Sept 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka born veteran Singapore politician JB Jeyaratnam has died of heart failure in a Singapore hospital, at age 82, media reports said.

He was the first to break a government monopoly on power in Singapore when he won a seat in parliament in 1981.

Born in 1926 in Jaffna, Mr. Jeyaratnam practiced as a lawyer in Britain before he moved to Singapore.