COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka's military Wednesday denied it had shelled a makeshift hospital killing 16 patients, as concern grew for civilians trapped in fighting between government soldiers and Tamil rebels. 

"We did not fire at this location on Monday and it is quite possible that the LTTE attacked them," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers.

Presently some International agencies are spreading totally inaccurate information, regarding medical facilities provided by the Government for the people fleeing into cleared areas from the LTTE held territory but the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry has already provided all required medical facilities for the displaced people and is ready to provide all required medical facilities for any number of people arriving in the cleared areas, Minister of Healthcare and Nutrition Nimal Siripala De Silva said.

by Fr. Vimal Tirimanna, CSsR

We are living at an important turning-point of Sri Lankan history. That is precisely why President Mahinda Rajapaksa could express the sentiments of the vast majority of our citizens when he said in his memorable speech the other day at the Galle Face Green, Colombo, on the occasion of our 61st Independence Day celebrations: "Today, there is a new vibrancy in our national flag. There is a new resonance in our national anthem. The national flag that our heroic troops took to the North, flutters in the hands of the people of the North. Our entire nation is now united in the shade of the national flag, conscious of the need to achieve victory over the new challenges before us. They love their country more than at any other time in our history".

By Thomas Fuller  

Colombo, Sri Lanka: To many Americans, Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday's Grammy Awards.Yet in Sri Lanka, where she spent her childhood years, M.I.A. remains virtually unknown. And some who do know her work say she is an apologist for the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the country's long-running civil war.