In brief

Priests out from Madhu church

LTTE terrorists have ordered the priests in the Madhu church to leave the church premises with immediate effect facilitating the Tigers' apparent move to turn the Madhu Shrine premises into a war camp, according to Sri Lankan Army sources.

Another flyover to be built

The foundation stone for another flyover to be built in Panadura was laid recently by Minister of Highways and Road Development, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. The Panadura flyover is the second flyover which comes under the Government's flyover bridge program.

LTTE mortar positions targeted

The Sri Lanka Air Force launched an aerial attack targeting LTTE mortar positions North of the Yodawewa area. Russian built MI 24 helicopter gunships were used in the attack, according to defence sources.

The sources said that the attacks were carried out around 12.30 pm on Friday afternoon on information obtained through military intelligence reports.

The targets have been accurately hit, the sources added citing helicopter pilots.

450 displaced families resettled

Four-hundred-and-fifty displaced families in the Eastern province in Kiran and Pallakadu have been re-settled in their original places under the Eastern Reawakening program. The families which included 880 men, 923 women and children, who were in temporary camps were re-settled yesterday.

Rupee at its highest

Sri Lanka's rupee climbed to its highest close in three weeks on Friday as banks sold dollars to raise funds as high call rates made borrowing in rupees expensive. Shares fell on profit taking. The interbank lending rate CLIBOR jumped to 19.5 per cent before closing at 16.236 per cent against 13.409 per cent on Thursday.