Nov 11 (TN) Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe has invited the TNA for talks on Wednesday evening to discuss the present constitutional crisis and the future of the peace process. Earlier on the day Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe is scheduled to meet the President more..

Nov 11 (TN) Sri Lanka’s constitutional crisis deepened further on Tuesday as MPs of the ruling UNF and the TNA wrote to the Speaker of Parliament asking him to convene the national legislature before 19 November, the date on which President Kumaratunga’s prorogation of Parliament is due to expire. more..

Nov 11 (TN) The North-South Journalists Association (NSJA) of Sri Lanka has been revived after about two years. A function to mark this event was held last Saturday at the Colombo Renuka Hotel under the patronage of the National Peace Council (NPC), sources said. more..

Nov 11 (TN) An eight-day Tamil music festival ' Rama Nama Ganamirtham,' organized by the Colombo Kamban Kazhaham began Monday evening in Colombo at Wellawatte Ramakrishna Mission Hall. The Supreme Court Justice, Mr. C.V.Vigneswaran, inaugurated the festival. more..

Nov 11 (SLA) The Sri Lanka Ex-Servicemen’s Association (SLESA) organized “Remembrance Day” Commemoration in sacred memory of all those who gave their lives in the defence of Sri Lanka during first, second World Wars and Terrorist Wars was held on Sunday (November 09) more..

Nov 11 (SLA) A soldier received injuries when Engineer troops defused two unexploded 81 mm mortar bombs inside WELIKANDA Army camp premises on 10 November 2003 irrespective of all safety precautions adopted. more..

Nov 11 (SLA) Five Sri Lankan refugees reached TALAIMANNAR Police on 09 November 2003 around 8.00 p.m. and claimed that they arrived from INDIA on a private boat. The TALAI MANNAR Police are conducting investigations.

Nov 11 (LT) The UNP had made arrangements to convene a party leaders meeting presided by the Speaker today at 9.30 a.m. at Parliamentary complex. It is reported that leaders of Opposition parties have not participated at the meeting. more..

Nov 11 (PSL) President Kumaratunga will meet with Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen and special envoy Erik Solheim tomorrow, Wednesday November 12, at President’s House Colombo. Helgessen in Sri Lanka from 10 to 13 November is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today. more..

Nov 11 (RD) A Sri Lankan housemaid rescued two of her sponsor’s children who were trapped in the house soon after Saturday’s bomb blasts here. The maid, Vaidraliyage Sunil Dissanayake Jayakody, 28, who was also injured in the blasts on the ground floor of the apartment had run upstairs with her bleeding injuries to get the two children out of the house. more..

Nov 11 (TP) A state-owned shipping firm in Kerala and a Sri Lanka company have signed a deal to ply passenger ships between Thiruvananthapuram and Colombo, with the fare half that of flight ticket rates. more..

Nov 11 (DN) Pesticides banned worldwide on human, health and environmental concerns are already banned in Sri Lanka, Agriculture, Health Director Dr. S. L. Weerasena told yesterday. Sri Lanka is fully enforcing the Rotterdam Convention on Prior-Informed Consent Procedure for pesticides. more..

Nov 11 (ANI) Sri Lankan refugees living in India have expressed the hope the political crisis back home would not hamper the peace process with Tamil rebels. The comments came amid speculation that the island nation's feuding president and prime minister could sort out their differences since the crisis erupted a week ago. more..

Nov 11 (Reuters) The Sri Lankan rupee fell sharply on Tuesday in thin volumes with political uncertainty fuelling demand for dollars, dealers said. The rupee closed at 96.00 against the dollar, compared to Monday's close of 95.20, in thin trade. more..

Nov 11 (Reuters) Stocks were volatile and fell on Tuesday on a deadlocked power struggle between the president and prime minister on how to manage a peace bid to end a 20-year ethnic war. The benchmark Colombo all-share index fell a provisional 2.68 percent, more..

Nov 11 (DJ) Sri Lanka's tourism industry, a major driver of the economy, will likely ride out the political struggle if it doesn't last longer than another week, but would be seriously affected by prolonged crisis, the island's tourism minister said Tuesday. more..

Nov 11 (Reuters) Peace has been good to Vardaragah Gnanendra. "Business has improved dramatically," the owner of an electronics shop in Jaffna's main market says. "I am now selling up to 30 television sets and 150 music systems every month." more..

Nov 11 (AFP) Sri Lanka's ruling party MPs have been offered up to four million dollars in cash and foreign scholarships to defect to the president's party, a government minister said Tuesday. more..

Nov 11 (DM) A memorandum signed by some 130 members of parliament - more than an absolute majority - is to be officially handed over to the Speaker before noon today asking him to reconvene the suspended Parliament immediately. more..

Nov 11 (AFP) Sri Lanka's prime minister Tuesday agreed to talks with his political rival the president in a bid to keep alive peace talks with Tamil rebels but rejected her call for a unity government, officials said. more..

Nov 11 (BBC) Prime minister has said he will meet the president, a week after rivalry between them spilled over into a political crisis. Wednesday's talks will focus on the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels, the prime minister's office said. more..

Nov 11 (AFP) Norwegian envoys have began talks with Sri Lankan leaders Tuesday in an attempt to resurrect the peace process with Tamil rebels which has been hit by the political crisis gripping the island. more..

Nov 11 (Reuters) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga greets buddhist priests during a briefing on the current situation in Colombo, November 11, 2003. more..

Nov 11 (TN) The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Tuesday told the Norwegian peace envoys that defense arrangements of the country should be left in the hands of one party that is dedicated to take forward the current peace process with sincerity. more..

Nov 11 (Gulf) Sri Lanka's former defence minister Tilak Marapana has strongly defended his stance during his tenure to maintain national security and denied allegations that the president was not consulted on crucial matters. more..

Nov 11 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's prime minister has accepted an invitation to meet the president on Wednesday, but neither appears ready for compromise in a power struggle that threatens efforts to restart peace talks with Tamil rebels. more..

Nov 11 (HT) The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has accepted President Chandrika Kumaratunga's invitation to meet her. The Presidential Secretariat said that the meeting would take place on Wednesday. more..

Nov 11 (Reuters) Japanese researchers said on Monday they had discovered a molecule in tea that could block the spread of the AIDS virus. The lab findings could offer a novel way to combat the HIV infection by preventing the virus from spreading throughout the body, scientists said. more..

Nov 12 (TN) Sri Lanka Army's Jaffna area commander, Major General Sarath Fonseka, has instructed all the five zonal directors of education in the Jaffna district not to allow any public events to take place in school premises during school hours. more..

Nov 12 (TN) A request has been made to the Secretary General of the TULF, Mr.R.Sampanthan, to summon the central working committee of the party to take disciplinary action against the party president, Mr.V.Ananadasangaree, for making statements contrary to the TNA’s stated positions as outlined in its manifesto, more..

Nov 12 (ANN) The world has been startled by the sudden eruption of the crisis in Sri Lanka. At a time when Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was on a visit to the United States, President Kumaratunga asserted her power by divesting his ministers of key security portfolios, which she took into her own custody, more..

Nov 12 (G&M) A failed refugee claimant twice ordered deported from Canada received a life sentence yesterday for brutally slaying a young man and his sister, who had spurned his romantic overtures. more..

Nov 12 (DN) Principals of Zahira College, Matale and Bandarawela Central were interdicted by the Education Ministry on Monday for failing to hand over the schools to their successors, going against the Public Services Commission (PSC) decision. more..

Nov 12 (AP) Sri Lanka's cricket captain is more worried about brittle middle-order batting and sloppy fielding than the political crisis that has gripped this tropical island as his team prepares for a three-test series against England. more..

Nov 12 (UPI) Imagine a team of Buddhists mediating in a conflict between one particularly hardnosed bunch of Christians on the one hand and an equally tough-minded Jewish sect on the other. Imagine further that the leader of the latter group indulged in a curious form of superstition thus violating the First Commandment. more..

Nov 12 (Hindu) Leading intellectuals and civil liberty activists in Sri Lanka have condemned the recent resolution by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly ordering the arrest of senior journalists of The Hindu and Murasoli in Tamil Nadu. more..

Nov 12 (TS) The President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, by dismissing Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, Interior Minister John Amaratunga and Information Minister Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, and taking over their portfolios, proroguing Parliament and imposing internal emergency, more..

Nov 12 (Island) President Chandrika Kumaratunga brought the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., The Independent Television Network (ITN) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) under the Ministry of Mass Communication, the President had vested with her last week. more..

Nov 12 (DS) In South Asia, bitter personal rivalry among politicians is not uncommon. Often the rivalry goes to the extent that common sense baffles as to why certain politicians conduct themselves in the strange way they do. Sri Lanka appears to be no exception. more..

Nov 12 (ST) SRI Lanka, a nation of about only 20 million people, has caused a lot of grief to itself and its neighbours. Fifty years ago, this island country off the south-east coast of India was more advanced than Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. more..

Nov 12 (TN) The Lions International has launched a project, funded by the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), to supply free mosquito nets to low income families in the Northeast Province. more..

Nov 12 (USE) Molly K. Williamson, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, will be in Colombo on November 13 and 14. During her visit, Williamson will meet with officials in the Sri Lankan government, as well as with business representataives and chambers of commerce members, more..

Nov 12 (IL) The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be bringing a group of 18 British companies to Sri Lanka from November 17 to 21, the British High Commission said yesterday. It said that the size of the mission, and the number of companies who are new to the market, represent a significant level of interest in doing business in Sri Lanka. more..

Nov 12 (IL) The president has decided to discuss the current situation in the country with representatives of all religions and obtain their advice. The first meeting was held with the Maha Sangha of the three sects at presidents house this evening. more..

Nov 12 (IL) The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka has called on the President and the Prime Minister to end the present political impasse through dialogue, in a spirit of consensus and compromise. more..

Nov 12 (LBO) Sri Lankan apparel giant MAS Holdings has been selected for an ‘All Star’ award by US based Apparel Magazine, for its technology innovation and a track record of growth. The annual event recognizes ten of the most progressive firms in the apparel, retail and soft goods business, more..

Nov 12 (LBO) In the heat of the moment, when passions raged and reached a climax over the President’s swift move, PA parliamentarian Dr. Sarath Amunugama says her actions were driven by ‘sex’ and the ‘Sinhalese culture’. more..

Nov 12 (LT) The proposals of tiger organization for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the North and the East is a complete violation of the Constitution of the country says the National Bhikku Front and calls upon the prelates of Asgiriya and Mawatte chapters to come forward to defeat it. more..

Nov 12 (LT) Tiger organization is collecting extortions in a monstrous way to celebrate “Heroes’ day” which is scheduled to be held from 25th to 27th November. All people from the government servant to businessman have to ‘contribute’ from Rs.3000/- to Rs.25, 000/- for the celebrations which would be held in Trincomalee. more..

Nov 12 (AFP) Pakistan's second-string cricket team will tour India next month for a limited-overs tournament also featuring Sri Lanka, it was announced. The tournament, organised by the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF), will be held in the southern city of Bangalore from December 13-21. more..