Oct 5 (LBO) The Inland Revenue says it will call for fresh applications for amnesty since the amnesty law of 2003 was repealed and a new law was introduced last month. “We will call for applications for amnesty again,” said Mr R M Jothipala, Commissioner-PAYE, Department of Inland Revenue, more..

Oct 5 (PB) The BBC and the SLBC led tributes to one of South Asia's outstanding broadcasters Vernon Corea - his second death anniversary fell on 23rd September. Veteran broadcaster Vernon Corea died in New Malden in Surrey in the United Kingdom on the 23rd of September 2002, aged 75. more..

Oct 5 (AT) At the inaugural session of the National Advisory Council For Peace and Reconciliation which was held yesterday, Minister K.N. Douglas Devananda while delivering his address, extended a public appeal to Velupillai Prabakaran to return to the negotiation table for talks in the interest of the Tamil people in this country. more..

Oct 5 (AT) President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared on Monday that commitment should be required on the part of the LTTE that the Interim Administration as well as the final solution would be based on the Oslo declaration signed by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE at the fifth round of peace talks between the two parties. more..

Oct 5 (NW) The suspect who had allegedly kept an Uzbek woman against her will and used her for prostitution was further remanded by Colombo Chief Magistrate Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena. more..

Oct 5 (NW) The Army yesterday turned down an SLMM proposal to hold the fortnightly LTTE- Army meeting in a Tiger-held area tomorrow. Refusing to accept the SLMM proposal, Army Commander Shantha Kottegoda told the monitors that he would send an Army official for the meeting provided it was held in a no man's land. more..

Oct 5 (NW) Police violence in Sri Lanka has gone unnoticed. Last week another civilian allegedly assaulted by policemen succumbed to his injuries when he refused to sell liquor on the world's temperence day. more..

Oct 5 (NW) Small and Rural Industries Minister, K.D. Lal Kantha said that their present slogan is not to demand for a reduction of prices of goods but to demand for price increases of the privileged groups and to provide goods for the underprivileged at reduced prices. more..

Oct 5 (NW) Newly appointed Inspector General Chandra Fernando yesterday vowed to uplift the image of the police department and create a better relationship between his service personnel and the public. more..

Oct 5 (LBO) The Welikada prison's 7000 inmates will stay-put, with Sri Lanka telecom hanging up on its call centre project. Chief Executive Shuhei Anan told shareholders on Monday that the telco giant would abandon its Telecom City project to focus on its "telecom oriented" business. more..

Oct 5 (TN) A team of World Bank officials is in Jaffna district monitoring the progress of housing projects implemented with World Bank's financial assistance. Construction of 125 houses is in progress in the district, district secretariat sources said. more..

Oct 5 (TN) Mr.Suresh Premachchandran, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Monday held a conference in his office and discussed the problems affecting the development of Kopay electorate in Jaffna district. more..

Oct 5 (TN) CID recorded the statement of Mr.Ruwan Chandrasekara, Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka when he was in HRCSL head office in Colombo regarding the alleged assault on him last week in the Jaffna police station by a group of policemen, more..

Oct 5 (TN) Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway, Mr. Vidar Helgessen, briefed members of Constitutional Affairs Committee of LTTE and officials of the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) in Geneva Monday, sources from Geneva said. more..

Oct 5 (SLBC) The Most Ven. Maha Nayaka of the Asgiriya Chapter and other venerable members of the Maha Sangha, Reverend Clergy Members of the Catholic, Christian, Hindu, and Islam beliefs have blessed the inaugural ceremony of the National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR). more..

Oct 5 (SLBC) 'Victim Protection Laws' should be implemented in Sri Lanka to protect prosecution witnesses giving evidence against gang violence of the underworld, new Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando said. more..

Oct 5 (SLBC) The rice stocks imported by the CWE and the Consumer Cooperative Society of Sri Lanka will be released to the market tomorrow. Another shipment of 7,000 metric tonnes of rice is to be arrived at Colombo harbour today. more..

Oct 5 (SLBC) The ceremony of National Literary Awards will be held today evening at the BMICH under the patronage of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The awards will be presented appraising the creative work done in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages. more..

Oct 5 (SLA) A civilian guarding a paddy-field in the general un-cleared area of OMADIYAMADU, VALAICHCHENAI has been shot dead by suspected LTTE gunmen on 03 October 2004 around 8.30 p.m. for reasons known only to those assassins. more..

Oct 5 (Reuters) The rupee ended flat on Tuesday as importer demand for dollars to settle trade bills were evenly matched by exporter selling of dollar earnings, dealers said. The rupee closed at 103.62 against the dollars unchanged from Monday's close. more..

Oct 5 (PSL) The new Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando assumed duties yesterday. President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed Chandra Fernando as the 29th Police Chief of Sri Lanka Police on September 30. more..

Oct 5 (DT) Smoking would not be allowed in the National Stadium enclosures during the one-day international cricket match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Wednesday, the Sindh police said on Monday. Spectators would also not be allowed to bring in lighters or matches. more..

Oct 5 (Sun) Sri Lankan Navy today arrested 20 Indian fishermen and seized their trawlers for violating the country's territorial waters, police said. The fishermen, who were in five trawlers, were arrested for poaching and handed over to local police in Mannar in the north-west of the island, they said. more..

Oct 5 (LT) Ceylon National Workers Congress has requested the UNP to refrain from signing agreements with the Ceylon Workers Congress at the future elections. more..

Oct 5 (SN) Udeni Dassanayake (24) and Sriyani Mallika (20) with there babies, wives of homeguards, D.Sarath Bandara and Chandana Piyasiri under arrest by the LTTE were on their way to join the ongoing sit-in fast near Trincomalee clock tower launched by relatives of the homeguards demanding their immediate release. more..

Oct 5 (TP) Workers approaching the labour department or the courts with complaints against their employers face the threat of losing their jobs and getting stranded in the process. They have nothing to fall back on for survival until their woes are resolved and they are paid arrears and air tickets to travel home. more..

Oct 5 (Reuters) In a remote sun-baked corner of northern Sri Lanka, farmers are pioneering an unlikely new weapon in the fight to clear hundreds of thousands of landmines strewn during two decades of civil war. more..

Oct 5 (TP) The driver of the bus which collided with a trailer on Messaieed-Wakrah highway on Sunday evening and died on the spot was a Sri Lankan. He was identified by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) sources yesterday as Ajith. more..

Oct 5 (NIP) Sri Lanka is fast emerging as the preferred holiday destination for Chennaiites. The latest to make a beeline for Ceylon to explore its variegated treasure house are a group of students from Lady Andal School, Nungambakkam, here, who left for Colombo on October 1. more..

Oct 5 (AT) The LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran has sent a strong signal to the Tamil Diaspora that he would not allow them to dictate terms to the hierarchy. He has made trusted political head S Paramu Tamilselvan as the leader of the LTTE Constitutional Affairs Committee over the Dispora-favourite Anton Balasingham. more..

Oct 5 (BBC) Lancashire have signed world record wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan for the first half of the 2005 season. The Sri Lanka off-spinner rejoins the red rose county for a third spell, having played in 1999 and 2001. more..

Oct 5 (DN) The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry will enact new legislation to change the century old laws governing the country's mental healthcare system. The amendment to the original Act comes after nearly half a century. The last amendment was made in 1956. more..

Oct 5 (PIS) The demand from civil society for an inclusive peace process has been a longstanding one. It reached a peak in the aftermath of the Ceasefire Agreement signed by the former UNP government and the LTTE in February 2002. more..

Oct 5 (IANS) Sri Lanka's all Buddhist monk partyhas said that they would support and join the government's peace council only after the Tamil Tiger rebels accept the territorial integrity and the legal framework of the country, The Island newspaper reported on Tuesday. more..

Oct 5 (AFP) Tamil Tiger rebels have rejected Sri Lanka's latest peace initiative as a "time wasting tactic" as Norway warned the insurgents to stop killing political opponents. more..

Oct 5 (HT) Norway, which is the peace broker in Sri Lanka, has asked Tamil rebel group LTTE to stop killing its political rivals as such killings are jeopardising the peace process in the island nation. more..

Oct 5 (BBC) Detention of the two Home Guards and the arresting of ten LTTE cadres by the government are two completely separate issues, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said. more..

Oct 6 (SLA) Children are the assets of this country, it matters not, be they are based in the south or the north since they are the adults of tomorrow. This simple truth evidenced at Eluttumaduval north, a remote hamlet in Jaffna peninsula when the foundation stone for re-construction of the Government Tamil School was recently laid. more..

Oct 6 (LBO) The government is taking another look at what countries it wants to target for preferential trade agreements. Under the previous UNF regime, Sri Lanka initiated talks with 28 countries, including those already in regional trade agreements with Sri Lanka, for bilateral agreements. more..

Oct 6 (LBO) Laugfs Gas has been asked to come back with a more ‘reasonable’ price request, before the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) agrees to an increase. “We had a discussion yesterday, and we asked Laugfs to come back with a more reasonable and more moderate amount to increase,” more..

Oct 6 (BS) Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), the state-owned telecommunications company, is stepping up international connectivity by setting up undersea cable between Chennai and Sri Lanka. more..

Oct 6 (AFP) Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu said his side must build on their Asia Cup win as they face hosts Pakistan in the tri-series one-day tournament here at the National Stadium today. more..

Oct 6 (PTI) Five of the 20 fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for violating the country's territorial waters have been remanded to judicial custody, officials here said. The five boats in which they put out to sea were also detained by Sri Lankan officials on the orders of a court in Mannar, more..

Oct 6 (AT) Head of the Nordic Truce Monitors Major Gen (Rtd) Trond Furuhovde said on Tuesday that there was no logic for the LTTE to demand for the release of their 10 cadres arrested by the Government more than a year ago to release the two home guards apprehended in Trincomalee. more..

Oct 6 (AT) Lanka Hydraulic Institute's (LHI) Hydraulic Engineer Dr. Malith Mendis called for postponement of the Sethusamudram project to deepen the narrow sea lane, the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka until serious investigations were done to study the water cycle and soil structure of the peninsula. more..

Oct 6 (AT) A lecturer Rajani Thiranagama, was also the Head of Department of Anatomy, in the Medical faculty of the University of Jaffna was one of the authors of “The Broke Palmayra.” more..

Oct 6 (AT) Dr ARM Imtiyaz writing in the Asian Tribune (Oct 5th) has produced one of the most ignorant, illiterate and lunatic arguments I have recently read concerning Sri Lanka’s ethnic crisis. more..

Oct 6 (AT) Hans Brattskar – Sri Lanka’s Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo will be visiting this week Matara and Galle districts located in the Southern province of Sri Lanka. more..

Oct 6 (BBC) Ten Home Guards captured in Trincomalee by the LTTE is to be released this week, informed sources reveal. Sri Lankan Defense authorities say that the ten LTTE members, who have been taken to custody will be brought to court on Thursday. more..

Oct 6 (BBC) The inquest into a death in police custody has concluded that the death was due to internal haemorrhage caused by assault with a blunt weapon. The inquest of Quintus Perera (40) of Polonnaruwa who died whilst in the Police custody was carried by the Kurunegala Judicial Medical Officer on Tuesday. more..