A three-wheeler belonging to a Muslim aligned with the ruling United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in Ea'raavoor was burnt allegedly by another Muslim independent candidate and his supporters after a quarrel in the early hours of Saturday, Ea'raavoor Police said.

34 year-old Thavanayagam Kaantharoopan has been reported missing since 18 April this year, according to complaint lodged with the Vavuniyaa police, regional offices of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) by his relatives.

Noting that in conflict situations "without reports, pictures and film of the fighting and the violence, no-one knows enough to put the pressure on the participants to ensure human rights are respected," Amnesty International, in a media release issued Friday, said the need for such environment is "strong in Sri Lanka, where fatalities on all sides are believed to be very high with large numbers of civilians caught in the crossfire."

A student from Brown Road in Kokkuvil, Jaffna, and a family man from Raamaavil, Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi sought Friday protection with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and SLA-backed paramilitaries, HRC sources said.

Ten Tamil civilians at Moratuwa and fourteen Tamil civilians at Wellawatte were taken into custody in two separate cordon and search operations conducted by the police. Majority of those arrested on Friday morning at Wellawatte are natives of north and east and are being detained at the police station, media sources said.

Somawansa Amarasinghe, the leader of the extreme Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which recently suffered a split, has whipped up anti-Indian sentiments in his May Day address calling for protests against what he labeled as 'Indian hegemonic foreign policy'. Stating that Sri Lankan forces 'liberated the East' not for the benefit of Indian geo-political and economic interests, but to resettle 'all ethnic communities' there, he said that the JVP would not allow separation of the country in the name of devolution proposals and proclaimed that the renewed JVP would become the locomotive of the future governance of Sri Lanka.

“A resident in Jaffna peninsula may live without food, clothing and shelter for some days but cannot survive even for a day without the National Identity Card,” Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh said, in his speech in the opening ceremony of the special office for the issue of National Identity Card (NIC) at the Veala’nai Divisional Secretariat Thursday.

The United States in a significant change in its policy towards organizations included in the State Departments Foreign Terrorists Organization (FTO) list, made its first official diplomatic contact with the leader of Nepal's former rebel Maoists, BBC report in Kathmandu said.

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has begun launching sporadic small-scale cordon and search operations with police assistance in interior areas of Jaffna peninsula as attacks on SLA have increased in the recent past, sources in Jaffna said. Since large number of troops being moved to the Northern Front Line Defence (FDL) areas, the SLA has been employing fewer men in the search operations with police assistance.

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested Thursday morning three Tamil youths in a joint cordon and search operation launched from 6:00 a.m to 9:30 a.m in Dehiwella, a suburb of Colombo. The youths, from Ki’linochchi, Point Pedro and Kayts of ages between 22 and 24, did not possess valid evidence to prove the reason for their presence in the area, Galkisse police said.

Kandy police arrested 2 youths in Kandy town for not having registered their names in the police record of their working place and 2 for the possession of drugs, Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, Davulagala police in Udunuwara division in Kandy arrested 4 Tamil youths in their police division for not possessing documents of their identification.

Liberation Tigers officials in Ampaa'rai told media Thursday that two Sri Lanka Army soldiers, including a Sergeant, were killed in a booby trap explosion in Kagnchikudichcha-aa'ru in Ampaa'rai Wednesday around 8:00 p.m. and two soldiers sustained serious injuries when they approached an LTTE position in the jungle.

Noting that in South and Central Asia, "[t]errorism remained a serious problem in the region, directly and indirectly threatening American interests and lives," the Country Reports on Terrorism 2007, released by the US Department of State Wednesday, blamed the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for terrorist activities saying, "[t]he LTTE reverted to targeting civilians in bus bombings and claymore mine attacks, while the government used anti-LTTE paramilitaries to terrorize citizens suspected of having ties to the Tigers."

Sri Lankan military officials said two Special Task Force (STF) commandos deployed in the Sinhala settlement of Dutuwewa in Ma'nalaa'ru (Weli Oya) region were killed in a Claymore attack Thursday around 6:45 a.m. This is the first time the STF has admitted to have lost its men in an ambush attack in the Vanni front after STF units were deployed in the sector bordering Trincomalee and Vavuniyaa districts in the North Central Province for providing security to the Sinhalese settlements.

Ninety percent of postal voters in Trincomalee district and 80 percent in Batticaloa district have cast their votes when the two day postal voting concluded Tuesday, according to local election officials. The details of the postal voting held in Ampaa'rai district has not been publicly made.

Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja on Tuesday made a special mention during the Zero Hour in the Indian Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament of India stated that the agreement on Kachchatheevu and the historical waters between the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka, signed in 1974, didn't work after 1983. Mr. Raja said there is a grey area in the agreement with regards to the right of access to the island by the Indian fishermen and said that the agreement should be reopened and renegotiated in order to protect the rights of fishermen.

Members of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), which terminated its observation mission reasoning that the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) setup by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) did not satisfy basic international norms and standards, reiterated Wednesday that they stand by their "clear assertions" of their concluding statement which blamed the GoSL for the absence of political will to investigate Human Rights violations with vigour. Lamenting that the GoSL continues to "divert attention from the central truth," the IIGEP members said they disassociated themselves from "any attempt to reformulate and re-interpret the concluding statement."

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Ma'nalaa'ru staged an artillery barrage targeting a civilian settlement in Nedungkea'ni in Vanni for two-hours from 9:50 a.m. Wednesday, killing a 52-year-old father of three and seriously wounding a 32-year-old mother of one, Tamileelam Police officials said.

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a former medical student of Jaffna University from Pottpathi Veethi, Kokkuvil, in Jaffna at his house on Tuesday around 7:00 p.m, sources in Jaffna said. The victim is alleged to have been working for the Intelligence Unit of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and said to have collaborated in the killings, and abductions in Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.

Wimal Weerawanse, leader of the dissident group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said at a press briefing held Tuesday that he would start a new political party if the current leadership of the JVP fails to bring an amicable solution to the intra-party crisis, media sources said.