Prominent Tamil journalist slain near Sri Lankan capital

April 29 (AP) A top Tamil journalist whose articles favored the mainstream Tamil Tiger rebels over a breakaway faction was fatally shot hours after being seized by attackers at a restaurant in the capital, police and colleagues said Friday.

Dharmeratnam Sivaram, 46, a board member of the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site and a columnist for Sri Lanka's English newspaper the Daily Mirror, was abducted by four unidentified men at the restaurant in Colombo late Thursday and taken away in a jeep, witnesses said on condition of anonymity.