Sep 18 (SLBC) The Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa commended the establishment of a peace village with an intention of creating peace and harmony. "It is with immense pleasure that I send this message on an occasion, which I believe, is unique in many ways", he further added. more..

Sep 18 (TN) The Indian Union Cabinet, which met on Friday morning, decided to declare Tamil a "classical language," Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Friday. The declaration comes after years of lobbying by Tamil scholars more..

Sep 18 (TN) Norwegian special peace envoy Mr. Erik Solheim met with the Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe, at the latter's official residence Friday evening, on the eve of his departure after a five day stay in Sri Lanka, sources said. more..

Sep 18 (TN) Killinochchi Technical College with the support of World University Service of Canada (WUSC) recently opened a carpentry-training centre in Kandavwalai, in Vanni region. Project Co-ordinator WUSC Mr.S. Jeyarajasingham, ceremoniously inaugurated the training programme at the newly opened centre. more..

Sep 18 (PSL) President Chandrika Kumaratunga left for the United States today to address the 59th Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly. Minister Rantansiri Wickremanayake will act as Minister of Defence during her absence. more..

Sep 18 (AT) Somebody should stop this killing spree - a sickening reality when Thambithurai Sivakumar alias Bavan (41 years) a senior leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) has been shot and killed this morning by motorcycle riding gunmen. more..

Sep 18 (DN) The producers of the controversial movie Hollywood Buddha held a press conference in Beverly Hills on September 16 followed by a special screening of the movie attended by Sri Lankan and Thai Buddhist Monks. more..

Sep 18 (AFP) A Sri Lankan handball team that vanished during a tournament in Germany had no authority to represent the island and may have tricked the organisers from the start, a top sports official said on Friday. more..

Sep 18 (Xinhua) Tamil Tiger rebels have agreed to hold talks with government forces on Wednesday on the security situation in the east of the country which they have postponed twice, the official Daily News said on Saturday. more..

Sep 18 (AP) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels fatally shot a rival Tamil politician in northwestern Sri Lanka on Saturday as he cycled with his 8-year-old daughter, officials said. Thambithurai Sivakumar, a leader of EPDP, was killed in Puttalam, more..

Sep 18 (SLBC) The government has to spend 2.4 billion rupees for the resettlement of 100,000 war displaced families in the northeast. The Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation said that the Asian Development Bank and the European Union have already provided around half of that amount. more..

Sep 18 (SLBC) Five thousand nurses are to be recruited to state hospitals next year. Minister of Health Nimal Siripala de Silva said that hospitals currently have a shortfall of around 20,000 nurses. According to him, the 3,000 nurses trained each year at Nurses Training Colleges are not adequate to fill the vacancies. more..

Sep 18 (TN) Mannar Bishop Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph Saturday urged Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Indra Silva, to urgently start a special Police division to curb rampant heroin smuggling in the district. Mr.Indra Silva is the first IGP of Sri Lanka to visit Mannar in 30 years. more..

Sep 18 (wsws) Nearly three months after Sri Lankan Bata shoe factory workers launched a bitter fight to defend their jobs, the Commerce and Industry Workers Union (CIWU) is moving to sell out the struggle. more..

Sep 18 (AAP) A PROTEST by a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers at South Australia's Baxter detention centre has ended its fourth day with no sign of resolution. Of the 16 Sri Lankan men at the centre, 11 of them have been holding a peaceful protest in a bid to get Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to review their cases more..

Sep 18 (CI) With the rain lashing down at the Rose Bowl, England's thoughts might have begun to drift towards the crunch encounter against Australia that awaits them in the semi-finals. But then they were forced to refocus on the present as the weather abated and the covers were gingerly peeled off. more..

Sep 18 (TN) Jaffna District Co-ordinating Committee (JDCC) Saturday urged the Government of Sri Lanka to reconstruct the war destroyed Industrial Estate located in Achchuveli in Jaffna district. JDCC said that rehabilitation would enable Jaffna residents to regain the lost economic benefits and would increase job prospects for unemployed youths. more..

Sep 19 (TN) Nearly forty percent of funds allocated by the Government of Sri Lanka last year to implement several development projects in Jaffna have not been spent primarily due to lethargic attitude of officials responsible for disbursement of funds causing major delays in several development projects, representatives of contractors' consortium said. more..

Sep 19 (TN) Northeast Provincial Folk Dance Festival was held Saturday evening in Trincomalee St.Mary's College Therese Auditorium under the auspices of Provincial Department of Education. more..

Sep 19 (TN) "Sri Lanka delegation to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) sessions is billed to stay at the most famous five-star luxury hotel in the city - the Waldorf Astoria," in New York costing Sri Lankan tax payers room rates ranging from $370 to $700, Sunday Times, a weekly broadsheet in Colombo reported in its Sunday edition. more..

Sep 19 (TN) LTTE Political Wing in a press release Sunday accused the President Chandrika Kumaratunga of being responsible for the delay in restarting the peace process. The intentions of the President who "expressed her interest in restarting the peace process", were "not translated into action" said the Press Release. more..

Sep 19 (SLA) Three civilians have been arrested with LTTE uniforms and some badges in their possession by troops at the Entry/Exit point OMANTHAI on 18 September 2004 around 8.40 a.m. Those suspected civilians were in possession of LTTE uniforms and some badges when they were taken into custody on suspicion. more..

Sep 19 (SLA) Two persons, suspected to be from the LTTE, have abducted a twenty six year old youth from the general area of CHINA-BAY, TRINCOMALEE on 15 September 2004 around 5.30 a.m. for reasons best known only to them. more..

Sep 19 (CI) It's the time of the year when the winds pick up their swirling intensity and pluck autumnal leaves off the forests around Southampton, and young men pack their flannels away and train their thoughts on football, wondering if anyone can stop Arsenal. more..

Sep 19 (SL) The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has pledged its unstinted support to the government towards its effort to combat crime in the country. The association made this pledge when a delegation of the association met President Chandrika Kumaratunga at President's House on Monday, the 6th. more..

Sep 19 (SL) With prospects of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution abolishing the executive presidency becoming a reality fast fading, prospective candidates of the SLFP for the presidency have started staking their claims while the President was considering the option of having one more go at political survival through another snap general election in April next year. more..

Sep 19 (SO) The maiden budget of the UPFA government to be presented in Parliament in early November will be development oriented providing more incentives to local industrialists to embark on new ventures and enhance on existing ventures, Deputy Finance Minister, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told more..

Sep 19 (TS) Muttiah Muralitharan’s omission from the team of the year has caused such anguish in his homeland that it might easily have been thought that he had been left out of a side that was actually going to take to the field. These teams are chosen to provoke debate and to satisfy sponsors paying for banquets and much else and are otherwise entirely irrelevant. more..

Sep 19 (SLBC) Deputy Foreign Minister Professor Vishwa Warnapala says no official request has been made to the Indian government for the return of the Kachativu islands. The Deputy Minister was making a statement to the SLBC on a written request made by Chief Minister of Tamilnadu Jayalalitha Jayaram to the Indian Prime Minister to obtain the Kachativu islands at least on a leased basis. more..

Sep 19 (TP) Police in the southern town of Suriyawewa on Friday arrested a taxidermist with a large collection of preserved creatures including endangered species. Police said that an isolated house in the jungle was raided on a tip-off where a variety of 20 dead reptiles, insects, butterflies, rats and squirrels preserved in bottled chemicals was discovered. more..

Sep 19 (TP) The Defence Ministry has asked the LTTE to move back its camps around Trincomalee by three kilometres, a Defence Ministry official was quoted as saying in the Daily Mirror. This came after the National Security Council was informed that LTTE camps and bunkers along the Sampur coastal belt could scare away commercial vessels calling at the harbour. more..

Sep 19 (SLBC) The political wing leader of the LTTE S P Thamilselvan says they sought the advise of the Maha Nayake Thera of the Malwatta Chapter regarding the conduct of peace talks. He made this announcement during a meeting with journalists from the South at Kilinochchi yesterday. more..

Sep 19 (AP) A delegation of Tamil Tiger rebels will leave for Europe later this month to discuss the future of Sri Lanka’s fragile peace process, rebel officials said on Sunday. S.P. Thamilselvan, the rebels’ political chief, will lead the group for talks in Geneva, Switzerland, more..

Sep 19 (AFP) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down another rival after Norway failed in its latest bid to end a prolonged deadlock in Sri Lanka's peace process, officials and diplomats said. more..

Sep 19 (AT) In his memorial address Milinda Morogoda MP and former Minister in United National Front Government eloquently said: Sri Lanka has been fortunate in being able to produce leaders of outstanding quality from time to time. more..

Sep 19 (AT) Despite the pressures on the LTTE from international community and the Norwegian facilitators to put an end to killing of political opponents, suspected LTTE pistol gang member gunned down another political opponent from the rival EPDP member in the North Western town of Puttalam on Saturday morning. more..

Sep 19 (AT) It was an act of symbolic importance. Less than 48 hours before the scheduled arrival of Norwegian peace envoy Eric Solheim, the Tigers murdered Aruldas Mayawan Chandramohan, an unarmed EPDP activist who was once the chairman of the Point Pedro Pradesheeya Sabha. more..

Sep 19 (AT) Dr. Vasudevan Maitreyan, former AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) Member of Parliament, who is also a noted Oncologist, says he is for “Operation Peace” to amicably settle the Sri Lankan Tamil problem. more..

Sep 19 (Age) A hunger strike, a High Court action and a direct appeal to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone are among last-ditch efforts to stop the forced return of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 20 (TN) Canadian Tamils are organizing a "Pongu Thamil" (Tamil upsurge) awareness festival in Toronto on September 25, 2004, to demonstrate their support for the current peace process and to request the Canadian government to take an active role in the peace process in Sri Lanka, more..

Sep 20 (LBO) Government gave strong indication that prices of diesel will go up soon saying Sri Lanka can't afford the current "subsidy binge". The Finance Minister also said plans to get a third player for down stream petroleum marketing will also go ahead as planned despites threats of strikes by CPC trade unions. more..

Sep 20 (LBO) South Asian countries had made little progress last year to improve their investment climate there by missing out on growth opportunities, according to a recent World Bank study. The report also shows that Sri Lanka has lagged behind, even by the mediocre South Asian standards. more..

Sep 20 (LBO) Adding diversity to the work place is something management trainers promote for creative problem solving. An NGO and the Employers Federation of Ceylon are now working to introduce companies to differently-abled people who they say can help create a vibrant work place. more..

Sep 20 (AT) The Defence officials from India and Sri Lanka is set have another round of discussion in October to finalize the India Sri Lanka Defence Cooperation Agreement that is to be signed by the two Governments soon, a top level Defence official said here in Colombo. more..

Sep 20 (AT) The Peace Secretariat of the LTTE has rebutted the charges made on 16th of this month by President Chandrika Kumaratunga against the Tamil rebel out fit describing them with expletive adjectives, “inflexible and indecisive.” more..

Sep 20 (LT) Mr. Dharmasiri Gamage, a film director, lyric writer, journalist and an environmentalist passed away this evening. Mr.Dharmasiri Gamage who excelled in many fields was awarded Sarasavi award and President’s award. more..

Sep 20 (LT) S.Rodrigo, the OIC of Pamunugama Police has been shot dead inside the police station. A constable of the same police station has obtained a T-56 rifle and ammunition to go on duty and had shot the inspector with the same firearm. more..

Sep 20 (LT) Information about the terrorist leader sent by Wanni tiger organization to murder Foreign Minister Laxman Kadirgamar, Minister of Hindu affairs Douglas Devananda and former leader of Tamil Alliance Ananda Sangaree has been obtained by the intelligence services of the security forces. more..

Sep 20 (Rupavahini) Several low line areas in Ratnapura, Kalutara and Galle districts are under the threat of floods owing to heavy rain prevailing in the area during the past two days. Mathugama and Ayagama divisional secretariat areas in the Kalutara district and Kalawana in the Ratnapura district are under the threat of flash floods. more..

Sep 20 (DS) The 20th meeting of the Technical Committee (TC-20) of the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (Cirdap) will begin in Colombo tomorrow, says a press release. more..