11.   Tamil rebels have strongholds in the north and east, where they hope to create a nation of their own.

12.   The army had earlier maintained that separatist Tamil rebels had committed the crime.

13.   The motive for the attack appeared to be the demands for compromise with the Tamil rebels that the Kumaratungas had made after founding a breakaway political party.

14.   Under Kumaratunga the government had also imposed censorship rules in what it said was part of the war to defeat separatist Tamil rebels.

15.   Overcoming weak resistance, thousands of soldiers began tightly encircling the Tamil rebel stronghold of Jaffna city Tuesday but slowed down to clear land mines.

16.   Police detained thousands of Tamil civilians in Colombo after the Tamil rebels unilaterally ended a three-month truce and resumed fighting.

17.   Police had earlier cracked an international ring that had been allegedly channeling funds from Switzerland to Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka, the official said.

18.   Police have detained thousands of Tamil civilians in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, after the Tamil rebels unilaterally ended a three-month truce and resumed fighting.

19.   Police in southwestern Sri Lanka Sunday briefly detained two Indian journalists, suspecting them to be Tamil rebels, journalists said.

20.   Police ruled out the possibility that the helicopter had been shot down by Tamil rebels, who are fighting to establish a separate homeland in Sri Lanka.