May 8 (TN) President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge through her media spokesman Wednesday said she is opposed to the relocation of Sri Lanka Army camps from the present sites without reaching agreements with the LTTE on core issues, sources in Colombo said. more..

May 8 (Island) Defence Minister Tilak Marapana yesterday said Sri Lanka would have one navy, one air force, one army and one police. Defence Minister yesterday said that the government has not yet accepted the proposals by the SLMM to grant ocean zones or to recognise the Sea Tigers as a legitimate naval unit. more..

May 8 (SLA) Two teenagers, who approached a combined foot patrol of the Security Forces and Police in the general area of KALMADU, about 4 km southwest of KALKUDAH on 06 May 2003 around 7.00 p.m., had claimed that they had managed to escape from LTTE. more..

May 8 (SLA) Islandwide festivities to coincide with the holding of the second World Hindu Conference 2003 (WHC) in Sri Lanka this year attracted thousands of Hindu devotees to different places of worship and public importance, including Colombo Galle Face, Nuwara Eliya, Jaffna, Kandy, Batticaloa, Badulla, Bandarawela and Trincomalee. more..

May 8 (TN) The LTTE Wednesday told the Japanese peace special envoy Mr Yasushi Akashi that they would consider his request to participate at the Aid Donor conference in Japan seriously if the Government of Sri Lanka took positive steps towards implementing decisions taken at six previous rounds of talks, more..

May 8 (PRIU) The Sri Lanka Navy’s Board of Inquiry into the sinking of the Chinese trawler off Mullaitivu coast, has submitted its much awaited report to President Chandrika Kumaratunga. “Though there is no direct hard evidence, the circumstantial evidence points to LTTE being the perpetrator of the attack,” the report says. more..

May 8 (Reuters) Stocks hit fresh seven-month highs on Thursday amid strong volumes on improving prospects for the war-shackled economy, brokers said. The key Colombo all-share index finished up 0.60 percent, or 5.12 points, at 852.95 points, a level last seen on October 1. more..

May 8 (DN) The country's second international airport will be established in the Hambantota district, Southern Regional Development Minister Ananda Kularatne, told the Daily News yesterday after an inspection tour of the proposed area. more..

May 8 (Reuters) Marvan Atapattu has promised an innovative approach during his tenure as Sri Lanka's one-day captain, starting against Pakistan on Saturday. The triangular series also involving New Zealand will be Atapattu's first tournament in charge since the selectors’ decision to split the one-day and test captaincy. more..

May 8 (CI) As long as Test series' of two matches only remain the norm there will be grounds for dissatisfaction with inconclusive results like those in the just-completed New Zealand-Sri Lanka series. more..

May 8 (Gulf) Sri Lankan expatriates in the Middle East will soon be able to repatriate money back home via a bank exclusively opened for them in Colombo. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Employment is initiating the concept of an exclusive bank. Once established, the bank will encourage the opening up of non-resident foreign currency acco-unts for each Sri Lankan going overseas. more..

May 8 (DM) Torrential rains that hit the Kalutara district during the past two days left at least six people dead and thousands homeless while the government was providing relief to the displaced. more..

May 8 (HNS) Visiting Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and his host Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga have called on the international community to respect international law. more..

May 8 (HNS) President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Wednesday was presented with the “Golden Key to Colombo” by Colombo Mayor Prasanna Gunawardane. At a civic reception at the Town Hall in Colombo on Wednesday afternoon, Gayoom thanked the Colombo Municipal Council and said that he regarded the key as one given to the people of Maldives in friendship. more..

May 8 (BBC) Muttiah Muralitharan says "negative tactics" by batsmen has made taking wickets much more difficult for spinners. The Sri Lanka bowler took 13 wickets in the recent Test series against New Zealand, which ended with both matches drawn. more..

May 8 (AP) Defence Minister Tilak Marapana announced yesterday that 64 security forces camps outside the High Security Zone (HSZ) would be moved out to new locations to enable displaced civilians to be resettled in the northern Jaffna peninsula. more..

May 8 (HT) The LTTE supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has put tough conditions for coming back to the negotiating table and attending the mega international donors' conference in Tokyo. more..

May 8 (HT) Donning the garb of a Sri Lankan "nationalist" to suit the occasion, the separatist Tamil guerilla leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on Wednesday criticised the Sri Lankan government for inviting Indian military experts to advice it on "our country's domestic problems" and said that the calling of these outsiders was a reflection of the government's weakness. more..

May 8 (AP) International peace monitors said on Thursday that revenge killings of political opponents and former military spies -- mostly blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels -- could pose a "serious threat" to the truce in Sri Lanka's civil war. more..

May 8 (AFP) Norwegian diplomats were due to open fresh talks with Tamil Tiger rebels as a Japanese envoy failed to end the deadlock in peace process, officials said. Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim was to hold talks with Anton Balasingham in a bid to jump-start the Norwegian-backed peace bid, more..

May 8 (Reuters) The Sri Lankan government expressed confidence on Thursday that talks with Tamil Tigers could be restarted quickly, but despite stepped-up international efforts the rebels showed no sign of returning to negotiations. more..

May 8 (UNI) LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran presented a map of 'Tamil Eelam' and the 'LTTE insignia' to Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi, who met him at Wanni region yesterday. more..

May 8 (Reuters) The United Nations said Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels were recruiting fewer child soldiers but international truce monitors criticised the rebels on Thursday for alleged political killings. more..

May 8 (TN) The final round of talks between the People’s Alliance and the JVP are progressing satisfactorily and the parties expect to sign a memorandum of understanding end of the week, Mr. Wimal Weerawanse, the Propaganda Secretary and spokesman of the JVP said Thursday. more..

May 8 (AFP) Sri Lanka's antagonists vowed they will not return to war as Norwegian diplomats Thursday opened fresh talks with Tamil Tiger rebels to end the deadlock in the island's peace process. more..

May 9 (TN) The Amnesty International Thursday criticised the US state department for putting out a biased human rights report on Sri Lanka for 2002. Mr. Jim McDonald, Sri Lanka Country Specialist, said that the US state department’s human rights report on Sri Lanka for 2002 made serious omissions relating to human rights violations committed by Sri Lankan armed forces. more..

May 9 (Island) Former Foreign Minister and PA Parliamentarian, Lakshman Kadrigamar opening the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement on the peace process told Parliament yesterday. more..

May 9 (AFP) Sri Lankan sailors Thursday arrested two Tamil Tiger rebels transporting explosives in the island's east despite a truce between security forces and the guerrillas, officials here said. more..

May 9 (BP) Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will pledge the government's support for any future Sri Lankan peace talks during a visit to the country next week, scheduled to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Buddhist order of Siam Wong. more..

May 9 (LBO) The telecom regulator is awaiting Ministry approval to allocate two frequency slots in the 1800 MHz range, of three put up for sale. TRC Director General, Themia Hurulle on Wednesday said that the documentation for the allocations would be presented to the Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Communication during the week. more..

May 9 (SLA) Naval troops on routine patrol on 8 May 2003 around 2.30 p.m. in the general sea area east of KONESHWARAN, TRINCOMALEE spotted a suspicious boat with three men on board moving from south to north. more..

May 9 (SLA) A lorry with a consignment of 350 bags of cement, which avoided the use of main road, was stopped on suspicion by troops on routine duty in the general area of VANTHARAMULAI, about 20 km northwest of BATTICALOA town on 8 May 2003. more..

May 9 (SLA) Two hand grenades found by civilians close to the POONTHOTTAM Refugee Camp in VAVUNIYA were handed over to the VAVUNIYA Police through the Bomb Disposal Squad on 8 May 2003. The VAVUNIYA Police are conducting inquiries.

May 9 (TN) Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament Thursday during the special debate in parliament that the report submitted by a former Indian army official, Satish Nambiar, on high security zones in the northeast has been forwarded to the President Chandrika Kumaratunge, more..

May 9 (TN) United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) through the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) in the Trincomalee district is providing free spectacles and other medical assistance to help the poor, said the officer in charge of the UNHCR in Trincomalee, more..

May 9 (TN) Speaking at the South Asia Discussion Group, Mr. Priyath Liyanage, head of Sandesiya, the BBC’s Sinhala service, said the “effort to avoid the involvement of the Tamil Tigers” in rehabilitation and development in the north raises the question of the other ulterior agendas by Colombo. more..

May 9 (DM) The elderly partner of a one time well known mercantile firm, his son and daughter were brutally killed at their Dehiwela residence soon after midnight yesterday in a horrifying crime thought to be connected to a land dispute. more..

May 9 (Reuters) Stocks reversed early losses to close slightly higher on Friday, although brokers said a cut in interest rates by the central bank did little to spur buying activity. The key Colombo all-share index ended up a provisional 0.06 percent, or 0.52 points, at 852.92. more..

May 9 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's central bank cut policy interest rates on Friday to spur the island's small economy that is benefitting from a peace bid to end a 20-year civil war. The overnight repurchase rate was reduced to 8.25 percent from nine percent, more..

May 9 (AFP) Sri Lanka and Pakistan clash in the opening match of the triangular one-day series in a historical Buddhist temple town here, hoping to resurrect their cricketing fortunes. A lone one-day international has so far been played at this venue in central Sri Lanka, famous more for rock-cut caves, temples and meditation centres than cricket. more..

May 9 (Dawn) International efforts to get the stalled Sri Lankan peace process back on the rails were underway this week after the rebel Tamil Tigers suspended their participation in the negotiations last month. more..

May 9 (IB) Yakub Ali, Bangladesh High Commissioner, designate, to Sri Lanka called on the President of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Matiur Rahman at the DCCI office yesterday. more..

May 9 (AFP) A top Indian military officer has asked Sri Lanka’s warring parties to simultaneously de-commission long-range weapons as part of efforts to end decades of ethnic bloodshed, in a report published on Friday. more..

May 9 (HT) Sensing an erosion of confidence in the neutrality of the exclusively Nordic Sri Lanka (Ceasefire) Monitoring Mission (SLMM) among the Sri Lankan armed forces and key sections of the Sri Lankan polity, Indian consultant, Lt Gen (Rtd) Satish Nambiar has suggested the inclusion of personnel from other countries in the panel. more..

May 9 (DN) With the on going peace process obviating the expenditure on weapons, drugs has assumed number one spot in Sri Lanka's black economy with statistics showing a whopping 50 million rupees a day being spent by drug addicts for their "fix", according to Director Police Narcotics Bureau Pujitha Jayasundera. more..

May 9 (TN) Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) celebrated its work in helping the people affected by two decades of war in Northeast and other parts of Sri Lanka by holding several events in Batticaloa district on the World Red Cross Day, Thursday, sources in Batticaloa said. more..

May 9 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels must disarm if the government is to meet their demand of dismantling military zones in the island's war-torn north, an independent report released on Friday said. more..

May 9 (AFP) King Gyanendra will inaugurate a restored temple on May 16 at the reputed site of the Buddha's birth in the southern Nepalese town of Lumbini, officials said Thursday. The temple of Mayadevi, the Buddha's mother, will be opened to the public after the function on May 16, more..

May 9 (CI) Mahela Jayawardene is being groomed as long-term captain, according to Lalith Kaluperuma, chairman of selectors. Jayawardene was appointed for a second stint as vice-captain on Wednesday night, and Kaluperuma believes he is the ideal man to lead Sri Lanka during the 2007 World Cup. more..

May 9 (OW) Heightened public awareness, increased vigilance by the government, and stiffer penalization has triggered a rise in reported cases of child abuse in Sri Lanka, leading to a higher conviction rate of offenders. more..