REFUGEE

In Sri Lanka, local media are reporting that more than 2,000 temporary shelters for civilians displaced in Sri Lanka's ethnic war have been destroyed by gale force winds.

Sri Lankan army spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara says however, there's no evidence of widespread destruction to temporary shelters, he says the reports emerged as a result of exaggerations and lies.

The reports are difficult to verify, because reporters have been barred from entering the camps and the army has granted only limited access to aid organisations. An estimated 250-thousand people have been living in government-run camps and not allowed to leave, since Sri Lanka's army defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May.