Sri Lanka’s state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation hiked fuel prices in a response to galloping world crude oil prices as inflation accelerated for a fifth month in May.

Tamil children sitting for exams organised by the Tamil Education Development Council (TEDC), a European trans-national Tamil initiative.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, in a special interview to Thinakkural, a Colombo based Tamil daily, claimed that the Indian government had given "full blessings" to the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to "eliminate the LTTE."

 

Mr. Wickramanayaka further proclaimed that there was no "ethnic conflict" in Sri Lanka.

 

"The LTTE should lay their arms down if they want peace talks.

The European Union wants Sri Lanka to receive GSP+ concession, the EU Ambassador in Sri Lanka Julian Wilson has said, according to recent press reports.

 

The EU has also approved $100m in humanitarian and development funds for Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror paper quoted him as saying.

 

"I will only say that a lot of melodramatic rubbish has been written about the renewal of GSP+ in local press.

Britain is on the verge of deporting the renegade Tamil Tiger commander, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Col Karuna, to Colombo after he was prematurely released from prison last week, the Sunday Times reported.

 

Karuna, an embarrassment to the British government from the time it was known that he had travelled to Britain on a Sri Lankan diplomatic passport issued under another name, was serving a nine month sentence when he was given an early release and tran

Heavy fighting continues in the Mannar and Manal Aru areas as Sri Lankan forces attempt to move into Tamil Tiger-held areas amid heavy resistance.