The BBC’s Tamil service, BBC Tamilosai, has launched a special 10-day morning news programme to cover the increasing interest and flow of news out of the situation in Sri Lanka. It will also concentrate on the Indian General Election.

Head of BBC Tamil, Thirumalai Manivannan, said: “With events unfolding in Sri Lanka, as well as the general election in India, the BBC Tamil team feels that it’s vital to keep our audiences up to date with latest developments outside our normal daily half-hour broadcasts at 15.45 GMT (21.15 Sri Lankan and Indian Standard Times).”

He added: “As we have done in the past, we decided to add this special morning programme to our news output, to ensure our radio and online audiences are kept fully informed about developments which are directly affecting them.”

The special 15-minute programme will be broadcast from 07.00 Sri Lankan and Indian Standard Times every day till Wednesday 20 May.

The programme is broadcast on 19 (15285 kHz) and 16 (17515 kHz) meters on shortwave and is also available via the website bbctamil.com as a special audio folder for diaspora listeners.