As the army lifted a dusk-to-dawn curfew thousands were gathering their meagre belongings."Our cadres are advancing toward Jaffna city and there will be heavy firing and cross-firing," the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam said in a radio broadcast. "Please go to places of safety, as we can move into the city any moment."International humanitarian organisations in Colombo are worried about the 500,000 Tamils on the Jaffna peninsula, pounded by the artillery and mortars of rebel and government troops.The Tiger rebels began their offensive on Jaffna on Wednesday with a surprise attack. They had been emboldened after capturing the strategic Elephant Pass on 22 April, a major defeat for the government, whose 28,000-strong army outnumbers the rebels by seven to one. A guerrilla capture of Jaffna would be their most crushing victory.An official release in Colombo said nine Sri Lankan army personnel were killed yesterday and 86 wounded. That brings the combined death toll on both sides in two days of fighting to more than 200.At least 60,000 people have died since the ethnic conflict began in 1983, when the Tamils launched their bid for a homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.The government defences are around Colombothurai, a suburb of Jaffna.

State-owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation said Sri Lankan air force jets had destroyed a rebel communication centre in Pooneryn, across a lagoon south of the Jaffna peninsula.In Colombo, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, said the battle is "a decisive moment" and told the military sophisticated weaponry was arriving that would "silence" the Tamil guns.An official in Jerusalem said Israel is to sell eight Kfir warplanes to Sri Lanka for $24m, one week after the countries restored diplomatic relations following a 30-year lapse.. A Briton on a trekking holiday in Nepal was murdered and his body dumped in a river. A Briton on a trekking holiday in Nepal was murdered and his body dumped in a river. Tim Prentice, 38, of Bristol, died of multiple injuries caused by a blunt instrument. He was found 50 miles north of the capital Kathmandu, near Syabru Bensi, in the district of Langtang, on 30 March.His body was in such a poor state that it took nearly a month for Nepalese police to identify him, using dental records and photographs sent from the United Kingdom.Mr Prentice was on his way back to Kathmandu when, it is believed, he was attacked and robbed. The Foreign Office does not list Nepal among high-risk destinations, but after the killing a spokeswoman warned British nationals against travelling alone in the Rasuwa District of the Langtang Region.Nepalese police, who have begun a murder investigation, believe that Mr Prentice was killed two days before his body was discovered.Mr Prentice's body was flown back to Britain at the end of April, and a funeral service was held at the Ivy Pentecostal Church in Bristol.

The service was attended by 200 people and £300 was raised in a collection for Amnesty International - Mr Prentice's favourite charity. The Rev Peter Kay, who conducted the service, spoke of Mr Prentice as "a much-loved man".A spokesman for Mr Prentice's family said yesterday that they did not believe he had been travelling alone, and there may have been a porter with him.. Muslim rebels holding 21 hostages in a remote Philippine jungle were expected to release at least one ailing captive, negotiators said Saturday. Muslim rebels holding 21 hostages in a remote Philippine jungle were expected to release at least one ailing captive, negotiators said Saturday. The negotiators said they had reached an "understanding" with the Abu Sayyaf rebels that a sick German woman and perhaps a French man would be freed later in the day."There is some kind of understanding, but of course they can always change their mind," said negotiator Robert Aventajado. "Nothing is 100 percent in this kind of situation."Aventajado did not say whether negotiators had offered the rebels anything in return.He said the German woman's condition has improved in recent days and her high blood pressure has stabilized.The Abu Sayyaf decision, if true, would be a shift from a day earlier, when a guerrilla leader said the separatist group had decided against freeing the two ailing hostages.Contacts with the rebels, broken since Wednesday, were re-established Friday night when the guerrillas delivered seven letters their captives had written to loved ones.Envoys of the negotiators told the rebels at that meeting that releasing the two sick hostages would help start talks on freeing all the captives, and the rebels said they would consider it, said a negotiator who spoke on condition of anonymity.The nearly three-week hostage crisis, however, appeared to be far from over.The rebels have yet to present a list of formal demands.

Informally, however, they have said they want a number of things that are not likely to be acceptable to the government: independence for the region, the establishment of Islamic law, and a ban on foreign fishing boats.An Abu Sayyaf leader said the hostages had been moved by the rebels to a new "safe place" much deeper in the mountains of remote Jolo Island.Contact with the rebels had been cut since Wednesday, when Abdul Rajab Azzarouq, a former Libyan ambassador to the Philippines who is helping negotiate, met with the guerrillas and asked for the release of Renate Wallert, a German woman with hypertension, and Stephane Loisy, a French man with a urinary tract infection.The rebels said they would reply on Thursday, but movements by government troops near the planned meeting place apparently spooked the rebels and they never appeared.The military was pulled further back Friday to prevent a reoccurrence.The hostages - three Germans, two French citizens, two South Africans, two Finns, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos - were kidnapped April 23 from Malaysia's Sipadan Island and taken to Jolo, an island at the tip of the southern Philippines about an hour away.The Abu Sayyaf, the smaller and more extreme of two Muslim rebel groups in the southern Philippines, is also holding a separate group of Filipino hostages in nearby Basilan province. They seized those hostages, many of whom are children, on March 20 from two schools.The military overran the rebels' stronghold in Basilan last month and later rescued 15 hostages. Four others were killed and eight are believed to still be in rebel hands.. Amid signs yesterday that the Muslim rebels holding 21 people hostage on the Philippines island of Jolo are dug in for a long haul, one hostage has given an insight into conditions inside the camp as well as the group's fears and privations. Amid signs yesterday that the Muslim rebels holding 21 people hostage on the Philippines island of Jolo are dug in for a long haul, one hostage has given an insight into conditions inside the camp as well as the group's fears and privations. Risto Vahanen, one of the two Finns held, described being caught in crossfire between the guerrillas and government troops last week "The fight we had was really frightening...