Sri Lanka’s truce begins, LTTE kills soldier

July 12th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has effected a major reshuffle in the country's military command appointing new army and navy commanders just two months after the military won a decades-long battle against Tamil rebels. Army Chief Sarath Fonseka has been appointed the chief of defence staff, while Major General Jagath Jayasuriya as the new army commander, the Daily Mirror reported Sunday.

May 18th, 2009 COLOMBO - Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of Sri Lanka's feared Tamil Tigers, was killed Monday while trying to escape the battlezone in the island's north along with two of his top aides, the military announced. Prabhakaran, 54, was in a convoy of a van and an ambulance with Pottu Amman, head of the intelligence wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and Sea Tigers chief Soosai when the military opened fire in an isolated strip of Mullaitivu district.

May 17th, 2009 COLOMBO - The following is the chronology of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which Sunday announced an end to its armed struggle for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. 1972: Velupillai Prabhakaran forms Tamil New Tigers (TNT) 1976: Prabhakaran sets up LTTE 1978: Issues its first press statement 1983: Kills 13 soldiers in Jaffna; anti-Tamil violence leads to Tamil insurgency 1986: Wipes out biggest rival Tamil militant group 1987: Takes on Indian Army deployed in Sri Lanka's northeast.

May 11th, 2009 Pentagon official: US soldier kills 5 comradesWASHINGTON — A Pentagon official says a U.S. soldier killed five fellow troops at American base in Baghdad.

May 4th, 2009 COLOMBO - A group of British parliamentarians Monday arrived in Sri Lanka to take stock of the humanitarian situation as a result of the military operation against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north, officials said. The group includes parliamentarian Des Browne who was recently rejected by the Sri Lankan government to be Britain's special envoy on the Sri Lankan conflict.

April 28th, 2009 COLOMBO - UN humanitarian chief John Holmes Monday told Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse that the global organisation would provide $10 million to the country's war displaced civilians. Holmes and Rajapake discussed the humanitarian situation in northern parts of the country that is still partly controlled by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

April 22nd, 2009 COLOMBO - Two second rung leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have surrendered to the Sri Lankan military, a military spokesman said Wednesday. The two were identified as LTTE media coordinator Velayutham Dayanithi alias Thaya Master and George, who was English translator to former LTTE political wing head S.

April 21st, 2009 COLOMBO - Tamil Tigers Tuesday failed to meet the noon deadline set by Colombo to surrender, as the terror outfit faces an unprecedented military thrust in its last stronghold in Sri Lanka's north. 'The LTTE terrorists have not surrendered during the ultimatum.

April 14th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have said that they are ready to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with government forces. In a statement reported by the BBC, the rebels said they were prepared to open political talks to halt decades of bloodshed.

April 13th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's temporary truce with the Tamil Tigers began Monday to mark the Sinhala and Tamil New Year even as the rebels killed a soldier in a sniper attack, the military said. Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired a mortar wounding one soldier and killing another in a sniper attack in Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu district.

March 5th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels amid ceasefire calls from India and the international community. 'We will not trust the terrorist group and go for a ceasefire,' Wickramanayake told Sri Lankan parliament.

February 4th, 2009 CAIRO - As Egypt's Thursday deadline for negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip approaches, a Hamas representative said an agreement was unlikely by the end of Wednesday's negotiations. 'There is still a huge gap between Hamas and Israel concerning a truce.

February 1st, 2009 GAZA - The Islamic Hamas movement said Monday that it accepted a one-year truce with Israel for lifting the blockade on Gaza and reopening the border crossings. Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that the Hamas delegation which arrived in Cairo Sunday will inform senior Egyptian security officials that they accept a one-year truce with Israel.

January 24th, 2009 GAZA - Hamas movement's leaders Sunday rejected a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel, saying that only a ceasefire for a limited period of time was acceptable. Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters here that the Hamas delegation heading to Cairo was 'not to agree on a long-term ceasefire, but to discuss the reinforcing of the truce between Israel and Gaza factions.' 'The talks in Cairo aim at reaching a limited ceasefire that doesn't exceed one year, then we can re-discuss it before it ends,' Radwan said, adding that 'reopening the crossings and rebuilding Gaza will be issues to be discussed.' 'We won't accept a long term truce that kills the armed resistance, because resistance is a legal right for the Palestinian people as long as there is an occupation,' he added.

January 6th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan government Wednesday banned the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), terming it a terrorist organisation. 'The LTTE is banned from today,' Agriculture Development Minister Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also general secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), told reporters at a special media briefing.