Nov 7 (AFP) Sri Lanka's president Friday invited all political parties to form a government of "national reconciliation" and assured the country the Norwegian-led peace process with Tamil rebels would continue. more..

Nov 8 (BBC) The prime minister will not find a legal challenge easy Sri Lanka's president has called for a national unity cabinet with her rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. In a televised address, Chandrika Kumaratunga justified her decision to sack ministers and suspend parliament. more..

Nov 8 (HT) Tiger chieftain, Velupillai Prabhakaran, is keeping "judicious silence" on the drastic steps taken by the Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, against the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government, says Colonel Karuna, a top military commander of the LTTE and a member of the LTTE's negotiating team. more..

Nov 8 (AP) President lashed out on Friday at her bitter rival, the country's prime minister, saying he had placed the country's security "in grave danger" in negotiations with Tamil Tiger rebels, but she called for parties to come together to form a government of national unity. more..

Nov 8 (HT) The Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has called upon all nationalist and patriotic parties in Parliament to come together and form a National Government of Reconstruction and Reconciliation (NGRR). more..

Nov 8 (TN) Leaders of JVP, SLFP, Buddhist monks and thousands of party activists and supporters Friday held a demonstration march in downtown Colombo under the Patriotic National Movement (PNM) banner, supporting President Chadrika Kumaratunga’s decision to take over key ministries more..

Nov 8 (TN) "The Ceasefire Agreement between the UNF government and the LTTE will continue and the Norwegian monitors will be allowed to function with clear instructions. The Sri Lanka Army will be instructed to strictly abide by the ceasefire agreement. The Prime Minister can continue with the peace process. I shall take the defense of the country," more..

Nov 8 (Island) The Patriotic National Movement (PNM) in a statement issued yesterday, claimed that supporters of a UNP Minister, residing in Borella, assaulted PNM supporters in the early hours of yesterday while they were carrying out propaganda work regarding yesterday’s protest in Colombo. more..

Nov 8 (BS) The inaugural flight of Air Sahara between New Delhi and Colombo, scheduled for tomorrow, has been put off. Chief Executive Officer of Air Sahara U K Bose acknowledged that the airline had not received clearance for the flight from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. more..

Nov 8 (BS) As the political crisis in Sri Lanka deepens, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is not clear whether it will be able to sell its petrol and diesel in the prevailing conditions in the country. more..

Nov 8 (DN) The remarkable progress achieved by the Samurdhi programme in alleviating poverty among low income groups has inspired the Government to set up 109 Samurdhi Bank Societies in the North-East to provide financial support to boost economic activities among the people there. more..

Nov 8 (AFP) Saturday's Buddhist fullmoon holiday gave Sri Lankans a breather from the intense political turmoil of the past five days, with most people taking time out to be with families or meditate in temples. more..

Nov 8 (AFP) President Chandrika Kumaratunga has tightened her grip on security in Sri Lanka while backing down from a state of emergency and offering a political sop to her nemesis Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. more..

Nov 8 (AFP) Norwegian envoys will go ahead with a planned visit to Sri Lanka Monday despite political turmoil that has cast a shadow over their peace efforts here, Norwegian embassy spokesman Tomas Stangeland said. more..

Nov 8 (TN) "Tamil issue has always been a political football in the grounds of the Southern political discourse, but this time around the situation is entirely different. Transparency of talks and the level of international engagement makes the current Peace Process absolutely irreversible," said Sri Lanka expert Prof. Chris Smith, more..

Nov 8 (TN) The parliamentary group of the TNA held a meeting Saturday evening at the office of the TULF in Colombo and reviewed the President's address to the nation and the present political situation following the dismissal of three key ministers and the prorogation of the parliament for two weeks, more..

Nov 8 (TN) Nn a request made by the North East Provincial Council (NEPC), the World Bank has approved in principle the implementation of the North East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP-2) under which five hundred more focal villages and two major irrigation schemes in the eight districts of the NorthEast province will be accommodated, more..

Nov 8 (TN) The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) in Colombo held a one-day seminar on the “Interim Self Governing Authority “ (ISGA) proposals submitted by the LTTE as its response to the government of Sri Lanka’s interim administrative structure proposals for the NorthEast, Friday afternoon at the Colombo Jai Hilton Hotel, more..

Nov 8 (DM) Alleged narcotic dealer Augustus A. Jesudasan - the man in the center of a controversy involving the former IGP - has filed a fundamental rights petition asking the Supreme Court for an order preventing the police from arresting him. more..

Nov 8 (AP) With star bowler Muttiah Muralitharan out of form, Sri Lankans were worried about the resurgent England cricket team that arrives here next week to play three Tests and an equal number of one-day internationals. more..

Nov 8 (AP) Supporters of Sri Lanka's prime minister Saturday rejected the president's appeal to form a coalition government, continuing a political crisis that has engulfed this island nation for days. more..

Nov 8 (GN) New Delhi has the knack of waking up after the event. It does not come as a surprise that it did not know what was happening in its own backyard, Colombo. At least our Foreign Office spokesman was candid enough to say: "We are surprised at the sudden political development in Sri Lanka." more..

Nov 8 (CNA) Sri Lanka's peace broker Norway has come under fire ahead of fresh moves to revive the stalled talks between the beleaguered Colombo government and Tiger rebels, diplomats said. more..

Nov 8 (Reuters) When President Chandrika Kumaratunga sits down at the weekly meeting of the cabinet she heads, she sees at the end of the table her biggest political foe -- Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. more..

Nov 9 (Island) The JVP and other nationalist groups are annoyed by President Kumaratunga’s pledge to uphold the Oslo arranged cease-fire and Norwegian facilitation as well as the public invitation to the UNF on the formation of a national government, well informed political sources said yesterday. more..

Nov 9 (TN) Privately owned small scale diesel generators produce the only electric power available in key towns in the Vanni region. While a new 20MW thermal power plant in Jaffna was recently reactivated by the Sri Lanka Government officials, it is doubtful that Vanni towns and villages will enjoy grid supplied electric power for many years to come. more..

Nov 9 (SL) Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was happily in dreamland at the Presidential Suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington after a hectic but successful day's work when he was rudely awakened by the incessant ringing of the telephone in the wee hours of Tuesday morning - 1:40 a.m. to be exact. more..

Nov 9 (SL) Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during a 20 minute telephone conversation with President Chandrika Kumaratunga expressed surprise at her decision to sack three cabinet ministers and urged her not to disrupt the peace process. more..

Nov 9 (ST) President Chandrika Kumaratunga had been plotting a parliamentary coup to defeat the UNF Government at least as much as five months ago when she offered Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando the Prime Ministership if he were to cross-over, The Sunday Times was told. more..

Nov 9 (SO) Chief Opposition Whip, PA MP Mangala Samaraweera, said on Friday, that the country's national problem will be solved by an SLFP - JVP coalition which would lay a solid foundation for a final settlement and assured that parties allied with the PA and other minority parties like EPDP, PLOT and EPRLF will also be invited to join them. more..

Nov 9 (PTI) The US troops in Sri Lanka will continue their joint exercises with local counterparts notwithstanding the taking over of defence portfolio by President Chandrika Kumaratunga in a power-struggle, the US embassy said. more..

Nov 9 (HT) The leader of the LTTE's political wing, SP Tamilchelvam, has made the startling revelation that 35 per cent of the fighting cadres of the LTTE are Indian Origin Tamils. Hindustan Times has learnt that Tamilchelvam made this revelation to some Tamil politicians who had met him recently. more..

Nov 9 (HT) President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, would not accept Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's proposal that she take over the management of the peace process, in addition to the Defence Ministry which she had taken over earlier this week, a source close to the President told the Hindustan Times. more..

Nov 9 (AFP) The Sri Lankan president’s plan to oust her arch rival prime minister through a constitutional manoeuvre may have backfired and caused new rifts within her ranks, politicians and analysts said on Sunday. more..

Nov 9 (AP) Sri Lanka has sent home 51 Pakistanis, who were being smuggled to Italy via the South Asian island nation by a Karachi-based gang of human traffickers, authorities said on Sunday. more..

Nov 9 (AFP) Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Morshed Khan said Sunday he hoped Sri Lanka's political crisis would not affect the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels. "As a country in the (South Asian) region we are concerned about the developments in Sri Lanka in the recent past," he told reporters. more..

Nov 9 (AFP) Sri Lanka's government was Sunday set to discuss the future of its peace process with the main international backers of the Norwegian-led initiative, chief negotiator G. L. Peiris said. more..

Nov 9 (AFP) Sri Lanka's president and premier are often at each other's throats and in their uneasy 21-month-old cohabitation have shown little inclination to work together except for a rare meeting of minds over the nation's mental health. more..

Nov 9 (AFP) President Chandrika Kumaratunga has denied that the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels is at risk due to her takeover of three key government portfolios, in an interview broadcast Sunday by the BBC. more..

Nov 9 (AP) Sri Lanka's influential Muslim Congress party said on Sunday its crucial support for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's coalition government will depend on how much say the country's Muslims have in areas that would be led by Tamil Tiger rebels under a proposed peace plan. more..

Nov 9 (Gulf) The UNF government yesterday said that it was willing to consider an offer by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to form a government of national reconciliation only after the President resummons parliament and restores the Cabinet portfolios of three ministers. more..

Nov 9 (Reuters) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, locked in a power battle with the island's prime minister, called her adversary manipulative a day after asking him to form an all-party government to resolve the country's political crisis. more..

Nov 9 (AFP) Sri Lanka's beleaguered government has asked its international backers to examine the possibility of getting hostile President Chandrika Kumaratunga to handle the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels, a senior minister said. more..

Nov 9 (Reuters) The Sri Lankan government, in a power struggle with the island's president, said Sunday it may ask her to take over a peace process with Tamil rebels if she does not reverse a decision to sack three ministers. more..

Nov 9 (SFC) A decade ago, her meteoric 18-month rise from private citizen to prime minister and then president was in some ways predictable, if in other ways astonishing. President Chandrika Kumaratunga's mother and father had both served as prime minister, making her the heir to a dynasty that ranks with those of the Gandhis of India and the Bhuttos of Pakistan. more..

Nov 10 (TN) North East Trade Unions Federation (NETUF) at a special meeting held Sunday condemned the recent actions by the President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge as a step to derail the peace talks between the UNF government and the LTTE," sources said. more..

Nov 10 (TN) "The time has come for all the lovers of peace to engage in a serious dialogue by contributing their share in solving this vexed [ethnic] problem by studying the [LTTE's] proposal and arriving at a consensus to implement it,” said Professor S.K.Sitrampalam, more..

Nov 10 (TN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s strategy for holding fast to the reins of power in Colombo is fundamentally in conflict with sustaining the peace process in Sri Lanka, Tamil politicians and commentators say. The President and her allies assert that the Sri Lankan state should get tough on the LTTE to safeguard Sinhala national interests. more..

Nov 10 (Age) Last week, while Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was in Washington on a state visit, the country's President declared a state of emergency and suspended Parliament. more..

Nov 10 (Hindu) The President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, today said the Constitutional steps taken by her to take over Defence, Interior and Mass Communications portfolios were in the "larger interest of the entire nation", and called for political unity to solve decades-long separatist conflict. more..