May 26 (Xinhua) President Chandrika Kumaratunga will be awarded the prestigious Ceres Medal in recognition of her long-standing efforts and commitment to achieving a world free of hunger and poverty, the official Daily News said on Wednesday. more..

May 26 (G2L) The Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka has established its first United States affiliated institution based in Los Angeles. The head of the Buddhist and Pali College of Los Angeles, Venerable Witiyala Seewali Thero, told this correspondent that the ceremonial opening of the institution will be held, May 30 more..

May 26 (AT) Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar who was earlier seriously considered for Prime Ministership in the United People’s Alliance Government, but the fundamental Sinhala Buddhist opposed his selection and ultimately Chandrika Kumaratunga has to be satisfied by appointing him as her Foreign Minister. more..

May 26 (AP) A top Norwegian peace negotiator met with European ceasefire monitors yesterday ahead of high-level talks with the Sri Lankan government in the latest effort to revive peace talks to end the country's 19-year civil war. more..

May 26 (AFP) Police arrested a Buddhist monk for impersonating a fellow clergyman at a university entrance examination, a press report said on Wednesday. The monk, a lecturer at a Buddhist school, had forged an identity card and was caught answering the Buddhist civilisation question paper on behalf of a fellow clergyman, more..

May 26 (DN) Colombo District Parliamentarian and former Minister Ravi Karunanayake is to be questioned this week by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) in the course of their investigations into the Rs. 2 billion roofing sheet scam. more..

May 26 (TN) The LTTE Wednesday categorically told the UPFA government through Norwegian facilitators that the institutionalization of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) in the northeast province should take place first and that the core issues can be discussed later. more..

May 26 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tigers were divided on Wednesday over the basis for restarting stalled peace talks, with a disagreement over the rebels' demand that negotiations be based on their power-sharing proposal. more..

May 26 (DPA) President Kumaratunga expanded the ruling UPFA cabinet by appointing a former prime minister as the de facto defence minister and naming two other ministers. Former prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was named as the Minister of Public Security Law and Order and the deputy defence minister. more..

May 26 (Reuters) Record test wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan will have the support of his Sri Lanka team mates if he boycotts next month's tour of Australia, captain Marvan Atapattu said on Wednesday. more..

May 26 (TV2) President Chandrika Kumaratunga refused Tuesday to meet with the Norwegian peace negotiator Erik Solheim. The attempts to get the peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government back on track may be postponed once again after President Kumaratunga did not have time to meet with Solheim Tuesday. more..

May 27 (TN) resident's media spokesman and the Director General of the Northern Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Reconciliation Ministry, Mr.Harim Peiris, Wednesday arrived in Jaffna and held discussions with government officials and the Sri Lanka Army Commander in Jaffna, Major General Susil Chandrapala, more..

May 27 (LT) Mr. Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Minister of Trade and Consumer Affairs says that price of flour will be reduced by importing flour if Prima Company tries to put up the prices. Prima has informed the Secretary of the Treasury that price of flour will be raised by Rs.4.40 from Friday. more..

May 27 (LT) The Government has decided to take legal action against 103 businessmen who have obtained loans for the value of Rs.1200 billion from People’s Bank and have abstained from paying back. These businessmen have obtained loans from state banks during the last few years but have not taken any measures to pay them back. more..

May 27 (AFP) Sri Lanka's Tiger rebels insisted on an interim administration to run their own affairs before discussing a final peace deal as peace broker Norway mounted a fresh bid to salvage talks. more..

May 27 (AT) Reopening of the stall peace Talks to bring about a perpetual peace in the country has been stalemated, as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Government of Sri Lanka holds divergent views on taking the peace process forward. more..

May 27 (AZ) Kuwait is issuing new regulations to improve working conditions for more than 400,000 Asian domestic servants. A government committee rapporteur, Amina Ghazi, confirmed on Wednesday that the law would stipulate a minimum wage, a weekly rest-day, a limit on working hours and payment of overtime. more..

May 27 (LBO) The cash strapped Ceylon Electricity Board’s large thermal plants need urgent repairs, but the utility’s tariffs are not being revised, as politicians dillydally over its financial viability. more..

May 27 (LBO) A 10-year State guarantee to buy its entire requirement of school, police and hospital uniform cloth is on offer to any investor daring to revive Kabool Lanka. more..

May 27 (SLA) A visiting British delegation, headed by Mr. Simon Bond, Head of South Asia Department at the British High Commission, during their recent visit to the Jaffna peninsula called on Deputy Commander, Security Forces Jaffna, Major General D. P. S. Y Kulathunge at his office. more..

May 27 (SLA) Enthusiastic members of the public, tutorial staff and Jaffna based soldiers scotched media rumours and joined hands together recently to prepare groundwork for the re-opening of the abandoned Government’s Tamil Mixed School in Eluthumadduval north. more..

May 27 (TN) Representatives of the Sri Lankan Government, the Liberation Tigers and the International Donor Community participated in a conference titled, 'New perspectives in the Sri Lankan Peace Process - the current political situation and the role of the International community,' more..

May 27 (TN) Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayan, founded by the Methodist Church in 1823, held its annual prize giving Wednesday evening day with the Trincomalee district parliamentarians, Mr.R.Sampanthan and Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham as the chief guest and special guest respectively. more..

May 27 (TN) The body of Mr. Kumaravel Thambaiah, a senior lecturer in the Eastern University who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at his home in Batticaloa town around 4.30 p.m. Monday was brought to his home village of Aasikulam in Vavuniya on Tuesday and was cremated on Wednesday, sources in Vavuniya said. more..

May 27 (SN) Jatika Hela Urumaya held its first convention yesterday at Youth Service Center Auditorium, Maharagama with the participation of a large gathering of both Buddhist monks and lay people. The convention was chaired by Ven Ellawela Medhananda thero. more..

May 27 (PIS) U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage will travel to Brussels May 31 to June 2, 2004 for consultations with fellow donor co-chairs of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka on the current status of the peace process in Sri Lanka. more..

May 27 (CI) Stan Nell, an Australian coach, has been recruited as the coach of the Sri Lanka A team for their forthcoming tour of England. Nell, who coaches Monash University in Victoria but also has previous experience of coaching in Sri Lanka, is set to join the A squad in June. more..

May 27 (TP) The Judicial Services Commission (JSC), responsible for the appointment and administration of mid-level judges in Sri Lanka, is probing a shocking discovery of court records along with heroin and a hand grenade in a room at the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). more..

May 27 (TP) A revision of private bus fares based on a national policy is to be announced next month, National Transport Commission Chairman Amal Kumarage was quoted as saying in newspapers yesterday. He gave no further details saying that figures in this regard were still being collected. more..

May 27 (TP) A bilateral agreement is to be entered into next week to provide jobs in South Korea for Sri Lankan skilled employees. Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLBFE) Chairman Karunasena Hettiarachchi was quoted as saying that jobs would be provided in the industrial and information technology sectors. more..

May 27 (TP) If Prima Ceylon Ltd, the country’s main flour miller, raises the price of flour as threatened, all bakery items — including bread — will become costlier within one week of the increase, bakers said yesterday. “We have not been informed yet of a price increase,” more..

May 27 (SLA) Some LTTE men, engaged in recruiting youths for LTTE in the general area of KALYANA MANDAPAYA in TRINCOMALEE on 26 May 2004 between 10.00-11.00 a.m., went into hiding when the Police accompanied by SLMM reached the location. more..

May 27 (SLA) A hand grenade has been thrown at an abandoned LTTE office in the general area of VALAICHCHENAI by an unidentified man on 26 May 2004 around 4.00 p.m. The hand grenade has not however exploded. Troops later reached the location and defused it. more..

May 27 (SLA) Two soldiers, who went to cut some timber for one of their bunkers in the general area of KAMBILIWEVA, WELIOYA had gone missing on 26 May 2004. Those missing soldiers had gone approximately fifty meters ahead of their bunker line towards the jungle in the company of five more soldiers. more..

May 27 (SLA) Naval troops on duty in the general area of URUMALAI had been able to locate nineteen Sri Lankan refugees on 26 May 2004 after those refugees were found dropped close to the west of URUMALAI beach on 26 May 2004. They had allegedly returned from RAMESHWARAM on an Indian trawler paying Rs.3000 each for the passage. more..

May 27 (CT) Satellite technology is to be introduced to track down robbed vehicles, as an estimated 400 vehicles go missing every month. The IWS-GIS Lanka Ltd said that Global Information System would be launched in the end of this year. more..

May 27 (CT) The Transport Ministry has appointed a five member committee to prepare plans for the improvement of the Railway Service. The five member committee is tasked with preparing short term, medium term and long term plans to improve the service. more..

May 27 (AT) M.S.Cegu Issadeen, Deputy Minister of Media, of the UPFA government said that it is observed that the Tamil newspapers that are published today in Sri Lanka are bent on fanning communal disharmony in the midst of the people and more or less they could be termed as communal papers. more..

May 27 (DN) The War Heroes who laid down their lives or were disabled while in action to save the country and its people will never be forgotten and their needs will be met promptly through the Rana Viru Seva Authority, said President Chandrika Kumaratunga, at the ceremony held at President's House, Kandy more..

May 27 (IANS) As the Congress gets down to the business of ruling India, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh pontificating on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi seems out of place. more..

May 27 (NIP) What does the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have to do with the Ministry for Human Resource Development? Obviously, little. But two days into his job and Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh is pushing an agenda far removed from IIM autonomy or history textbooks: he has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get the probe into the ‘‘conspiracy’’ behind Rajiv’s assassination "back on track." more..

May 27 (AFP) A top Norwegian peace envoy was set to meet Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga after failing to secure an agreement with Tamil Tiger rebels to revive stalled peace negotiations. more..

May 27 (Hindu) The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has demanded "institutionalising" an Interim Self-Governing Authority for the North-East (ISGA) before it discusses the core issues of the Sri Lankan conflict with Colombo. more..

May 27 (HT) The LTTE has welcomed India's decision to allow its public and private sector companies to undertake rehabilitation and reconstruction work in Sri Lankan areas that are controlled by the rebel group. more..

May 27 (Rupavahini) The Colombo dockyard limited has secured a landmark tender for major re-fit repairs of a floating dock owned by the Indian navy. The Colombo dockyard has successfully won the international tender for the job which could be considered the largest single project undertaken by the company. more..

May 27 (Reuters) A spate of killings in Sri Lanka's east was eroding trust between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels as Norwegian envoys work to restart stalled peace talks, a top think-tank warned on Thursday. more..

May 27 (WF) Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage will travel to Brussels May 31-June 2 for consultations on the current status of the peace process in Sri Lanka and the upcoming NATO Summit in Istanbul. He will also meet with European Union High Representative Javier Solana. more..

May 28 (LT) It has been reported that Elam flag was hoisted at a ceremony held at a place called Nawalar in Jaffna to launch a book written by Anton Balasingham on the tiger organization. According to the ceasefire agreement hoisting Elam flag in an area controlled by the Government troops is a violation of the agreement. more..

May 28 (TN) Ms. Astrid Becker, Sri Lanka's Resident Representative of the Frederick Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German non-profit organization, Thursday morning inaugurated a two-day seminar on "Vision and Mission of a Trade Union" in the conference hall of the Jaffna Zonal Education Office. more..

May 28 (TN) Mr.Harim Peiris, the spokesman for President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, Thursday visited LTTE-held Kilinochchi and held discussions with the Government Agent, heads of Sri Lanka government departments and representatives of the Tamils' Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), sources said. more..