A policeman carries a gas stove from a police station that was damaged in an earthquake in Uri, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2005. The powerful earthquake jolted South Asia on Saturday killing at least 220 people in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, a senior official said. 

Kumari: Verdict of suicide

COLOMBO City Coroner Edward Ahangama, who held the post mortem into Thursday's death of Kumari Cooray, daughter of former MP Mervyn J. Cooray, returned a verdict of suicide due to burn injuries sustained as a result of setting herself on fire. The City Coroner based his conclusion on the Medical Report filed by Dr. Handun P. Wijewardena, AJMO, Colombo, who conducted the post mortem examination and on the evidence of other witnesses who belonged to SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem's security staff.

The body was identified by M. M. Vijith Kumar Dayapriya Cooray, 30, as that of his sister Manamarakkarage Marian Lanka Kumari Cooray of Royal Cottage, Pediris Place, Slave Island. She was 40 years and a mother of two. She was a divorcee, he said.

Pattani Mahendran ,50, a security guard at Carnival Ice Cream, Kollupitiya in evidence said Cooray came to the gate around 1.35 a.m. on October 6 and wanted him to open the gate for her to meet Hakeem but he refused to accede to her request.

"Thereafter she left and came back around 2.40 a.m. in a three wheeler and demanded that the gate be opened. When he refused she went back to the three wheeler and having collected a cellular phone and a white handbag came back and scaled the parapet wall and got on to the roof of the building.

"Then she poured petrol on herself from a bottle and lit a match and threatened to set herself ablaze if he was not called in. She then did so. We rushed down to fetch water. She fell near the lavatory as she ran with flames all over her.

Sergeant Upali poured water on her and doused the flames. With the assistance of police, we despatched her to hospital in an Ambulance," Mahendran said.

Three wheeler driver H.K. Sarath Siri Kumara , 50, and the MP's Security Guard Nihal Samaraweera - 33, also gave evidence.

Nalinda Indratissa, Attorney-at-Law, looked after Cooray's interests.

Cooray created a sensation nearly 18 months ago when she became the focus of drama bordering on political intrigue involving several key players chief of them Hakeem.

UPFA candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and UNP candidate Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe greet each other after handing over nominations. 

Suicide drama in Hakeem’s compound

Doctors were yesterday battling to save the life of Kumari Cooray, who attempted to self-immolate herself in the compound of SLMC Leader Rauf Hakeem's private residence at Kollupitiya junction around 3 a.m., hospital sources said.

A spokesman for the SLMC leader said that Hakeem had been shocked and saddened by the whole incident.

Colombo National Hospital's Accident Service Director Dr. Anil Jasinghe told The Island that Ms. Cooray had been brought to hospital with severe burns and doctors were doing all they could as she was in a critical condition.

Chief Inspector Palitha Siriwardene, OIC of the Kollupitiya police said police were in the process of questioning several persons in this connection.

Ms. Cooray (40), a mother of two, had earlier caused a stir and much intrigue in political circles, at the time of the 2001 parliamentary elections, by linking herself with SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem and later denying the whole affair claiming that it had been instigated by those politically opposed to SLMC leader Hakeem.

She had gone to Hakeem's Kollupitiya residence at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. But, the security guards and three Ministerial Security Division (MSD) personnel, on official duty, had prevented Ms. Cooray from entering the residence, police said adding that she had then shouted out that she would teach the inmates and the SLMC leader a good lesson and left to return later.

At around 3 a.m. Ms. Cooray had returned in a three wheeler to tussle with the security personnel before jumping over the parapet wall and asking the three wheel driver to hand over a can of petrol. She had then set herself ablaze.

Kollupitiya police on receiving information from the residence of the SLMC leader had rushed to the scene and doused the fire before removing the critically burnt Mrs. Cooray to the Colombo National Hospital.

CI Palitha Siriwardena, OIC of Collpetty police, said they were on the look out for the three wheel driver and had recorded the statements of three MSD and security personnel in this connection.

He added that initial investigations had revealed that Mrs. Kumari Cooray had lived at the ‘Royal Court' apartments down Pedris Road , Kollupitiya and had a teenage son and daughter of around 16 years of age.

Sri Lankan cease-fire monitors demand rebels release policemen

European cease-fire monitors on Friday demanded that Tamil Tiger rebels release three Sri Lankan policemen who entered the insurgents' territory while pursuing a suspected British pedophile nearly a month ago. ``They should be released immediately,'' said Helen Olafsdottir, a spokeswoman for the team monitoring the three-year cease-fire agreement between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. ``The LTTE insists on putting the case through their own court but we have been quite clear on this issue from the start, they should have never been apprehended,'' she said. The Sri Lankan government has also lodged a protest over the detention of the policemen, who were seized Sept. 9.

The government asked Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar to raise the issue at a meeting with the rebels on Thursday, but the guerrillas remained intransigent, a government official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly. Brattskar informed the government on Friday about the rebels' position during talks with Jayantha Dhanapala, the top official handling the peace process. Colombo has accused the rebels of blocking the government's efforts to protect children. Two female and three male police officers, two Catholic priests and a child-rights investigator were detained by the rebels when they entered an area near Mannar, about 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Colombo in pursuit of a suspected British pedophile. All except for the three male police officers were released. Although the government controls Mannar, the rebels control nearby areas, where they run their own administration, including a justice system. The policemen's case is scheduled to be taken up in a Tiger court on Oct. 11. The 51-year-old suspected pedophile later surrendered to police in the capital, Colombo. ``Criminals cannot be allowed to slip out of areas and get away from law and order so it calls inevitably for cooperation between the parties on criminal issues,'' Olafsdottir said, ``Both sides have to be practical regarding such issues.'' The monitors have accused the rebels of violating an already fragile truce by detaining the policemen.

13 candidates file papers to run for Sri Lanka presidency

Thirteen candidates, all representing officially recognized political parties, handed in nomination papers Friday to run at Sri Lanka's Nov. 17 presidential election, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said Friday.

''All nomination papers received today are in order,'' Dissanayake said. ''I appeal to everybody to conduct the election peacefully.''

Diplomats and analysts view only two of the candidates as serious contenders -- Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, running under the ticket of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance, and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the candidate of the rightwing United National Party.

Outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga, leader of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party, which dominates the UPFA coalition that defeated Wickremesinghe's UNP at last year's parliamentary elections, will not be able to stand again as the Constitution only allows two terms in office.

There were no Tamil or Muslim candidates representing the country's main ethnic and religious minorities. All runners are from the majority Sinhalese community.

But Wickremesinghe has sewn up support from Tamil and Muslim political parties who believe he would be better able than his rival to advance the ongoing peace process aimed at ending three decades of war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Rajapakse banks on agreements he has signed with the Marxist People's Liberation Front, or JVP, and a Buddhist monk's party, the JHU, to power him to victory.

But these arrangements with groups regarded as extremist Sinhalese will cost him minority votes, analysts say. They were made in the teeth of opposition by Kumaratunga after she endorsed him as the SLFP's presidential candidate.

''As of now, it looks close,'' an Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity. ''But things can change in the course of the campaign.''

Rajapakse has good relations with the JVP, which earlier this year withdrew from the UPFA government in opposition to Kumaratunga's tsunami aid sharing deal, which it said legitimized the ''terrorist LTTE'' and gave it control of rehabilitation work in rebel-held areas in the country's north and northeast. ''Their problems were with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and not Rajapakse,'' the diplomat said. ''Obviously, the president is very unhappy with the deals he has made with groups regarded as extremist and whether she will wholeheartedly support her prime minister's election campaign remains to be seen.''

Kumaratunga has been publicly critical of Rajapakse's electoral arrangements and continues to rap the JVP in speeches. Newspapers regularly publish stories of differences between the president and prime minister.