Sep 13 (SLBC) Garbage and environment Garbage in Colombo city is a problem, which eludes all the solutions put forward by all the parties concerned. Once more the residents of Colombo have begun to complain about freely strewn garbage. The Mayor of Colombo has told the media that he is yet to receive any official complaints. more..

Sep 13 (SLBC) The Central Transport Board is to take legal action against the persons responsible for the loss of buses, machinery and spare parts at Werahera and Keppitipola depots during the previous regime. more..

Sep 13 (UTPD) T. Ramesh the LTTE’s Eastern military leader as appointed by the LTTE has reportedly been replaced by Dhanu a Tiger stalwart from Kilinochchi. The new military leader, former leader Ramesh who is from the same area and Political Chief Kaushalyan along with the Amaparai district leaders have flown back to east after a weeks visit to Kilinochchi by an Air Force helicopter. more..

Sep 13 (CI) Tillakaratne Dilshan, a key allrounder for Sri Lanka, has been passed fit to play in Sri Lanka's first Champions Trophy match against Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Dilshan's right hand had needed stitches after the webbing was split in the last one-dayer against South Africa. more..

Sep 13 (DJ) Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka climbed 15.5% on year to 50,525 in July, mainly boosted by the Asia Cup cricket tournament, which attracted a higher number of visitors from key markets. The number of tourists in the first seven months of this year rose 9.3% on year to 143,000. more..

Sep 13 (Reuters) Sri Lanka is headed for a balance of payments deficit of around $200 million in 2004 because of the impact of high international oil prices on the net importer, but the economy should still grow 5.0-5.5 percent, the central bank governor said on Monday. more..

Sep 13 (NP) A Norwegian delegation arrrives in Sri Lanka on Monday in another attempt at getting the deadlocked peace negotiations re-started, according to diplomatic sources quoted by Aftenposten. Norway's special envoy Erik Solheim is expected to have talks with both sides in the year-long conflict. more..

Sep 13 (AT) Eastern wing military commanders are to be reshuffled after the situation in the East was under microscopic scrutiny by Prabakaran, Leader of the LTTE. It is learnt that according to a report submitted by the intelligence chief of the LTTE - Pottu Amman, Batticaloa – Amparai districts military formation warrants immediate and urgent changes to suit the growing anti-LTTE situation. more..

Sep 13 (DN) A former hard drug dealer was shot dead in his car near a filling station in Colombo yesterday morning by two unidentified gunmen who used a T56 and a 9 mm revolver, Cinnamon Gardens Police said. more..

Sep 13 (Reuters) A cyanide capsule dangling from her neck and a pistol by her side, the leader of Sri Lanka's female Tamil Tiger rebels says her 5,000 fighters are clear: civilian life has been and gone -- they are a future army. more..

Sep 13 (AP) More than 500 saffron-robed Buddhist monks marched to the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka on Monday demanding a ban on a new Hollywood movie they say denigrates Buddha. The monks from the Patriotic National Movement said they were especially angered by the advertisement for "Hollywood Buddha," which showed U.S.-based producer, director and star Philippe Caland seated on the head of a Buddha statue. more..

Sep 13 (HT) Three wheelers made in India have played a silent but a very critical role in bringing down the appallingly high suicide rate in Sri Lanka, experts say. According to the Census and Statistics Department, Sri Lanka had the highest rate of suicide in the world in 1995, with 47 persons out of every 100,000 committing suicide. more..

Sep 13 (Reuters) Stocks rose on Monday boosted by retail buying in the healthcare index as this year's first IPO gained 70 percent in the first days of trade, brokers said. The key Colombo all-share index rose 0.41 percent, or 5.73 points, to 1,419.09. The bourse has gained 33 percent so far this year. more..

Sep 13 (LBO) Mental illness is on the rise in the island but Sri Lankans prefer popping pills to pottering of to see a shrink. Ironically psychiatrists don’t feel like treating Sri Lankan’s either. “Work related stress is one of the most common ailments now,” says Dr Sunil Rathnapriya from Sahanaya, more..

Sep 13 (SLBC) Minister Amarasiri Dodangoda said that action will be taken to recruit 2668 clerks to the public service next December. These recruitments will be based on the marks obtained at a competitive test held earlier. more..

Sep 13 (HT) Chief of Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Arun Prakash, has said that he is seeking "new areas of cooperation" with the Sri Lankan Navy and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to promote good neighbourly relations between India and Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 14 (TN) The opening ceremony of an English Language College run by Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) was held on the new College premises at Jeyanthynagar, Kilinochchi, Monday. Twenty five students who currently are working for TRO projects have completed the English courses. more..

Sep 14 (TN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga's spokesman and advisor on rehabilitation and reconstruction, Mr. Harim Pieris told jounalists in Jaffna Monday that her government does not discriminate between areas held by the LTTE and Sri Lankan armed forces in providing aid unlike the previous regime in Colombo. more..

Sep 14 (AT) A substantial section of the Tamil Diaspora in Europe have expressed their serious concerns over the autocratic ways of the LTTE while dealing with Tamil civilians. There is resentment over dictatorial policies of the LTTE among the Tamils in Europe in general and among an influential segment of Tamils hailing from Gurunagar and Kolombuthurai in Jaffna in particular. more..

Sep 14 (AT) The rise of theocratic extremism in the Middle East is known and deplored by most everyone around the globe. Fewer, though, are aware of a similar rise in South Asia. Anti-conversion and anti-blasphemy legislation has already become law in India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. more..

Sep 14 (AT) JVP leaders who met the International Monetary Fund delegation yesterday urged the acceptance of the repayment of loans in Sri Lankan Rupees instead of in US Dollars. They pointed out that they have to pay more in dollars due to the continuous decline of the value of the Sri Lankan rupee. more..

Sep 14 (LT) A petition submitted by former minister of agriculture S.B. Dissanayake requesting the Supreme Court to halt all inquires made against him by the Bribery and Fraud Commission has been rejected. This decision was arrived at by the Supreme Court after the petition was inquired into by a three member bench. more..

Sep 14 (BJ) A five-day UN-ESCAP sponsored workshop beginning today brought here municipal mayors and experts from Sri Lanka and Vietnam to be shown a Bangladesh model of waste management for replication in their countries. more..

Sep 14 (CBJ) An industry delegation from the Indian Ocean country began a three-day state tour Monday, seeking new sources of yarn and woven fabric. Six representatives were slated to visit Gaston mainstays Parkdale Mills, R.L. Stowe Mills and American & Efird before traveling to Raleigh. more..

Sep 14 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan navy said Monday they had lodged a complaint with the international truce monitors over last week's setting of fire to Indian fishing trawlers. A senior naval source said the SLMM was told that an unidentified armed group had claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack. more..

Sep 14 (ET) Pipping Britannia and Parle to the post, Sri Lankan major Ceylon Biscuits has taken over the manufacturing facility of Bakeman’s Industries. The deal amount is not known yet. Nor is the fate of the brand, Bakeman. It is also not clear whether Ceylon Biscuits will use the Bakeman’s brand to make inroads in India. more..

Sep 14 (AP) A Buddhist monk holds a poster of the Hollywood film 'Hollywood Buddha' during a protest led by Patriotic National Movement, outside the US Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Sept.13, 2004. more..

Sep 14 (EI) The most successful Sri Lankan pace bowler, Chaminda Vaas, is also part of the funniest cricket joke ever told: Once James Bond and Chaminda Vaas find themselves seated next to each other and start talking. Bond: I am Bond. James Bond. And you are? more..

Sep 14 (NW) Major health unions are set to launch trade union action this week with a countrywide hospital based protest tomorrow and a fast unto death on Thursday, union leaders said yesterday. more..

Sep 14 (NW) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday lashed out at several players in the peace process and hinted that the JVP, a key coalition partner of the ruling Freedom Alliance, as well as the LTTE were the stumbling blocks towards finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict. more..

Sep 14 (TN) 2nd. Lieutenant Mr.Sameera Mangalaratne attached to Soorankal Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detachment was identified as the person who was killed in the fire-fight with home guards in Mullipottan in the Kanalai police division on Monday, Police said. more..

Sep 14 (TN) Sri Lanka’s hardline monks took another step towards creating their ideal of a Buddhist state this week with their parliamentary party calling for a Constitutional change to make Buddhism the state religion. more..

Sep 14 (SLA) LTTE men after they failed to catch two men resident in the general area of THIMILATTIVU, BATTICALOA had threatened the wife of one of the men on 12 September 2004 around 8.30 p.m., saying that her house would be set on fire since those men were not found at home. more..

Sep 14 (SLA) LTTE men in the un-cleared areas of CHENUWARA have abducted two Sinhalese civilians on 11 September 2004 while they were traveling in a three wheeler from SERUNUWARA towards ICHCHALAMPATTU across the MAHINDAPURA roadblock. more..

Sep 14 (SLA) Two self-claimed LTTE “policemen” on a motorbike were nabbed at a roadblock in MUTTUR on 13 September 2004 by the Policemen on duty after those LTTE cadres failed to produce documents related to their motorbike. more..

Sep 14 (SLA) Troops on duty at the NAGARAKOVIL Forward Defence Line (FDL) in JAFFNA on 13 September 2004 around 7.45 a.m. observed the presence of about thirty weapon-carrying LTTE cadres in no-man’s land, about 350 meters, ahead of the FDL of the Security Forces. more..

Sep 14 (SLA) Eight Sri Lankan refugees, believed to have arrived from India after paying Indian rupees 3000 per head to Indian trawler men had surrendered to the Naval troops on duty in the general area of URUMALAI, TALAIMANNAR on 13 September 2004 around 8.00 a.m. more..

Sep 14 (SLA) An attempt to grab a T-56 weapon of a Home Guard by an unidentified group of men was foiled in the general area of KANTALE during small hours on Monday (13 September 2004) when the Home Guard retaliated in self-defence, killing one of the intruders on the spot. more..

Sep 14 (wsws) The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is holding a public meeting this Friday to warn of the dangers of a return to civil war and advance a socialist perspective to meet the aspirations of working people for peace, democratic rights and decent living standards. more..

Sep 14 (LBO) The Mahapola Trust Fund will test its luck at the lotteries game again, with a court injunction against its partnership with US lotteries operator GTECH Holdings withdrawn in August. more..

Sep 14 (PSL) “The Country’s development efforts will be put on a war footing from the 15th of next month, work has already been set in motion” President Kumaratunga announced yesterday. She was referring to her Government’s “Sanwardhana Sangramaya" programme. more..

Sep 14 (PSL) President Chandrika Kumaratunga will launch the National Plan of Action for Children on Wednesday, September 15. The National Plan of Action, or NPA, developed by the Planning Department of the Ministry of Finance with the UNICEF assistance will enhance its programmes and services to Sri Lankan children over the next 5 years. more..

Sep 14 (SLBC) The case filed against former Minister S.B. Dissanayake for defaming the Supreme Court will be taken up for hearing today. It will be examine by a five member panel of Supreme Court judges headed by the Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. more..

Sep 14 (SLBC) Minister of science stressed the importance of improving the quality of Sri Lankan products as for them to be competitive in the export markets. " Sri Lankans by nature does not take things seriously and not quality conscious. more..

Sep 14 (Hindu) Sri Lanka's draft constitution proposals submitted in 1997 and 2000 "can be a good starting point to find an amicable solution" to the island-nation's ethnic conflict and a federal variant could be found to suit a small nation such as Sri Lanka, Prakash Karat, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here today. more..

Sep 14 (LT) The leader of the parliamentary group of the JVP Wimal Weerawansa has told that the condition that the government of Sri Lanka should commence talks with Wanni Tigers if Sri Lanka is to receive loan grants should be totally rejected. more..

Sep 14 (MO) FORMER political refugee Viraj Mendis, who took refuge in a Manchester church for two years, was back in the city today - with a smile on his face. The last time he was seen at the Church of the Ascension on Stretford Road, Hulme, he was still in his pyjamas as police carried him wrapped in a blanket and screaming "Murderers". more..

Sep 14 (Reuters) Pakistan and Sri Lanka start their Champions Trophy campaigns on Tuesday knowing victories against Kenya and Zimbabwe are not their sole objectives. Australia's eagerness to surpass New Zealand's net run rate in the nine wicket thrashing of the United States on Monday has highlighted the need to top group tables more..

Sep 14 (NS) The dispute at the Workwear Lanka (Pvt) ltd in the Biyagama FTZ in Sri Lanka is about the right to organise and bargain collectively in the FTZs in Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 14 (TP) Two men were arrested by the Kotahena Police in Colombo for running illegal radio pirating and broadcasting centres and their equipment worth Rs1.5m was seized. more..