41.   A cease-fire between government troops and Tamil rebels provided the ideal climate for easing the constraints, he said.

42.   A column of government soldiers on Wednesday sealed off the only route for Tamil rebel reinforcements into their stronghold of Jaffna city, military officials said.

43.   A governing party politician was shot to death Friday by a suspected Tamil rebel, police said.

44.   A large number of the soldiers deserted between May and October when fighting with Tamil separatist rebels was prolonged and vicious.

45.   A land mine blew up five Sri Lankan soldiers, and ongoing clashes with Tamil rebels claimed seven other lives, the military said Sunday.

46.   A military statement said the Tamil rebels attacked soldiers in the Jaffna Peninsula near the villages of Sandilipai and Sangarathai on Wednesday.

47.   A former Tamil rebel leader turned politician who was beaten into a coma by more militant Tamils has flown to Singapore for medical care, an associate said Monday.

48.   A series of explosion occurred inside the Colombo harbor early Friday, and police feared it was a Tamil rebel attack.

49.   A Tamil rebel killed himself by swallowing a cyanide capsule when police tried to search him at a roadblock in eastern Sri Lanka, military officials said Thursday.

50.   A Tamil rebel land mine ripped through two carriages of a train in eastern Sri Lanka Wednesday, wounding three passengers, military officials said.