July 13 (CI) Sri Lanka A made it six wins out of six on their tour of England with a convincing win over Sussex at Hove. After Jehan Mubarak and Ian Daniel helped Sri Lanka A to 251 for 7, Sussex folded to 156 all out in 40.5 overs, with only Tony Cottey providing any resistance as Sussex went down by 95 runs. more..

July 13 (BS) The operational integration binding Tata Tea and Tetley into one beverage company includes Watawala Plantations, the company’s join venture in Sri Lanka. Watawala has not only been the major tea sourcing hub, but also the local exporting and packaging arm of The Tetley Group. more..

July 13 (SMH) Muttiah Muralitharan says he doesn't care if Shane Warne breaks his world Test wicket-taking record because he's going to grab it straight back. Muralitharan admits he feared bowling against Australia on the Top End tour without his banned wrong 'un and reveals he withdrew from the series partly to avoid being swept up in a media circus alongside Warne. more..

July 13 (IL) Power and Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha said ‘wait and see’, when reporters asked him, whether the Government has managed to secure 113 Parliamentary seats for a majority. more..

July 13 (BBC) The Sri Lanka government has denied that it has provided a breakaway Tamil Tiger commander with state media facilities in order to wage war. The denial follows strong Tamil Tiger criticism of an interview with Colonel Karuna broadcast on state radio. more..

July 13 (AT) The sixteenth death anniversary of A.Amirthalingham, the former leader of the TULF is to be remembebered today with special pooja at 6 pm, at Richmond Hill Pillaiyar Temple and with free meals. more..

July 13 (AT) V.Anandasangaree, President of the Tamil United Liberation Front and a former Member of Parliament has appealed to President that she must come forward to set up a Presidential Commission to go into the slaying of A.Amirthalinghm a former Member of Parliament, and the Leader of the TULF. more..

July 13 (AT) The award winning poetess of Sri Lanka, Monica Ruwanpathirana, died in a private hospital in Colombo after a prolonged illness. Often hailed as the rebirth of the other famous Sinhala poetess, Gajaman Nona, who was born in Colombo, received some education during a time when education was taboo to women, more..

July 13 (AT) Thamil Broadcasting Corporation received a bomb threat over the telephone - caller threatening that they intended to bomb the TBC Radio Station for broadcasting yesterday the live interview with the renegade leader Venayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Colonel Karuna Amman. more..

July 13 (Bloomberg) Sri Lanka's central bank may keep its key interest rate unchanged at a seven-year low as it waits to see if consumer prices are accelerating, Sachith Perera and other analysts said. more..

July 13 (GD) A Sri Lankan woman was beheaded in Riyadh yesterday for murdering her employer, the Interior Ministry said. Bader Al Nisaa Mibari had been convicted of killing Sara bint Mohammed Al Haqeel, a Saudi woman, after trying to rob her with the assistance of a male companion, a ministry statement reported by the official SPA news agency said. more..

July 13 (TP) A 75-year-old Buddhist nun has been strangled to death in Haputale in Sri Lanka’s central region police said. Her body was found on Friday but she is believed to have been killed at least two days before that. Police said they were checking out possible motives for the killing. more..

July 13 (TP) Tamil rebels — often accused of human rights violations and in recent weeks of large-scale child recruitment to their ranks — on Friday opened a human rights office in the rebel-held northern town of Kilinochchi, newspapers said. more..

July 13 (TP) Restrictions on poultry related imports — enforced in January due to a deadly chicken disease spreading across Asia — hasn’t been lifted and would continue to be strictly observed, Dr S K Amarasekara, Director-General of the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH) said. more..

July 13 (TN) Frightened by possible death threats due to the increasing violence in the east, around ten senior lecturers of the Eastern University are planning to flee the country on Sabbatical leave, the Daily Mirror reported in its Tuesday edition. more..

July 13 (TN) Liberation Tigers agreed to cooperate with Sri Lanka Security Forces to bring the violence and murders in Vavuniya district under control in a meeting attended by Senior LTTE officials and Security Forces commanders at the offices of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Vavuniya Monday, more..

July 13 (TN) "...Ceasefire agreement [CFA] itself is in grave jeopardy, and without the ceasefire, there cannot be a peace process at all," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Jaffna district, more..

July 13 (TN) "The peace process is in great crisis. The Sri Lankan government should take constructive steps to stabilize the cease fire. But a cabinet minister in the government is openly aiding 'Karuna' to attack us. The manner in which the GOSL and its armed forces are backing Karuna is jeopardising peace," more..

July 13 (TN) Tension prevailed between the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army and members of the public Monday evening in Vathiri area in Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district over the question of hoisting Tiger flag in a public function when organizers refused to bring down the flag, residents said. more..

July 13 (SLA) A soldier drowned in the general sea area of GALLE FACE, COLOMBO 3 on 11 July 2004 when he was trying to rescue the life of a civilian who was being swept away in rough seas. more..

July 13 (SLA) Two men fishing inside the restricted zone of the COLOMBO Harbour close to the GALBOKKA Point on a suspicious craft were arrested by naval troops on routine patrol and delivered to the HARBOUR Police for investigations on 12 July 2004 around 7.15 a.m. more..

July 13 (SLA) Five men on a fibre glass dinghy were arrested by naval troops on duty in the general sea area of KODDIYAR BAY, east of SAMPOOR during early hours on 12 July 2004 while those men were fishing using illegal nets in restricted sea areas. more..

July 13 (LBO) Showing it soft side, Microsoft extended its ‘Unlimited Potential’ (UP) grant programme to Sri Lanka to help IT based community technology and learning centers deployed by non-governmental organizations. more..

July 13 (PSL) President Chandrika Kumaratunga has appointed Western Province Governor Mr.Alavi Moulana as her Advisor on Muslim Affairs. Mr. Moulana has been in active politics for over four decades. more..

July 13 (Xinhua) The European Union (EU) is concerned about the recent increase in political violence in Sri Lanka, including the political killings in the country's east and the suicide bomb attack in capital Colombo last Wednesday, an EU statement reaching here said on Tuesday. more..

July 13 (Reuters) Stocks rose on Tuesday helped by foreign purchases, two days after the minority government swept local elections, signalling political stability. The key Colombo all-share index ended up 0.78 percent, or 10.76 points, at 1,390.05. more..

July 13 (TP) The Sri Lankan Embassy has blacklisted several local and Colombo-based manpower agencies for ignoring recruitment-related guidelines and causing hardships to low-paid workers from the island country. more..

July 13 (AT) “It was the Tigers who killed my husband” - said the widowed Mnagayarkarasi - wife of the slain leader Appapillai Amirthalingham - ‘Greatest Tamil leader’ ever lived in Sri Lanka. more..

July 13 (DN) The Government will shortly call tenders for the Upper Kotmale Hydro-power project which was on hold for the past few years. Power and Energy Minister Susil Premjayanth told the Daily News yesterday that the Government will go ahead with the project expected to cost an estimated Rs 92.8 billion. more..

July 13 (CI) Kumar Sangakkara played one of the innings of his life. Sri Lanka saw out the day and thwarted the world champions with two wickets to spare. Nobody noticed. For today was the day cricket achieved something that soccer, for all its money and street-cred and cheery simplicity, will never ever have: a 527-all draw. more..

July 13 (AFP) Norway's top envoy here travelled to rebel-held northern Sri Lanka for fresh talks with Tamil Tiger guerrillas amid fears the country could slip back into war. more..

July 13 (AFP) A woman suicide bomber who set off a blast that killed herself and four policemen in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo may have been wearing a "bra bomb", a police investigator said. more..

July 13 (OW) Last week's provincial polls in Sri Lanka saw the lowest voter turnout ever, which political analysts blame on public disillusionment with the system and politicians. A mere 46 percent of the voters exercised their franchise at the low-key provincial polls in six of Sri Lanka's nine provinces. more..

July 13 (IANS) Terrorised for long by Tamil Tigers, members of Sri Lanka's Muslim minority appear to be turning towards radical groups, with possible links to Pakistan, in the country's volatile east. more..

July 13 (IANS) Rebel LTTE military commander Colonel Karuna on Tuesday made it clear that peace would never return to Sri Lanka unless India was involved in the country's peace process. "India has to be involved," Vinayagamurthy Muraleetharan alias Karuna said. more..

July 13 (IANS) A former Tamil Tiger military commander on Tuesday accused Velupillai Prabhakaran of perfidy, saying that the Guerrilla leader was all along preparing for war in Sri Lanka, while professing love for peace. more..

July 13 (Mirror) Shane Warne today equalled Muttiah Muralitharan's world record of 527 test wickets - and then said he did it the hard way. The Aussie scourge of England claimed his was a better effort than that of the Sri Lankan magician because he had to bowl in unfavourable conditions for most of his career. more..

July 13 (Reuters) Tamil Tigers will not resume peace talks with the government to end the island’s 21-year civil war until a destabilising split within their ranks is resolved, officials and a pro-rebel lawmaker said on Tuesday. more..

July 14 (TN) Mr. Senathirajah, the head of the LTTE's political divison for Batticaloa town succumbed to his injuries Tuesday around 1.30 p.m. He was shot and wounded by gunmen suspected to be associates of renegade LTTE commaner 'Karuna' on 5 July. more..

July 14 (TN) Mr.Rajagopal Gajendran (18),a student of Nainativu Maha Vidiyalayam is reported missing since July 5, according to a complaint lodged with the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) by his parents Monday, sources said. more..

July 14 (TN) The JVP Tuesday requested Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to order a full scale probe into the alleged irregularities in the recent promotion of police officers made by the National Police Commission (NPC), sources said. more..

July 14 (TN) The French media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers said Tuesday in special report on threats faced by journalists in Sri Lanka's eastcoast: "The impunity which prevails in cases involving the murder and assault of journalists is seriously jeopardizing press freedom and the peace process in Sri Lanka" more..

July 14 (TN) The politburo of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a constituent of the main opposition UNF Tuesday empowered its leader Mr.Arumugam Thondaman to study the current political situation following the defeat of the UNF in the Saturday's provincial council and to take a decision whether to join the minority UPFA government or not, more..

July 14 (USE) Many more Sri Lankans are applying for tourist and business visas to travel to the United States. The U.S. Embassy announced today that prospective travelers should apply early for visas to the U.S. more..

July 14 (BBC) The press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says threats against journalists in eastern Sri Lanka have reached alarming levels. In a report entitled "Terror Stalks Journalists in the East", the RSF says the situation is too volatile to say that press freedom exists in Sri Lanka. more..

July 14 (UNI) Expressing serious concern over the recent ceasefire violations, Norwegian Ambassador, Hans Brattskar, today told LTTE's political wing head S P Thamilselvan that both the government and the LTTE "should work hard to maintain the integrity" of the 24-month-long truce agreement in the island nation. more..

July 14 (Rupavahini) Countrywide development war has been launched. People’s Alliance leaders pledged to device a legal framework to take action against those engaged in corrupt practices in parallel to this programme. more..

July 14 (AFP) Skipper Marvan Atapattu says Sri Lanka can leave Australia with many positives after holding on for a gritty draw in the second cricket Test here. more..

July 14 (AT) Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar met with S.Paramu Thamilselvan and his delegation at the Political division of the LTTE office in Kilinochchi, in a last ditch effort to salvage the already stalled peace process. more..

July 14 (AT) Money collected for terrorism activities in Sri Lanka are banked in the monetary institutions in Denmark and Norway alleges Colonel Karuna Amman, in an interview he gave to the London based Thamil Broadcasting Corporation an independent Radio station on 10 of July in the Tamil language. more..