Oct 15 (AT) Austria could play a role in the Peace Process in Sri Lanka "as a Member of the European Union", says the peace activist and Catholic priest Oswald B. Firth in Vienna. He added “As Austria does not represent a threat; it would be welcomed in Sri Lanka as a mediator.” more..

Oct 15 (LBO) A cess on all imported rubber goods and raw rubber exports will snap into place from November 1, says the Plantation Industries Ministry. "We will enforce the cess on rubber from November 1," said Director Planning, Ministry of Plantation Industries, A B Leelasena told LBO. more..

Oct 15 (NW) A protest march led by JVP's Trincomalee District MP Jayantha Weerasekara urging the peace monitors to take action for the release of the two homeguards was snubbed by family members yesterday. more..

Oct 15 (NW) A woman lawyer was yesterday sentenced in absentia to 45 months rigorous imprisonment by the Colombo Chief Magistrate. Attorney Ilanka Dilrukshi Kariyapperuma was charged under the Immigration and Emigration law for possessing forged passports, forged identity cards and absconding from court. more..

Oct 15 (NW) A man who was about to be sentenced in a murder case told the Colombo High Court yesterday that all he had to say before sentence of death was pronounced on him was that the pistol he had used had been changed by the police. more..

Oct 15 (NW) The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) central committee is to meet this morning to revoke the decision to remove Champaka Ranawaka from the post of party secretary, which led to an uproar among the rank and file of the Hela Urumaya members informed sources told the Daily Mirror yesterday. more..

Oct 15 (TN) A delegation of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) Thursday led by its general secretary Mr.T.Mahasivam held discussions with Secretary of the Minister of Education in the UPFA Government, Dr Tara de Mel, Thursday at the latter's invitation regarding the problems confronting the development of Tamil medium education, more..

Oct 15 (TN) A World Bank team comprising foreign experts and Sri Lanka task leader Mr.Nihal Fernando concluded its four-day assessment study regarding the first stage of the North East Irrigated Agriculture Project-I (NEIAP-I) works carried out in three districts Manner, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu more..

Oct 15 (SLA) Ten imprisoned LTTE cadres including six teenagers were bailed out from the BATTICALOA prison on 14 October 2004 following a Magisterial court order. Officials of the SLMM escorted those released LTTE men under Police and Army escort up to the Entry/Exit point at BLACK BRIDGE in cleared areas more..

Oct 15 (SLA) On a tip-off given, the Police on 11th October 2004 recovered a stock of arms and ammunition, believed to have been abandoned in the general jungle area of ARALAGANWILA, KANDEGAMA. more..

Oct 15 (SLBC) Opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe said, his party does not oppose the Sethu Samudhra project. The project to dig the Palk Strait opens up a new sea route that allows navel traffic to continue around the peninsular. more..

Oct 15 (SLBC) National Film Corporation establishes a Tamil cinema unit. Minister Vijitha Herath says the decision was taken to develop local Tamil cinema industry. He pointed out the industry will pave the way for ethnic harmony in the country. Therefore, the urged the Tamil cinema artists to render their utmost support to the field by producing high quality films.

Oct 15 (DJ) Sri Lanka's government Friday imposed an average 30% tax on imports of vehicles used for personal use. The move is meant to discourage imports of luxury vehicles and reduce fuel consumption. more..

Oct 15 (Reuters) Sri Lanka will seek inspiration from their 1996 World Cup triumph in Saturday's triangular one-day tournament final against Pakistan in an attempt to make up for the absence of Muttiah Muralitharan. more..

Oct 15 (TS) A PRIMARY school headteacher has returned home after spending time in a country hit by conflict. John Lyons, headteacher at Holy Rosary Primary School, Billingham, visited some of the Tamil no-go areas in Sri Lanka to pass on teaching skills to trainees living there. more..

Oct 15 (WSWS) A series of protests in eastern Sri Lanka has heightened communal tensions in the province and throughout the island, further undermining the already shaky ceasefire between the Colombo government and the LTTE signed in February 2002. more..

Oct 15 (AT) In a bizarre turn of events, launching of a new political formation, “Tamileela Iykkiya Viduthalai Munnani” (TIVM) – Tamileela United Liberation Front has been openly declared today, more..

Oct 15 (AT) In an open letter addressed to V.Prabakaran, Leader of the LTTE, V.Anandasangaree, Leader of the TULF has pointed out the lapses inherent in the ISGA proposal put forward by LTTE and has told him in the most kindest and politest manner to man’s wit, to accommodate pragmatic and practical approaches that could be acceptable to all the ethnic groups in the country. more..

Oct 15 (AT) At least two Wanni faction cadres were killed and two cadres were injured in the factional fighting in the Eastern district of Batticaloa, at two different incident took place Thursday night, sources in Baticaloa told the 'Asian Tribune.' more..

Oct 15 (AFP) Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne may have shown only flashes of his genius in India, but he still has plenty of reasons to smile after smashing the Test cricket bowling record here. more..

Oct 15 (SI) Sinhalese cinema has, somewhat, made a great stride in sphere of making good films with social relevance and aesthetic sensibilities. “Our films,” said Lester James Peries, the pioneer of Sinhalese cinema, “do count in many ways and meaningfully convey a system in which our society and people are placed.” more..

Oct 15 (LBO) The resident coordinator to the UN tells Sri Lanka’s business community to work at achieving a sustainable peace as the most profitable act of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Miguel Bermeo called on the local private sector to “demonstrate support for peace” and become “active,” more..

Oct 15 (PIS) After years of deliberations and discussions the Lankan political leadership seems to be focusing their thinking apparatuses towards a federal system of government in order to settle the North and East problem. more..

Oct 15 (BBC) The government has concede a lot of LTTE ideas to build confidence in the peace process said the government media spokesman Minister Mangala Samarawera. “The government had not broken the cease fire agreement (CFA) in the last six months.” Said the minister, more..

Oct 15 (DN) Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday shot down allegations that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has reprimanded Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the previous Cabinet briefing over corruption charges concerning the tank restoration project. more..

Oct 15 (HT) The LTTE has said that it will not consider any government proposal for an Interim Administration in the Tamil-speaking North Eastern Province (NEP), according to Sudar Oli, a Tamil daily close to it. more..

Oct 15 (AP) European truce monitors on Friday demanded the immediate release of two government security guards abducted by Tamil Tiger rebels two months ago, warning that the kidnappings damaged already strained relations between the two sides. more..

Oct 15 (Reuters) The rupee weakened on Friday, inching towards all-time lows as heavy importer demand for dollars to settle trade bills pressured the exchange rate, dealers said. The rupee closed at 103.92 against the dollar, after having weakened to 103.96 in intraday trade. The rupee hit its life closing low of 103.98 in early August. more..

Oct 15 (BBC) LTTE are taking steps to make two home-guards available for bail, according to John Oscar Solnes, spokesman for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). However, it is learnt that the LTTE is to demand a considerable amount of money to release them on bail. more..

Oct 16 (AFP) Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga has congratulated his old foe Shane Warne on becoming the world's highest Test wicket-taker, but predicted his glory will be short-lived. more..

Oct 16 (TN) The Liberation Tigers’ Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, Friday dismissed Colombo-based press reports of a split in the senior leadership of the Liberation Tigers as "malicious speculation." more..

Oct 16 (TN) Although Jaffna district secretariat Friday issued instruction to all multi-purpose co-operative societies in the Jaffna district to supply free dry ration due for the month of April for about one hundred nineteen thousand families, more..

Oct 16 (TN) Trincomalee IT Tech in collaboration with the London TR Tec opened two more computer training centres in Muttur east villages, Chenaiyoor and Sampoor, under a programme to provide free computer training to five thousand students in fifty schools in the northeast province. more..

Oct 16 (BBC) Jathika Hela Urumaya’s (JHU) general secretary Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka thera did not attend the central committee meeting held on Friday. "All this time we have been silent because we did not want differences among us to surface in public. more..

Oct 16 (BBC) The Sinhala majority in Sri Lanka are now in a mood to accept the federal structure as the solution to the national question, a veteran Tamil politician said. more..

Oct 16 (FE) The free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka has been hailed as a success. It is also looked up to as a model for similar agreements with other Saarc nations. While this agreement has transformed trade between the two countries, some serious issues need to be sorted, if the FTA’s full benefit is to be realised. more..

Oct 16 (IHT) R.K. Ariyasena, the owner of a cinnamon plantation near Galle in Sri Lanka, greeted me with a wide smile and a handshake that felt like gravel. A farmer's handshake. It was very hot, and he was wearing the standard summer attire of people here: not much. more..

Oct 16 (LE) The interim self-rule model envisaged in the LTTE's ISGA proposals, or anything close to its spirit, clearly cannot be implemented within Sri Lanka's existing unitary constitution. more..

Oct 16 (AT) The LTTE yesterday announced their willingness to release the two home guards on Monday the earliest, responding to Sri Lankan Government's action of releasing all the ten LTTE cadres on bail on Thursday afternoon. more..

Oct 16 (NW) A senior Uva province police officer – involved last month in a case connected with a traffic offence and the interdiction of a Magistrate – is to be transferred following charges of corruption and links with bootleggers. more..

Oct 16 (NW) Some 60,000 teachers are planning to hold a five-day protest march from Anuradhapura to Colombo if their longstanding problems were not addressed within two weeks. more..

Oct 16 (NW) Jathika Hela Urumaya General Secretary Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera in a letter addressed to the head of the JHU Ellawala Madhananda Thera said that he was not prepared for any discussion until all lay members of the party resign as their involvement had led to the aggravation of problems. more..

Oct 16 (DT) After 20 years of civil war, Sri Lanka is back in the holiday business. Tour operators are adding hotels and trips to their brochures and the Sri Lankan tourist board predicts that 110,000 British holidaymakers will visit the island this year. What will they find? more..

Oct 16 (IE) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga will be in India in the first week of November as New Delhi begins preparing to engage a host of leaders from virtually every important country in its neighbourhood. more..

Oct 16 (GDN) Sri Lanka's retail investors drove the stock market to a record high yesterday despite the country's deepening economic woes and fears it could slip back into war, brokers said. more..

Oct 16 (TN) Director General of Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Americas and Asia section, Ms Paivi Luostarinen, told the Liberation Tigers delegation that Finland will continue its humanitarian assistance to NorthEast, and extend its support to the peace process more..

Oct 16 (TN) TNA is to launch its first district level political awareness campaign in Trincomalee Saturday with a political rally in the evening at the Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall located along the Inner harbour Road facing the Trincomalee harbour. more..

Oct 16 (SLA) Fourteen Sri Lankan refugees including five children have been rescued by naval troops in the general sea area of URUMALAI, TALAIMANNAR and delivered to TALAIMANNAR Police station with their belongings on 15 October 2004 at about 12.45 p.m. more..

Oct 16 (SLBC) The national programme to re-cultivate abandoned paddy lands will commence from Kesbewa this morning. It is reported that there are around 150 thousand acres of abandoned paddy lands in the country. more..

Oct 16 (SLBC) President Chandrika Kumaratunga says any challenge could be overcomed through a proper education. She further says the open economy which was introduced to the country with the sole intention of developing the economy had caused an immense cultural degradation. more..