| The Sri Lankan government officially outlawed the Tamil Tiger rebel group on Wednesday, a formality that ruled out the possibility of restarting peace talks any time soon to end a brutal quarter-century of civil war. The Cabinet unanimously agreed to ban the group after the guerrillas ignored an ultimatum to allow hundreds of thousands of civilians living in rebel-held areas to leave, Cabinet Minister Maithripala Sirisena said. The government, as well as international rights groups, have accused the Tamil Tigers of holding civilians as human shields to protect them against the military offensive into rebel-held territory. |