New clashes in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan defence ministry says its troops have successfully fought back an attack by the Tamil Tiger rebels during fighting in the northern Jaffna peninsula that's left seven soldiers dead and more than forty wounded.

There's been no news from the Tigers themselves on this latest skirmish.

The Sri Lankan government says there's also been mortar fire on an army base in the east, just outside Batticoloa.

It said six civilians had been killed in the attack.

Police in the capital, Colombo, used teargas and water cannon to break up an anti-government rally by some two-thousand mainly left-wing opposition supporters.

Political rallies are banned in Sri Lanka under a new security law introduced earlier this month. The opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said the new law, which included stringent censorship measures, had been used to silence any one who criticised the government at a time of national crisis.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

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