Colombo – In a landmark judgment delivered Wednesday, Sri Lanka's former president Chandrika Kumaratunga was fined by the country's Supreme Court for illegally allocating state land to a private golf course project.

Colombo  – Heavy fighting between government troops and Tamil rebels was reported in northern Sri Lanka amidst mounting casualties from both sides, military officials and pro-rebel sources said Wednesday.

The fighting occurred around the Akkarayankulam area, 365 kilometres north of the capital, where government troops fortified their positions before advancing into a town held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Military officials said that at least 19 rebels and six soldiers were killed in Tuesday's fighting around Akkarayankulam.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Tuesday called for an international investigation into Monday's suicide attack, which killed 28 people in the North Central province.

Former prime minister Wickremesinghe told parliament in a statement that he was not satisfied with the local investigations and asked foreign experts to investigate the attack, which killed retired Major General Janaka Perera and 27 others.

Colombo - A former Tamil rebel military wing leader, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, has been named a member of parliament in Sri Lanka by the ruling party, officials said.

Muralitharan, who led the military wing of the rebels in eastern Sri Lanka and was once a bodyguard of rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, broke away from the rebel movement in 2004 and has been supporting the government's military campaign to fight his former organisation.

New Delhi, Oct 6 : India on Monday expressed “grave concern and unhappiness” at the growing casualties of unarmed Tamil civilians in the military offensive in Sri Lanka, and asked the government in the island nation to act with greater restraint.

National Security Adviser M K Narayanan today summoned Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner G G A D Palithaganegoda to convey India’s concerns to him.

Colombo, Oct. 6 : At least 27 people, including a former senior general, were killed on Monday in a suicide blast in the Sri Lankan town of Anuradhapura.

According to army sources, Major General (retired) Janaka Perera, the controversial commander in the Jaffna peninsula in the 1990s, died alongside his wife.

Over 80 people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the United National Party office near a bus depot, the BBC quoted officials, as saying.