Dec 16 (BBC) Colombo based media watchdog Free Media Movement (FMM) condemned the bomb attack against a mega musical show held in Colombo on Saturday. Two people died and at least 10 have been injured in the attack on the concert in which popular Bollywood stars including Shahrukh Khan performed. more..

Dec 16 (AP) Day after day, locked in a cement room somewhere in Iraq, the hooded men beat him. They told him he would be beheaded. "Ameriqi!" they shouted, even though he comes from this poor Sri Lankan fishing village. The virulently anti-American militants were convinced truck driver Denesh Dharmendra Rajaratnam was something he isn't: an American. more..

Dec 16 (AP) Regi Sriwardena, well known movie critic, author and journalist passed away Wednesday morning. He was among those who drafted a bill in the 1960s for the establishment of a National Film Corporation for Sri Lanka. The NFC was established in 1971. more..

Dec 16 (TP) For the first time in Sri Lanka’s judicial history a woman had been appointed as acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Dr Shirani Bandaranayaka, a Judge of the Supreme Court was on Tuesday appointed the Acting Chief Justice until the return of Chief Justice Sarath N Silva who is attending a foreign workshop. more..

Dec 16 (TP) A 2004 survey to ascertain the perception of Sri Lankans towards peace shows that the support for peace has increased since the previous survey last year. The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Survey (KAPS) annual study was conducted by Social Indicator for the second year running and funded by USAID. more..

Dec 16 (TP) The opposition United National Party (UNP), in an apparent revenge tactic over the jailing of parliamentarian S B Dissanayake, on Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking contempt charges against Industries and Investment Minister Anura Bandaranaike. more..

Dec 16 (ANN) Whither Lanka -- It is a question we have often posed in these columns but failed to provide an answer. It is a question that is being repeated by most concerned Sri Lankans but even incorrigible optimists who are found in the ranks of governments in power in contemporary times have not dared to provide an honest answer. more..

Dec 16 (SLA) Combined troops of Sri Lanka Army, Navy and Air Force have rescued the incumbent priest of SOMAWATHI temple in POLONNARUWA, five Police personnel and eight civilians stranded in the temple premises on 14 December 2004 due to flood. more..

Dec 16 (SLA) Ex-LTTE member has been shot dead by an unidentified gunman, suspected to be from LTTE, in the general area of KALLADY on 15 December 2004 around 9.00 p.m. The victim was traveling on a push bicycle when he was gunned down on the PILLAYAR KOVIL Road, KALLADY. more..

Dec 16 (SLA) Nine LTTE cadres have addressed the students of a private education centre in the general area of POINT PEDRO on 14 December 2004 forcing them to join the LTTE. Those nine LTTE men who came on four motor bikes have indicated that the organization has faced a dearth of cadres and forced them to join the LTTE. more..

Dec 16 (SLA) A civilian from the general area of AKKARAIPATTU, making a complaint to the police on 15 December 2004, has told that he received threatening telephone calls from the LTTE demanding him to support the LTTE. more..

Dec 16 (SLA) One of the two armed persons, attempted to forcibly enter the office of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in the general area of HINGURANA, AMPARA, was arrested on 15 December 2004 around 3.30 p.m. more..

Dec 16 (SLA) LTTE cadres have screened another video film for the third time within this month in the general area of UPPUWELI on 15 December 2004 around 7.35 p.m. about their attack on Security Forces. The film has been shown inside the GANTHINAGAR library at UPPUWELI. more..

Dec 16 (SLBC) A statement by the Rt Revd Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo and the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Colombo "For a people who have grown accustomed to protracted violence and injustice, the immediate recent events have been unnerving. more..

Dec 16 (LT) Renuka Herath says that she deserves to be the successor to the membership of parliament which fell vacant with the imprisonment of S.B. Dissanayake. She is at present a provincial council member of the Central Provincial Council. more..

Dec 16 (LT) Two Indian advanced Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and maritime surveillance aircraft and an Indian built helicopter will join the Sri Lanka Navy in a three-day joint naval exercise which begins off the western coast today. more..

Dec 16 (Reuters) Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu believes his side are capable of becoming the best one-day international team in time for the 2007 World Cup. The skipper wants his players to continue their development on the tour to New Zealand which starts on December 17. more..

Dec 16 (PSL) A group of 129 children from 24 schools in the Eastern District of Ampara were at the President’s House on Wednesday. They were all from less developed schools and were successful at the Year Five Scholarship Examination. more..

Dec 16 (CI) Marvan Atapattu was upbeat ahead of Sri Lanka's one-day series against New Zealand and predicted a hard-fought series beginning later this month. Sri Lanka's one-day squad departed for New Zealand on Thursday morning and are scheduled to play five ODIs and two Tests on their month-long tour. more..

Dec 16 (AP) A warrant was issued Wednesday for the arrest of a Sri Lankan artist nabbed in a high-profile drug bust after he failed to make his court date and is thought to have fled the country to escape jail. Jeremy Mahen Chanmugam, 40, in a fax sent to his lawyer Subhas Anandan said he was "in a state of physical and mental collapse and in no fit state to attend court." more..

Dec 16 (SAMN) The United National Party (UNP) Working Committee has decided to expel senior member and former Minister Tilak Marapana from the Working Committee and hold a disciplinary inquiry against him. more..

Dec 16 (SAMN) Sri Lanka was denied a chance to attend the Asian Parliamentary Medical Officers Association as the sessions held in Kuala Lumpur suspended Sri Lanka's seat for having nominated non-medical MPs to attend the sessions. The two-day sessions concluded on December 14. more..

Dec 16 (SAMN) Nearly two thousand people including women together with leading opposition politicians who had come from Colombo, performed religious rites at Hanguranketha ancient Pothgul Raja Maha Viharaya on Wednesday morning praying for the release of UNP National organiser, S.B.Dissanayake who is presently serving a period of imprisonment. more..

Dec 16 (SAMN) Cultural Affairs and National Heritage Minister Vijitha Herath directed the Ministry officials to take necessary steps to rebuild the damaged wall of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi as soon as possible and prevent the rest of the wall from collapsing, a ministry spokesman said. more..

Dec 16 (Reuters) The Sri Lanka rupee slipped to a new life closing low on Thursday, the fourth in a week, due to heavy importer demand for dollars to settle trade bills, dealers said. The rupee dipped to 105.50 per dollar, down 0.15 percent from Wednesday's close at 105.34 rupees. more..

Dec 16 (DN) 'Sri Lankan Customs helps us in exchanging ideas and information which benefits both countries, and also responds quickly to any matters referred to them by the Indian Customs. This is a very encouraging situation', said Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Director General India Shri A. P. Sudhir more..

Dec 16 (AP) A top Norwegian peace envoy met with Sri Lanka's Prime Minister on Thursday, a day after failing to break a deadlock in peace talks between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels. more..

Dec 16 (ANN) In an interview with The Times of India, (TI) super star Sha Rukh Khan reminiscing of his nightmare in Colombo last Saturday has said it could have been him and that incident could have happened in any other country. He requests that the event be not politicised. more..

Dec 16 (Reuters) Norway shut its embassy in Colombo on Thursday after receiving a letter containing an unidentified white powder, but officials said a string of previous such scares had proved harmless. "We have received some white power, so we've closed the embassy for today," an embassy spokeswoman said. more..

Dec 16 (Reuters) The death-toll in flood-hit central and eastern Sri Lanka has risen to seven as heavy monsoon rains continued, but half of around 250,000 people who fled to shelters headed home as waters subsided, officials said. Five people were buried alive when rains triggered landslides in the central tea-growing hills, more..

Dec 16 (VNA) Viet Nam and Sri Lanka will further boost their cooperation in the production of rice, tea, fruit and vegetables, and livestock, agreed Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat and Sri Lanka's Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, Anura Kumara Dissanayake. more..

Dec 16 (TW) The orange-robed monk motions me forward through the crowd. I scatter a few coins on the ground, as I’ve seen other pilgrims do, and kneel to touch my forehead against the sacred stone. I feel a sudden rush of excitement before being shunted on by the procession of local devotees. I’ve just touched the footprint of Buddha. more..

Dec 16 (TN) The Free Media Movement and the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association Thursday held a demonstration in front of the Colombo Fort Railway Station in protest to the grenade attack on Bollywood concert last Saturday, which killed two persons including Mr.Lanka Jayasunthara, photojournalist of Lankadeepa, Sinhala daily newspaper. more..

Dec 16 (AT) Asia’s first radio station, popularly called “Radio Ceylon”, predecessor to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Service (SLBC) today celebrates 79, years of existence. Experiments for establishing the station began with the radio transmitting equipped from a German submarine captured in World War I. more..

Dec 17 (TN) "LTTE is a very important component in the North East affairs. The LTTE is not prohibited in the island. As such there is no reason to oppose for working with that organization" said Mr.Tyronne Fernando, newly appointed Governor of North East Province more..

Dec 17 (TN) Mr.Erik Solheim, Norwegian special peace envoy Thursday urged the Government and LTTE to exercise the maximum restraint and refrain from actions that could be interpreted as provocations, especially at a time when peace negotiations were not taking place, more..

Dec 17 (TN) Mr.Johnston Fernando, Kurunagala district UNP parliamentarian filed a petition in the Supreme Court requesting it to issue a rule against Mr.Anura Bandaranaike for alleged contempt of court for predicting the jail sentence on Mr.S.B.Dissanayake one month ahead of his conviction, more..

Dec 17 (BL) THE Centre, as part of measures to curb imports, has suspended duty-free import of pepper from all origins, barring Sri Lanka, through the advance licence route against exports of pepper products, including value-added items. more..

Dec 17 (Xinhua) Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheimsaid Thursday the Tamil Tiger rebels were committed to maintainingthe ceasefire agreement with the government, the Sir Lankan President Office said. more..

Dec 17 (Rupavahini) President Chandrika Kumaratunge claims that the responsibility of everyone is to protect and conserve at the historic and cultural heritages of Sri Lanka for future generations. more..

Dec 17 (BBC) Journalists held a demonstration protesting the bombing of the Colombo Bollywood concert in which mega stars Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta were among the performers. Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama also participated in the protest more..

Dec 17 (LBO) The Sri Lankan public sector is one of the biggest in the region, with a ratio of 3.9 civil servants to every 100 people, say economists. "Sri Lanka has one of the largest bureaucracies in the Asian region," said Shankar Acharya an Indian economist more..

Dec 17 (LBO) The Railway Dept. says it urgently needs to hike its fares to cushion a 10 percent rise in its recurrent costs. A raised salary bill and higher fuel cost compared to a year ago will raise its recurrent costs by 10 percent to 15 percent Railway officials told Lanka Business Online. more..

Dec 17 (AT) Police are in the process of arresting all violent protestors identified in video tapes that contained visuals of the events that occurred in Colombo during the Bollywood musical show ‘Temptation 2004.' more..

Dec 17 (AT) On the 21 November 2004, Gerald Mervin Perera, victim of a well-known torture case was shot as he was travelling to work in a bus in the early hours of the morning. In his pocket was the summons issued by the High Court of Negombo, summoning him to give evidence in a torture case against several police officers in which he was the main complainant. more..

Dec 17 (AT) As the prospects of peace is visibly dim and low, while posters are appearing in all over Jaffna with the slogan asking the people to get ready for war, Erik Solheim appealed to both parties - Government and the LTTE should exercise the maximum restraint and refrain from actions that could be interpreted as provocations, more..

Dec 17 (AT) The actual barriers to the peace talks come not from Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP), but from the ‘Latter-day Hitler’ holding forth in the Vanni, reveals M.Tilvin Silva in a strongly worded letter to Ambassadors of Japan, Netherland and United States of America, the co-chairs of the Japanese Donor Conference. more..

Dec 17 (Guardian) Come to Elephant Pass to witness a rarity: a place where the contradictions of the "war on terror" have not produced the usual regression. In most of the world the fight against "international terrorism" has had negative effects. more..

Dec 17 (TN) The first human chain agitation campaign demanding the Government to strengthen the peace process and to recommence the stalled negotiations with the LTTE on the basis of ISGA proposals is scheduled to be held in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district on Monday. more..

Dec 17 (SLA) Nine youngsters from the general areas of TRINCOMALEE have been reportedly abducted by LTTE during eleven days (7-17 December 2004) for needs best known only to the LTTE. Information regarding the latest abductions has reached troops from ARIYAMANKERNY and LB - 3 villages in MALLIKAITHEVU areas. more..