offered £5m ($7.5m) to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. It is essential that we get food, medicines and shelter in as soon as possible to save lives, and thereafter that we help people to return to their homes as soon as they safely can, said Hillary Benn, the UK's international development secretary. Diplomats say the EU has limited leverage, our correspondent notes http://www.mbtshoes4australia.com/ - mbt shoes clearance australia , although it could remove preferential trade access worth $150m (£100m) if the country is found to be in breach of international human rights obligations. Reports differ on the numbers of civilians caught up in the last battles, with the government saying that all those who had been trapped in Sri Lanka's northern war zone had escaped. The rebel spokesman, though, said more than 25,000 were injured and in need of attention. The government said it did not respond to statements released on Tamilnet http://mbtshoesuk001.webs.com/ - MBT Sale Clearances UK , and asserted that 50,000 Tamil civilians had left the war zone in recent days. The UN has told the BBC the army figures reinforced its view that Sri Lanka's authorities were ill-prepared for the huge influx of internally displaced people. Refugee camps inland are already badly strained accommodating the huge numbers of those who have fled the conflict. Leader at large?The fighting is drawing to a close without any official word on the fate of the Tamil Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.Some reports have suggested he has died, but - as with all information from the war zone - there has been no confirmation. The army had suspected that Prabhakaran http://suprashoesuk1.webs.com/ - cheap supra shoes , who formed the Tigers in 1976, would fulfil his long-held pledge to take his own life rather than face capture. Reports suggested some of the last remaining Tigers launched themselves in suicide attacks at government troops, but there was no word on whether Prabhakaran was among them. President Rajapaksa is expected to give a nationally televised news conference in parliament on Tuesday, when reports suggest he may officially declare the war over. More than 70,000 people have died in the bit
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