‘As we entered the premises of the Nallur Kandasamy temple we were confronted by a sea of people seated on the white sands under the blazing sun.’ Thileepan, the young Tiger leader of Jaffna, took the podium on the 14th September at the Nallur Kandasamy temple to commence his fast- unto-death as a protest against India’s failure to fulfill her pledges, and to mobilise the frustrated sentiments of the Tamils into a national mass upsurgence. Thileepan’s non-violent struggle was unique and extraordinary for its commitment. Although an armed guerrilla fighter, he chose the spiritual mode of ‘ahimsa’ as enunciated by the great Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi to impress upon India the plight and predicament of the people of Tamil Eelam.

The full text of the TNA statement, released two days before President Mahinda Rajapakse is due to address the United Nations’ General Assembly, follows:
The TNA learns through media reports that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to address the Plenary of the Sixty Second Session of the United Nations General Assembly. It has been the long standing practice of the Sri Lankan State to use such opportunities to portray the conflict between the Tamil Nation and the Sri Lankan State as one of combating terrorism. In this regard the TNA wishes to state the following:-The Tamil people who have a history of their own, for over two thousand five hundred years in the island, and who mainly inhabited the North – Eastern part of the island, have their own linguistic and cultural identity, and have always constituted a distinct nation.

Greens Leader Bob Brown today renewed calls for the Prime Minister to ban junk food advertising during children's TV viewing hours as part of the fight against childhood obesity."What's inside the fridge won't change because there's a fridge magnet on the door," Senator Brown said. "It's pretty useless sending out one fridge magnet on healthy eating to every school child if they continue to get bombarded with hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising promoting junk food on television,"
Senator Brown said.

Amidst girls from Kerala and Mumbai competing for honours at the Tamil film industry, debutant director Kalanidhi has opted for a girl from Kannada filmdom to play the heroine in his forthcoming Tamil movie titled Tharagu. Dimple, a popular heroine in Kannada film industry, has been cast to play the heroine opposite Sanjay. The latter shot to fame playing the lead role in Valli, produced by Rajnikanth, a few years ago.

I am pleased to announce that New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia are receiving $43 million in competition payments from the Australian Government following progress in implementing water reforms.These payments to the states were suspended in 2005-06 due to a lack of progress in implementing key water reforms. My decision to lift the suspension follows an independent assessment by the National Water Commission of progress by the states in implementing their COAG water reform commitments.The Commission's original assessment in 2006 found that NSW, Victoria and South Australia had made insufficient progress in meeting their interstate water trading commitments for the southern Murray-Darling Basin. As a consequence, $13.3 million worth of National Competition Policy payments were withheld from NSW, $9.9 million from Victoria, and $3 million from South Australia.

'By its nature, money laundering is unlikely ever to be measured accurately, but estimates of its cost to the economy can be made using a range of data sources', Dr Toni Makkai, Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, said on releasing 'Money laundering in and through Australia, 2004', number 342 in the AIC's Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice series.New research confirms that fraud constitutes the greatest source of laundered funds, followed by the illegal drug trade. The research suggests that crime in Australia in 2004 generated between $2.8b and $6.3b, with a likely figure of $4.5b. These estimates are based on the analysis of survey results, costs of crime, and estimates of the profitability of crime.

As many as 72 Sri Lankans detained on the Pacific island of Nauru have been granted refugee status by Australia and efforts are underway to resettle them in other countries.Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said in a statement: 'Australia is now exploring resettlement options in other countries for the Sri Lankans that have been assessed as being refugees. They will remain in Nauru while arrangements are made to resettle them elsewhere.'The asylum seekers are part of the group of 83 intercepted in international waters by HMAS Success in the early hours of Feb 20 after setting sail from Indonesia. They were first held in Christmas Island and then sent to the A$2 million a month detention facility in Nauru under the Australian government's controversial 'Pacific Solution'.

Thai police said on Wednesday there was no truth to reports triggered by an allegation on a Sri Lankan government Web site that a top Tamil Tiger leader had been arrested in Bangkok, Reuters reported."I've checked with related police bureaux -- the Immigration Police, the Metropolitan Police and the Special Branch. There has been no report of a Tiger rebel arrested in Bangkok," national police spokesman Lieutenant-General Ronnarong Youngyuen said."If we'd arrested him, we would have made good publicity out of it," Ronnarong told Reuters.

PROTAM a grass root level Australian Tamil Organisation lead by prominent Tamil Community leaders and professionals,urges all concerned Australian Tamils to provide moral and financial support to Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, Sivarajah Yathavan and Arumugam Rajeevan who are charged with so called Terror Charges. Defence Lawers for Tamil Community Workers Aruran, Yathavan and Rajeevan, Robert Stary and Associates,  in a letter addressed to Tamil Community, confirmed that it is completely lawful and legitimate to financially support the legal process which has international significance. Australian authorities are relying on ‘intelligence’ and assurances provided by Sri Lankan agencies. In fact, in the first bail hearing, the prosecution argued that it will rely on evidence provided by the Sri Lankan Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, Army and Police chiefs. The Sri Lankan foreign ministry is on record saying that they have been actively “encouraging” Australian authorities.

Four Tamil Eelam Women are contesting in Norway Council election and entering politics Puthinam Tamil News Portal reported today. They are, Ms Hamsayini Gunaratnam , Ms Dushyanthi Ganesharajah, Ms Thilakavathi Sanmuganathan and Ms Sumathi Vijayarajah. Australian Tamil Community wishes them for a success !