Colombo  - The BBC World Service on Tuesday stopped providing radio news to Sri Lanka's state broadcaster because of what it calls "deliberate interference" by government censors.

A statement from the BBC said that its FM broadcasts to the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation have been suspended with effect from Tuesday.

Colombo  - A female suicide bomber posing as a civilian entered a government-controlled area from the Tamil rebel-held area in northern Sri Lanka Monday morning and detonated herself at a welfare centre, killing several persons and injuring at least 60 others, the military said.

The explosion went off in the Visuamadu area, 360 kilometres north-east of the capital, where the military is receiving hundreds of civilians before they are sent to transit camps.

Colombo  - The Sri Lankan government is preparing to receive some 100,000 civilians fleeing Tamil rebel-held areas in the northern part of the country after some
10,000 have already crossed over to military controlled areas, officials said Sunday.

Preparations were being put in place to receive large numbers of civilians in Vavuniya, 240 kilometres north of the capital, an official involved in providing relief to the displaced persons said.

Colombo - Civilians caught in fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka were fleeing further into rebel-held areas on Friday, as President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured the UN on the safety of civilians.

Dr T Sathyamoorthy, based in a makeshift hospital in the conflict zone, who was speaking by telephone, said that civilians, running out of places to flee to, were now moving towards the coastal areas.

Colombo - Civilians caught in fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka are fleeing further into rebel-held areas on Friday as President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured the UN on the safety of civilians.

Dr T. Sathyamoorthy, based in a makeshift hospital in the conflict zone, who was speaking by telephone, said that civilians were now moving towards the coastal areas.

"We can hear the exchange of fire between the security forces and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," said the doctor, who is based in Udayarakattukulam,
360 kilometres north-east of the capital Colombo.

Colombo - Government troops entered a coastal stronghold of Tamil rebels Thursday as fighting intensified in the north-eastern part of Sri Lanka, reports from the war zone said.

Security forces entered the Chalai area, 395 kilometres north-east of the capital, amidst resistance from the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are putting up a final effort to prevent troops from entering the last areas under their control.

The main base of the sea unit of the LTTE was located in Chalai, but there was no immediate confirmation from the military whether they had overrun the base during the fighting.