Dec 4 (LBO) Brace yourself for some absurd bit of news …The Municipal Council is sitting on the idea of charging tax each time you visit the loos! The CMC says it flushes down Rs. 250 mn annually to maintain the system. more..

Dec 4 (TN) A delegation of the LTTE, led by Trincomalee district regional commander Colonel Pathuma, and Sri Lanka Army's General Officer Commanding in Trincomalee district, Major General Sunil Tennekoon, held discussions at the no-man zone in Kattaiparichchan in the Muttur division Wednesday evening, more..

Dec 4 (TN) People with special needs (the handicapped) in Vavuniya gathered at the Urban council hall in the Northern town Wednesday to participate at the International Day for people with special needs, and re-iterated in an oath that disability did not mean lack of talent and that they would demand equal rights in spheres where such rights are currently lacking, sources said. more..

Dec 4 (TN) San Francisco based U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Wednesday that the United States Government "cannot convict groups of individuals of violating a federal law against 'material support' for terrorist organizations unless it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they knew the organizations were involved in terrorist activity," more..

Dec 4 (TN) “I dare Wimal Weerawanse and Champika Ranawaka to go beyond Vavuniya. They can’t. But I can take them now or even during war because we have trust in the Tamil people,” said Mr. Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka, a well known and respected Sinhala film director, more..

Dec 4 (SLA) Two females recently abducted by LTTE managed to escape from LTTE custody and reached PANSALWATTE detachment about 19 km southeast of TRINCOMALEE town on 03 December 2003 around 2.45 p.m. seeking protection from Security Forces. more..

Dec 4 (SLA) Two unidentified men armed with T-56 weapons with two others forcibly took away a fishing boat of a civilian in the general area of NILAVELI, TRINCOMALEE on 03 December 2003 after dropping three fishermen aboard the boat into the seas off SALLIYA beach. more..

Dec 4 (SLA) Three men found on the railway line in the general area of VAKANERI, about 35 km northwest of BATTICALOA on 03 December 2003 around 11.30 a.m. were arrested after troops found some bearing plates and iron pins of the railway track were missing. more..

Dec 4 (SLA) An Army instructor at MADURUOYA Army Training School succumbed to his injuries on 03 December 2003 around 9.30 a.m. following an accidental explosion of a hand grenade he used for a demonstration. more..

Dec 4 (SLA) Two teenagers and two young men without any Identity Cards in possession were arrested by security men at Sri Lanka Port Authority on 02 December 2003 while they were loitering around the Gate No. 01 of the COLOMBO Harbour. more..

Dec 4 (SLA) Next of kin of dead War Heroes, differently-able soldiers and War Heroes of the Sri Lanka Army were recently gifted with twenty three newly built houses erected at the Ranaviru village in Kekirawa and seventy four blocks of land. more..

Dec 4 (PTI) Pakistan has relaxed the police registration requirement for Sri Lankans entering the country, the foreign ministry here said on Thursday. The decision has been taken following discussions held during the visit of interior minister of Pakistan to Sri Lanka in August, the ministry said. more..

Dec 4 (DJ) Sri Lanka is unlikely to see any more initial public offerings this year as a month-long political crisis and a proposed new capital gains tax have hurt sentiment. more..

Dec 4 (RFU) England ‘s progress in the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens continued with a massive win by 75-0 over luckless Sri Lanka in the second tie of the tournament at the Exiles ground in the Gulf state. more..

Dec 4 (DJ) Sri Lanka plans to build an oil refinery, its second international airport and a sea port in southern Hambanthota province as part of a long-term development plan for the region, the country's Minister for Southern Region Development said Thursday. more..

Dec 4 (JT) Authorities on Wednesday said they had determined the identity of a Sri Lankan woman who was found stabbed to death in Hashemi Shamali a day earlier, after her employer went to the police station to file a missing persons report. more..

Dec 4 (TP) Sri Lanka was selected this week for the launch of the second annual International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Journalism for Tolerance Prize as part of the IJF’s bid to increase freedom and autonomy for restricted journalists around South Asia, more..

Dec 4 (DM) The Freedom of Information Bill was yesterday presented to the Cabinet by Justice Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara, stating that the Attorney General had expressed the view that the provisions of the bill were not inconsistent with the Constitution and that the bill was not subjected to any prohibition or restriction imposed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. more..

Dec 4 (PRIU) Japan, one of the co-chairs of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka, welcomed the meetings between President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister ickremesinghe as well as the on-going discussions at official levels, as a solid basis for attaining a durable peace in Sri Lanka. more..

Dec 4 (OW) A powerful coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Wednesday urged the President to prevent the government from introducing a controversial Water Services Reform Bill which they say will deprive the poor of the precious resource. more..

Dec 4 (Sun) Sri Lanka has released 61 Indian fishermen arrested by its Navy but detained another 12 on charges of poching in the island's territorial waters, officials said today. Initially, the authorities said 77 fishermen in 13 boats were arrested on Tuesday near the northern islet of Kayts, but the figure was later revised to 73. more..

Dec 4 (Gulf) President Chandrika Kumaratunga has ordered a probe into a spate of killings in the north eastern port city of Trincomalee. The president ordered the police chief to arrest Tamil Tiger guerrillas responsible. more..

Dec 4 (CI) "The key with Murali is keeping him at bay," said Nasser Hussain in the build-up to this Test. "If he is going to take five wickets in an innings, we have to make sure they are spread over 50 or 60 overs." more..

Dec 4 (CI) When England last visited Galle, in 2001, the cricket was briefly overshadowed by a dispute between the BBC and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, which resulted in Jonathan Agnew and the Test Match Special team being banished from the ground. more..

Dec 4 (PTI) Japan today warned Sri Lanka not to risk a 4.5-billion-dollar foreign aid package pledged during a donor meeting in Tokyo and asked the Colombo government to shed its power struggle and revive peace talks. more..

Dec 4 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka's feuding political forces of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe are still on the search for a suitable formula to end the political crisis, a government spokesman said on Thursday. more..

Dec 4 (Reuters) The Sri Lankan government said on Thursday a power struggle with the president must be resolved by December 15, and repeated the prime minister had to control the island's security bodies to pursue peace with Tamil rebels. more..

Dec 4 (CI) Muttiah Muralitharan, an unlikely batting star yesterday, returned to type and tormented England with the ball at Galle, finishing with 7 for 46, his best figures on this ground. That restricted England's first innings to 235, more..

Dec 4 (Reuters) Sri Lanka has approved an oil refinery and power plant, costing about $1.6 billion, to be built by a Sinopec-led consortium, a minister said on Thursday, but the Chinese firm denied it was involved in the project. more..

Dec 4 (UNI) Insisting that it needed full control over the Ministry of Defence to continue peace talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels, the UNF government today said it was optimistic of reaching a consensus with political archrival, President Chandrika Kumaratunga. more..

Dec 4 (IOL) South Africa is playing a leading role in getting the stalled peace process in Sri Lanka on track again, according to the general secretary of the Peace Secretariat of the Tigers of Tamil Eelam. more..

Dec 4 (TN) The Chavakachcheri Magistrate, Mr.P.Subramaniam, Thursday ordered remand for an army deserter till December 18 when the Kodikamam Police produced him in court on a charge that the suspect had sold a T56 rifle and live rounds to four Tamil civilians before decamping from Jaffna district, more..

Dec 4 (TN) Commenting on the reported candidacy of Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, former foreign minister and a confidante of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General, the TNA in a statement Thursday highlighted several grave human rights abuses of his government more..

Dec 5 (TN) Hundreds of Buddhist monks from the National Bhikku Front held a demonstration and protest march against the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the LTTE Thursday afternoon in Colombo, sources said. more..

Dec 5 (TN) The Consortium of Jaffna District Non-Governmental Organizations Thursday told the visiting British Defense Ministry officials' team that the UK government should exert pressure to end the current political instability in the south of Sri Lanka to take forward the stalled peace process more..

Dec 5 (TN) Sri Lanka would get more funds for clearing mines in the northeast if it accedes to the Ottawa Convention banning the use of landmines said Mr. Ted Chaiban, the head of the UNICEF in Sri Lanka, more..

Dec 5 (DN) Sri Jayawardenapura University lecturers supporting a fellow don on a death fast and a mass of undergraduates continued to remain at the university premises yesterday for the second day defying a senate order to vacate the university premises. more..

Dec 5 (Island) The Small Arms Survey published by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva titled ‘In the Shadow of a Ceasefire- Impacts Small Arms, Availability and Misuse in Sri Lanka’ says similar to the current situation in Northern Ireland; there are indications that splits are emerging amongst the LTTE cadres. more..

Dec 5 (TN) The Asian Development Bank funded North East Community Organization for Restoration and Development (NECORD) Project Thursday launched the Village Rehabilitation Programme under the Community Development Project in eight districts of the North-East, more..

Dec 5 (Guardian) The England batsman Mark Butcher cut an exhausted figure last night as he spoke about the trials of facing Muttiah Muralitharan on a turning, bouncing pitch in eye-watering heat, writes Lawrence Booth in Galle. more..

Dec 5 (LBO) Around 60 State owned rest houses, previously managed by the Urban Development Authority and other government agencies, are scheduled for a change of management under a cluster-lease concept. more..

Dec 5 (LBO) Software giant Microsoft, is setting up a fully-fledged local arm to offer products at discount rates and to set up a development unit. Microsoft Sri Lanka Ltd will distribute specific licence products and the firm will also be making the world standard ‘Windows’ software available in both the Sinhalese and Tamil languages more..

Dec 5 (LBO) A consortium led by Chinese based SINOPEC Holdings got the Cabinet go-ahead on Wednesday to pump in US$ 1.6 bn to construct an oil refinery in Hambantota. The project will be the single largest foreign investment into the country, and is in line with plans to develop Hambantota in the South into an infrastructure hub. more..

Dec 5 (LT) The decision taken by the vice-chancellor of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura to close down the University is not acceptable say the Union of the academic staff and the Students’ Council. more..

Dec 5 (LT) A continuous strike against non approval of the cabinet paper on rectifying salary anomalies of the health sector would be launched from next week says Health Sector Trade Unions alliance (HSTUA). more..

Dec 5 (LT) The ‘work to rule’ campaign launched by the employees of the Departments of Customs, Income tax and Excise opposing the Revenue Authority Draft Bill brought all work in the department to a standstill. more..

Dec 5 (TN) A member of the EPDP , a paramilitary group that works with the Sri Lankan armed forces in Sri Lanka’s northeast, has sought asylum from the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna, military sources in the northern town said Friday. more..

Dec 5 (TN) Four persons, suspected to be from LTTE hijacked a van with its driver, assistant and hirer while it was traveling across the general area of SITTANDY, about 24 km northwest of BATTICALOA on 03 December 2003 around 9.00 p.m. more..

Dec 5 (SLA) An explosion of a hand grenade caused death to a Muslim civilian on the spot in the general area of MUTTUR on 04 December 2003 around 7.00 a.m. One more unexploded hand grenade was also found by the side of his dead body. more..

Dec 5 (SLA) Some Muslims, who went for fishing and collecting sand from the lagoon, complained that an LTTE cadre, named RANJAN demanded a ransom of Rs. 300 (US $ 3) from each Muslim in the general area of MUTTUR on 4 December 2003. more..