Sep 3 (AT) The first batch of unemployed graduates numbering 17,035 were selected for employment yesterday out of 41,305 unemployed graduates. According to the scheme to provide employment to the unemployed graduates, were selected to undergo the training course before they are absorbed into the public service. more..

Sep 3 (AT) Asian Human Rights Commission said in recent weeks some senior politicians from the government of Sri Lanka have tried to blame the increase in crime on the National Police Commission (NPC). In fact no link between the NPC and the increase in crime has in any way been established. more..

Sep 3 (AT) Are the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka equals? I’d say “yes and no”. The question is pertinent because the media has been critical of a remark by Peace Secretariat Secretary General Jayantha Dhanapala that Colombo has agreed to this position/interpretation. more..

Sep 3 (AT) I was warned and advised by a senior intelligence officer indicating that Oslo is a paradise of terrorists after hearing that I am proceeding to Norway. I myself knew that Norway is a safe haven to many international terrorists. more..

Sep 3 (AT) LTTE tendered unconditional apology to the irate Gurunagar fisherman yesterday and also agreed to pay compensation for the fishing boats and trawlers burnt and damaged by the LTTE’s armed cadres with the view to end the protest by the fishermen in Jaffna. more..

Sep 3 (IL) The United Trade Unions of Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) staged a picket opposite the CEB head office yesterday afternoon to press their demand against the delay in activating a pay hike. more..

Sep 3 (Reuters) The rupee strengthened slightly on Friday as exporters' dollar sales outweighed importers' demand for the greenback, dealers said. The rupee closed at 103.03 against the dollar, after slightly weakening to 103.08 in intraday trade, but keeping clear of its closing low of 103.98 last month. more..

Sep 3 (SLA) Troops on duty at the Headquarters of Sri Lanka Telecom arrested four Tamil suspects with a camera on 2 September around 12.00 noon. On information received from a civilian, troops arrested them while they were filming the Gafoor building at SIR BARON JAYATHILAKE MAWATHA in COLOMBO. more..

Sep 3 (SLA) A group of civilians had organized a hartal campaign on 2 September around 10.30 a.m. in the general area of TRINCOMALEE demanding the release of two Home Guards abducted by the LTTE some times back. more..

Sep 3 (TN) The Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) said Friday it would support President Chandrika Kumaratunga's UPFA, ending months of uncertainty over the future of her minority government. Mr. Arumugan Thondaman, leader of the CWC, said that his party's eight MPs will support the UPFA on issues from the ranks of the opposition. more..

Sep 3 (Gulf) Tamil guerrillas have declared that violence against their members should be stopped in order for them to return to the negotiating table, their official website said. more..

Sep 3 (ET) Indians are expected to account for nearly a fourth of the 1m international arrivals expected over the next five years in Sri Lanka. Indians, who currently constitute 18% of the island republic’s overseas tourists, are among the highest spenders. In fact, Bangaloreans, at $100 a day, top the list. more..

Sep 3 (KT) The foundation-laying ceremony for the new Sri Lanka Freedom Party headquarters in a Colombo suburb got under way yesterday with notable absentees including President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the party leader and her brother Anura Bandaranaike, a Vice President of the party. more..

Sep 3 (PIS) Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim is due in Sri Lanka on September 13 for a five-day visit to discuss the crisis in the east and other issues in the peace process. On Tuesday Mr. Solheim and Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar held talks in London with LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham. more..

Sep 3 (DN) Political Party leaders yesterday unanimously agreed to a Government proposal for making the National Identity Card compulsory for voting at future National elections. more..

Sep 3 (AT) The visit to Sri Lanka of two high-ranking American generals in recent months appears to have rattled the LTTE. The visits, which come at time when the peace process seems almost impossible to revive, is being described as a show of American support for the Sri Lankan government. more..

Sep 3 (AFP) Sri Lanka's meteorological chief poured cold water on Buddhist claims that the sprinkling of holy water ended a prolonged drought that had made millions of people destitute. more..

Sep 3 (PTI) Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash is slated to arrive in Sri lanka on official visit at the next week end, official sources said. He is expected here on September 12, the sources said without divulging further details. Prakash took over the reins from Admiral Madhvendra Singh on July 30.

Sep 3 (DJ) The securing of a parliamentary majority Friday by ruling coalition should help improve investor sentiment over the short term, analysts said. more..

Sep 3 (AFP) Sri Lanka's ruling coalition won crucial support from an opposition party to gain a simple majority for the first time since April elections and clear the way for reviving peace talks with Tamil rebels. more..

Sep 3 (Reuters) A small Sri Lankan party offered its support to the island's coalition government on Friday, which would give the ruling alliance a working majority in parliament, but it stopped short of joining the government. more..

Sep 3 (LT) Pulmude Mineral Sands Factory which was to be sold during the UNP government has resumed production. The resources necessary to meet the demand for mineral sands exist in the factory. More than 300 are employed and by developing production more workers could be employed say authorities.

Sep 3 (LT) The expenses for the inauguration ceremony of “Dahasak Wew” (Ten thousand small & medium scale irrigation works), the project to renovate 10,000 small and medium scale Wew, cost only Rs.9, 86976/- says Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation. more..

Sep 3 (USE) The United States on Friday, September 3, 2004, extradited to Sri Lanka Mr. Devanika Aswin Kumar Sinnathamby, a Sri Lankan citizen convicted in the High Court of Colombo in 2002 for sexually assaulting his five-year-old daughter. more..

Sep 4 (TN) The Liberation Tigers Thursday resolved a violent dispute between fishermen from Gurunagar, a coastal suburb of Jaffna town, and from villages on the western coast of Kilinochchi. more..

Sep 4 (TN) Indian fishing trawlers confiscated by the Jaffna High Court for poaching in the northern sea have been handed over to Sri Lanka Navy and other government agencies for their use. more..

Sep 4 (HT) Despite the increasing fragility of the Ceasefire Agreement, the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, is confident that there will be no return to war, and that the LTTE will come back to the negotiating table. "I see light at the end of the tunnel," she told foreign correspondents based in Colombo on Friday. more..

Sep 4 (LBO) The Railway Department will begin overhauling 100 km of the islands dilapidated rail track this month at a cost of over Rs 374 mn. “We have already started transporting concrete sleepers to areas beyond Rambukkana. Work will begin in mid September,” a senior official at the Railway Department said. more..

Sep 4 (Rupavahini) The salary anomalies problem of the university non-academic staff is to be settled with the mediation of President Chandrika Kumaratunge. more..

Sep 4 (Rupavahini) This was disclosed by minister of civil aviation and media Mangala Samaraweera. Minister Samaraweera noted that the government has focused special attention to improve the standard of the Bandaranaike international airport. more..

Sep 4 (AT) As Sinhala-Buddhist political class maintains its interest in settling the ethnic conflict through military channel (2) , hope for the peaceful solution gradually has been melting. more..

Sep 4 (AFP) Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga ruled out a return to war despite escalating factional killings that undermined a truce and expressed hopes of a peace deal with Tiger rebels. more..

Sep 4 (AT) Sri Lanka United National Association of Canada has written a letter Pierre S. Pettigrew, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs seeking Canada’s stand on the Issue of Tamil Tiger terrorisms and what type of action Canada intends to take under its Bill C.36.? more..

Sep 4 (AN) Sri Lankan Consul General in Jeddah A.J.M. Sadiq has been appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia to succeed Ibrahim Sahib Ansar who will be leaving the Kingdom soon on completion of his ambassadorial tenure. more..

Sep 4 (SLBC) It was a shocking news of that the family has used their children in peddling drugs. A child arrested with high quality heroin yesterday in Colombo revealed this story of impact of drugs on children, which goes mostly unnoticed. more..

Sep 4 (SLBC) The chairman of BIMSTEC Chandra Embuldeniya has said that the country lost about 500 million rupees due to the disturbance caused to the provision of Internet services. more..

Sep 4 (AT) Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe has played many roles in his life, most of which has been in marketing his punditry that has seldom yielded the desired results. One of his noted exploits in political meddling resulted in him being thrown out of Sierra Leone. more..

Sep 4 (SLA) An unidentified group has lobbed a hand grenade at a hotel in the general area of ODDAMAVADI on 3 September 2004 around 2.00 a.m. The armed group has entered the JESEEMA HOTEL at the MAIN STREET, ODDAMAVADI belonging to M.A. ADAMBAVA and thrown a hand grenade causing minor damages to the hotel. more..

Sep 4 (SLA) One thousand four hundred and eighty two (1482) lorry loads of food and other essential items had been dispatched to un-cleared areas in the northern province during the period between 27 August 2004 and 02 September 2004. more..

Sep 4 (CM) THREE Sri Lankans have complained to the Cyprus Mail after their boss in Nicosia fired them and then cut off the water supply to their accommodation. “Even a dog on the street needs water,” one of the three said yesterday, adding that they were now forced to carry water from a nearby public tap. more..

Sep 4 (TP) A prominent JVP minister and trade union activist on Thursday urged Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama to provide some relief to the people suffering from high prices on essential items. more..

Sep 4 (TI) Apropos of H.K. Dua's article "Between war and peace" (Aug 30), it would be an achievement for India if, without getting into the mess, it ensured unity in Sri Lanka. Personal and parochial interests, both by Indian and Sri Lankan politicians, must be sacrificed in the larger interests of Sri Lanka. more..

Sep 4 (FE) The mecca for all prospective engineers, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), is all set to make a mark the world over. The government is considering letting the institute set up its first international campus in Colombo. more..

Sep 4 (Reuters) Unfazed by a string of killings among feuding factions of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and an 18-month impasse in peace talks after two decades of civil war, President Chandrika Kumaratunga can see light at the end of the tunnel. more..

Aug 3 (DN) The Government is to have legislation passed in Parliament soon to abolish the controversial tax amnesty introduced by the previous government. This would be fulfilling of yet another election promise made by the UPFA Government. more..

Sep 5 (Xinhua) A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) here Saturday said enhancing cooperation between China and Sri Lanka serves fundamental interest of the two peoples. more..

Sep 5 (NT) Dankotuwa Porcelain Ltd, Sri Lanka's premier manufacturer and exporter of porcelain tableware, has forayed into the Indian market by making its presence felt in Chennai, with its first- ever showroom opened at Spencer Plaza yesterday. more..

Sep 5 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka's Appeal Court has ordered the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels Velupillai Prabhakaran to appear in court over petitions against his signing truce agreement with the government, local TV reported on Saturday. more..

Sep 5 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said India fully backed Sri Lanka's peace process but made it clear that it was against any break-up of the island nation. He told a press conference here that India was doing whatever it could to help neighbouring countries facing major problems. more..

Sep 5 (Sify) S Nalini, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, wants to give her 12-year-old daughter Megara up for adoption to a relative in Germany and wants to meet her once before she does it. more..