiers was training.
The area is vulnerable to Tamil rebel...
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Sri Lanka's Navy and Air Force jointly attacked a cluster of Tamil rebel boats off the island's north-eastern coast on Tuesday morning, killing at least six rebels, military officials said.
Fighting broke out after the Sri Lanka Navy's elite Special Boat Squadron confronted a cluster of "sea tiger" boats off Nayaru, more...
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Government troops captured key rebel-held areas in northern Sri Lanka on Monday as security forces intensified ground and airstrikes after taking control of a strategic coastal town in the region, military officials said.
Troops controlled of a strategic junction on a main highway to the northern part of the country Monday and a...
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Two strategic coastal villages in north-western Sri Lanka, both frequently used by rebels to smuggle in military hardware from South India, were brought under government control after a fierce round of fighting, military officials said Thursday.
The two villages, known as Devil's Point and Vallaipadu, lie 360 kilometres north of...
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Government troops captured a strategic village held by Tamil separatist rebels as government forces continued their offensive to retake all of northern Sri Lanka, a military spokesman said Thursday.
The capture of the village in Akkarayankulam, 360 kilometres north of Colombo, came after nearly three months of fighting in the...
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Tamil rebels used a crude light aircraft to penetrate air-defence systems and drop two bombs on a power station in the capital, killing one employee, military officials in Sri Lanka said.
Despite warnings by the military and civilians that the low-flying aircraft was heading towards the capital, it managed to drop the bombs at the...
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Tamil rebels launched a suicide attack on two merchant ships off a harbour in northern Sri Lanka, causing considerable damage to the hull of one of the ships Wednesday morning, the Defence Ministry said.
The ships, carrying essential supplies for civilians in the north, came under attack off Kankesanthurai harbour, 410 kilometres...
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A United Nations food convoy consisting of 50 trucks heading to rebel-held areas in northern Sri Lanka, where tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced, was forced to turn back Thursday due to firing by the rebels, the military claimed.
A military statement said that the trucks turned back at Puliyankulam, 280 kilometres...
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Government troops killed 47 Tamil rebels while suffering six fatalities in offensive operations in northern Sri Lanka, military officials said Wednesday.
The casualties occurred Tuesday in ongoing fighting in central and coastal areas of Killinochchi district, 380 kilometres north of the capital.
Government troops have engaged...
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There were positive signals from talks brokered by Egypt with Palestinian factions, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in New Delhi Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of a four-day visit to India, Abbas also said a decision on elections in the Palestinian Territories - presidential and legislative -...
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An Indian student was knifed and hospitalized in serious condition in a provincial Belarusian town, sparking a rare university demonstration and class boycott, the Belapan news agency reported on Tuesday.
The racially-motivated attack by a reported gang of Slavic nationalists took place in the central city Gomel near the town's...
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday underlined India's importance to the Middle East peace process as India promised is ongoing support and announced a 20-million-dollar assistance package.
"India is playing an important role in all fields (concerning Palestine), including the peace process ... We appreciate...
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A suicide bomber killed least 27 people, including an opposition politician and former military officer who spearheaded military operations against Tamil rebels, and injured 94 others in north-central Sri Lanka Monday, police said.
Retired Major General Janaka Perera was taking part in the opening of a political office of his party -...
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Air force jets bombed the Tamil rebel police headquarters in a northern town in Sri Lanka Friday as ground troops were poised in the outskirts of the city, military officials and Tamil rebel sources said.
The rebel police headquarters, located in Kilinochchi town, 380 kilometres north of the capital, was bombed by an undisclosed...
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Air force fighter jets bombed Tamil rebel strongholds in a town in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday as government troops advanced toward the area.
The military claimed they targeted five rebel locations, including two rebel bases in the town of Kilinochchi, 380 kilometres north of the capital, but the rebels said two civilians were killed...
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Sri Lanka Sunday condemned the bomb attack at Hotel Marriot in Islamabad and said it supports all measures being taken by Pakistan to combat terrorism.
"The government of Sri Lanka unequivocally condemns this abominable act of terrorism that has claimed precious civilian life and injured scores of others as well as destroyed...
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The Sri Lanka Navy on Thursday destroyed a Tamil rebel boat and at least 40 guerillas were killed in a series of fierce clashes in the military's offensive to retake rebel-held areas in the north by the end of the year, military officials said.
A battle erupted between the navy and the separatist rebels off the north-western city of...
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The Sri Lanka Navy said it destroyed 10 Tamil rebel boats and killed at least 25 guerillas Thursday in a more than three-hour naval battle.
At least another 40 members of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were killed in a series of fierce clashes in the military's offensive to retake rebel-held areas in the north by the...
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Security in Sri Lanka's capital was tightened after a bomb exploded inside a bus Tuesday minutes after it was detected and passengers got off, police said.
Despite the evacuation of the bus, four people were injured, police said. The explosion occurred in the centre of Colombo and caused extensive damage to the bus.
Police said the...
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Dozens of local and foreign aid workers started pulling out from rebel-held areas in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday, following an order from the Defence Ministry.
Vehicles carrying staff members and material of non-governmental organizations arrived in the government-controlled town of Vavuniya, 240 kilometres north of the capital, with...
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Tamil rebels on Tuesday launched a ground and air attack on a military complex in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 10 soldiers and losing an equal number of their own fighters, the rebels and the military said.
The attack came as local and international non-governmental organizations prepared to withdraw their staff from the...
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India and China began high-level talks Monday amid a new strain in bilateral relations over Beijing's perceived negative role that threatened Indian efforts for civilian nuclear trade with the world.
Indian officials criticized China for objecting to a trade waiver for India at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on the weekend.
The...
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At least five soldiers and 36 rebels were killed in fighting in northern Sri Lanka as troops further expanded their area of control, military officials said Thursday.
The fighting was reported from Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu districts, over 300 kilometres north of the capital.
In one of the incidents in Thunukkai,...
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An international human rights watchdog says immigrant maids in Lebanon are dying of "unnatural causes" at an alarming rate and called for an immediate investigation, local radios reported Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at least 95 migrants who worked as domestic servants died in Lebanon since January 2007, mostly...
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Fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) movement is causing a humanitarian crisis as civilians flee from their homes into rebel-held territory in the north of the country, local officials said on Monday.
Clashes to the south of the town of Kilinochchi, 320 kilometres...
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Government troops intensified an offensive in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 32 rebels and losing eight soldiers, the Defence Ministry said Monday.
Fighting was reported from four fronts in the northern part of the country on Sunday as troops moved further into rebel-controlled areas, more than 300 kilometres north of Colombo,...
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Air force fighter jets on Thursday bombed Tamil rebel targets in northern Sri Lanka as troops consolidated positions they captured overnight, killing at least seven guerillas, a military spokesman said.
The military said the air force bombed what they identified as resistance points located at Thunukkai in Mullaitivu, 380 kilometres...
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Government troops advanced through mine fields and heavy resistance to capture a Tamil rebel complex in northern Sri Lanka, the Defence Ministry said Wednesday.
Troops captured the Kalvilan area, located 370 kilometres north of the capital in the Mullaitivu district after forcing the rebels to flee, the ministry said.
The...
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Foreign ministers of eight South Asian nations
are set to open a regional meeting Thursday where common issues
including trade, transport, environment and poverty are to be
discussed. The meeting takes place ahead of a meeting of the
eight countries' heads of state over the weekend during the 15th summit
of the South Asian...
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Nepal's main political parties Wednesday agreed to allow the caretaker prime
minister to lead the Nepalese delegation to a regional summit being
held in Sri Lanka, a government minister said. Prime Minister
Girija Prasad Koirala's attendance at the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit on August 2-3 was in...
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 According to a military spokesperson, government troops repulsed an attack around a throttlehold of Tamil separatist rebels in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 29 guerillas. On Friday, troops recovered 29 bodies of murdered rebels after the fighting which occurred Thursday in the Mallavi area, 320 kilometres north-east of Colombo,...
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Sri Lankan jets bombed Tamil rebel boats
carrying weapons in two separate air raids off the country's
north-eastern coast Friday, Air Force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka
Nanayakkara said. He said the air raids were carried out off the coast of Mullaitivu, 360 kilometres north-east of the capital Colombo. At least two boats...
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 At least four civilians were killed and 25 others injured
when gunmen ambushed a crowded passenger bus in Sri Lanka’s deep south on Friday,
according to army officials.
The incident took place in the southern town of Buttala, 240km
south-east of the capital, Colombo,
considerably far from the regular struggle regions in the...
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 A roadside bomb exploded near a crowded bus
near Colombo killing
21 people and wounded 47, the military said. The bus bombing occurred during
the morning rush hour near the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Friday.
The Sri Lanka’s government blamed Tamil
Tigers rebels for the bombing. The latest attack on civilians in the...
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17 people were wounded when a packed commuter train in the
Sri Lankan capital, Colombo,
was hit by a bomb, BBC News reports.
The incident took place as the train was passing between Wellawatte
and Dehiwela districts. The bomb exploded just seconds after the last carriage
of the train passed by.
The Tamil Tigers were...
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A bomb that blasted on Monday destroyed part of a packed
passenger train, killing eight people and wounding seventy others near Colombo.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara made Tamil Tiger rebels responsible for
the bombing. This attack is the second in four days targeting civilians.
Another bomb was dropped last Friday...
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 Cyclone Nargis took more than 130,000 lives and left more than 2 million
homeless, the U.N. says, quoted by CNN. It appears that a second catastrophe
awaits if new rice is not planted in the coming weeks, a potential massive food
shortage.
“We are all going to die here, “farmer U Han Nyunt said, quoted by the same
source. “But not...
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 As a result of an attack that Sri Lanka military forces undertook
against rebel positions in north of the country, 61 Tamil Tigers and 17
soldiers were killed. The onrush was a response to the suicidal bomb blast in
the capital Colombo
on Friday. Eleven people died then.
Conflicts between government forces and the...
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 Sri Lanka’s Defense Ministry informed of the capture of Adampan town in northern Mannar district as a result of the two-hour fighting that took place Friday. There were seventeen casualties, among which fifteen Tamil Tigers rebels.
"They had built fortified connected bunkers in the area. The area had to be liberated for people...
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 29 ethnic Tamil rebels and one government soldier were
killed in separate incidents across Sri Lanka, the military said
Friday.
The conflict erupted Thursday along the front lines in the
Vavuniya, Manna, Jaffna
and Welioya regions, the military added.
Six Tamil Tiger rebels were killed when the army destroyed
three bunkers...
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 At least 52 Tamil Tiger rebels and 15 soldiers were killed in
northern Sri Lanka
in one of the deadliest clash between the Tamil rebels and government troops,
the military said.
10 Tamil Tiger rebels and one soldier were killed in clashes
Tuesday, the military added.
Two divisions from the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) took part...
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 Sri Lankan air forces bombed rebel positions in the north of the island on
Monday, while troops killed 49 Tamil Tiger rebels in fighting, military officials
said, Reuters reports.
The air raids began a
day after a suspected rebel suicide bomber murdered a cabinet minister, Jeyaraj
Fernandopulle, 55, and 13 other people on...
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 New clashes in the Sri Lanka zone between Sri Lankan troops and the Tigers rebels have been reported by AFP. The security forces have taken major offensive actions against Tamil Tigers after at least 100 rebels and five soldiers died during the conflicts on Saturday and Sunday. The report was announced by the defense ministry.Early on...
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 The Sri Lanka Air Force said it bombed a hideout of senior Tamil rebel
leaders Thursday in the northern part of the country and captured a
rebel-controlled area, killing at least 18 rebels, as an ineffective
ceasefire was officially terminated.
The rebels were killed in three separate incidents as troops
advanced into the...
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 At least 33 people were killed Wednesday in the bombing of a passenger
bus and followed by an attack on a group of farmers in south-eastern
Sri Lanka shortly before a battered ceasefire between the government
and separatist Tamil rebels was due to end.
After the roadside claymore mine explosion, attackers opened fire
on the bus in...
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 Government troops Wednesday captured a rebel-held area in north-western
Sri Lanka and claimed to have killed at least 34 Tamil insurgents,
military officials said.
They said the troops took control of a 1-kilometer stretch in the
Parappakandal area of Mannar district, 320 kilometres north of the
capital, amidst stiff resistances...
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More than 250 trainee soldiers came down Thursday with food poisoning in eastern Sri Lanka after eating bread and fish, a medical officer in the area said.
Some of the trainees fainted and suffered from vomiting at their camp in Henanigala, 290 kilometres east of Colombo, Dr WCK Weeramana said.
At least 125 of the trainee soldiers...
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 The popular British science
fiction author and inventor Sir Arthur C. Clarke was buried on Saturday at a
private funeral in Sri Lanka.
The famous author died on Tuesday of respiratory problems and heart failure. He was 90 years old
and was living at his home in Sri Lanka.
Clarke’s death saddened millions
of fans from all around...
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 Sir Arthur C. Clarke, one of the
most visionary and famous science fiction authors ever, died on Tuesday at 90.
Clarke was not only a popular sci-fi author and futurist, but also an inventor.
However, Sir Arthur C. Clarke will probably be always remembered as the writer
of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a novel that will always remain a...
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 Oceans,
which cover about 70 percent of the planet, have been affected by people in all
possible ways.
A team of
American, British and Canadian researchers has developed a study, analyzing all
17 activities through which humans impact the oceans, and their conclusion was
that every square mile of the ocean has been damaged...
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 Thousands of New Zealanders defied heavy rain on Monday to pay their
respects to the country's greatest modern-day hero, Everest conqueror
Sir Edmund Hillary, who died on January 11, as he lay in state at
Auckland's Anglican Cathedral.
The cathedral's doors will stay open all night to allow thousands
of mourners to file past the...
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 Officials stated that a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber caused an entire blast in the main building of the opposition party in Sri Lanka on Monday. The explosion killed nearly 27 people, among which there was a retired senior general. The attack occurred in the town of Anuradhapura and it seems that it represented an act of revenge against...
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Winners from Germany, India, Somalia and the United States were cited Wednesday for peace work and social justice when the 2008 Right Livelihood Awards, often called the Alternative Nobel Prize, were announced.
Four of the five prize winners were women, Ole von Uexkull of the Right Livelihood Foundation said, noting the awards have a...
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A jury Wednesday named winners from Germany, India, Somalia and the United States as recipients of the 2008 Right Livelihood Awards, often called the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Two of the award winners were from the North and have worked to create ties with the so-called developing world, Ole von Uexkull of the Right Livelihood...
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Researchers from 11 Indian Ocean littoral states have begun training tsunami detection techniques in the northern German port city of Bremerhaven, a project official disclosed Monday.
With the Weser River as their classroom, the specialists in particular are learning to use surveying equipment used for taking measurements of the...
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Lack of access to sanitation remains a major impediment to global development while claiming hundreds of lives daily, experts agreed Monday as the annual World Water Week opened Monday.
Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander one of the dignataries at the meeting, that said despite progress to build latrines and improve sanitation around...
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 Anglican bishops launched their conference held once in
every ten years with a complex worship ceremony on Sunday, turning their
attention to a plea for unity and accord in spite of the serious rupture
generated by the divided views upon the Bible and homosexuality.
About one-quarter of the summoned Anglican bishops are
staying...
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 Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday in his traditional Christmas Day greeting
and Urbi et Orbi message "to the city and the world" urged the faithful
to accept God's "great light" of peace.
Christmas is the "holy day on which the 'great light' of Christ
shines forth, bearing peace," the pontiff said from the...
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According to local authorities and the military, Sri Lankan
troops killed 17 Tamil Tiger rebels in clashes in the north of the island on
Monday, as renewed civil war escalates.
The engagements, in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Monday and northern
district of Vavuniya and eastern district of Ampara on Sunday, were the...
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 In a statement released by a military spokesman said on
Friday, Sri Lankan troops killed eight Tamil Tiger rebels in fighting in the
north of the island, while two policemen were killed by a suspected rebel
roadside bomb.
The clashes, in the northern district of Vavuniya and
northwestern district of Mannar on Thursday, were...
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 According to Sri Lanka's military, 52 Tamil Tigers and 11 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting in the island's far north on Wednesday as renewed civil war escalates. However, the rebels disputed the numbers.The Tigers said 20 soldiers were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the clash on the Jaffna peninsula, and that just one of...
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GBP |
YEN |
| USD |
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0.737 |
0.665 |
91.745 |
| EUR |
1.357 |
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0.902 |
124.475 |
| GBP |
1.504 |
1.108 |
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137.975 |
| YEN |
0.011 |
0.008 |
0.007 |
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