Sep 7 (DJ) Government Tuesday passed into law a controversial bill to impose a 100% tax on land transactions made by foreigners and companies with foreign ownership. The tax will apply to both listed and unlisted companies that have foreign shareholding of more than 25%. more..

Sep 7 (HT) The Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has said that he will topple the UPFA government by November this year. Speaking at the 58th anniversary of his UNP in Sirikotha outside Colombo on Monday, Wickremesinghe said that by November he would be able to muster a majority in parliament. more..

Sep 7 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's main minority Tamil political party on Tuesday called on the government to break a 17-month impasse with Tamil Tiger rebels and resume talks to turn a ceasefire after two decades of civil war into a lasting peace. more..

Sep 8 (NZH) New Zealand should at least have a much better idea of their Champions Trophy prospects after tonight's final shakedown against Sri Lanka. The 50-over warm-up match against the world's No 2 ranked one-day side might not carry full ODI status, but it will still provide New Zealand with an assessment of their tournament hopes. more..

Sep 8 (TN) The Liberation Tigers Tuesday arrested a Sri Lanka Policeman who had attempted to travel through an area held by them. He was taken into custody at the LTTE's border post at Pullumalai, northwest of Batticaloa near the Amparai district border. more..

Sep 8 (TN) Two homeguards from a Sinhala village six kilometres east of Vavuniya were each sentenced to three years of rigourous imprisonment Tuesday for aiding and abetting the rape of a thirteen year old girl. more..

Sep 8 (HT) A Sri Lankan environmentalist body has objected to an Indian project to dig a canal in the sea between India and Sri Lanka, to shorten the sea route between the eastern and the western coasts of India. more..

Sep 8 (IOL) A man accused of sexual assault on a woman was sentenced to a one-year Rigorous Imprisonment term after he let out a loud yawn while the court was in progress in a southern Sri Lanka town, a local newspaper said on Tuesday. more..

Sep 8 (Rupavahini) The Norwegian government is ready to grant 30 million US Dollars to Sri Lanka for next year. The deputy minister of international affairs of the Norwegian government, Olav Kjorven says that relevant plans have already been devised for this purpose. more..

Sep 8 (Rupavahini) Government focuses more attention on the acceleration of rural community development activities. It has been planned to improve education, health and drinking water facilities for the benefit of the rural masses. more..

Sep 8 (NW) During the course of the environment programme launched on August 28, 2004 to make the historic city of Sigiriya a zone free from polythene, plastic bottles, sling bags and straws thrown down from the rock. The area on the northern and eastern sides of Sigiriya rock has a ravine and a thick jungle. more..

Sep 8 (NW) Posing a possible threat to security forces in Jaffna, the LTTE has advanced its Forward Defence Line (FDL) in Nagarkovil reducing the distance between the two FDLs to a mere 20 metres, a Defence Ministry official said. more..

Sep 8 (NW) President Kumaratunga has told government ministers and MPs not to complicate the ethnic issue by making public comments on it. "For heavens sake don't raise the issue of the North East crisis and create problems. Let me handle the problem and don't complicate things by going public about it unnecessarily," more..

Sep 8 (NW) Salaries of all ministers and MPs are being increased with retrospective effect from April this year. In terms of this the monthly salary of an MP is being increased by Rs. 11,575, from Rs. 23,000 to Rs. 32,575. The monthly salary of a minister is being increased to Rs. 33,640 from Rs. 29,000. more..

Sep 8 (NW) A Cabinet Minister and two deputy ministers from the CWC are likely to be sworn in today, government sources said. They said the Estate Infrastructure Ministry was likely to be given to a CWC nominee while the present Minister C.B. Ratnayake would switch to Plantation Industries and Anura Priyadharshana Yapa would move to Mass Media. more..

Sep 8 (AT) According to a latest news break, it was reported that the front sentry point of the LTTE’s Pullimalai camp came under severe attack and several cadres belonging to the Tamil rebel out were killed in the sudden attack. more..

Sep 8 (LBO) Sri Lanka's publishing industry says enough is enough and has called in Asia's only piracy catcher, to crack down copycat publishers ripping off almost half of the island's US$ 6 mn book market. Piracy expert Akash Chittranshi's advice; "scare these guys" with criminal law suites instead of fidgeting around with civil action. more..

Sep 8 (LBO) SriLankan Airlines has upped the tempo on promotions, new destinations and aircrafts, but says the country is still short of 100,000 hotel rooms to meet inbound tourist traffic. According to the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, there are around 14,000 hotel rooms, with an annual average occupancy of 60 to 70 percent. more..

Sep 8 (LBO) Elephant House is cooking up a fresh batch of ice cream to freeze a further melt down in its market share, already at 65 percent from a one time virtual monopoly. Food and Beverages Sector Head at Ceylon Cold Stores says "the elephant is running and not standing still," adding that competition was a healthy factor in business. more..

Sep 8 (TN) A time bomb was discovered by a busy road in Batticaloa town Wednesday, Police said. Heavy morning traffic on Trinco Road was blocked for two hours while Sri Lanka army's bomb disposal unit disabled the timing device concealed in a box and exploded the bomb behind sandbags around 8.45 a.m. more..

Sep 8 (TN) An attack by a group of heavily armed men suspected to be Sri Lanka army commandos on the Liberation Tigers' border post in Pullumalai, 65 kilometres from Batticaloa, Tuesday night around 10.15 p.m. was repulsed, a senior LTTE official in Batticaloa said. more..

Sep 8 (TN) Several Tamil villages in Muttur and Seruvila electorates in Trincomalee district are not supplied with electricity although transformers are located in the vicinity of these villages and electric cables go overhead. This is a deplorable situation," more..

Sep 8 (SLBC) Minister of Agriculture Anura Kumara Dissanayake says his ministry has decided to provide 18 rupees for a liter of milk purchased from farmers from next week. Currently, 15 rupees are being paid for a liter. more..

Sep 8 (BG) Peel homicide investigators have identified a suspect in the shooting death of a Brampton woman in March, and they say he may have fled the country using a fake passport. Vijayarajah Manickavasagar, 23, of Toronto, is wanted for first-degree murder in the death of Amretta Singh, 20, who was shot through the door of her family's Sunforest Drive house. more..

Sep 8 (KT) Life would never have been same again for a 47-year-old Sri Lankan housemaid treated for mental disorder at Rashid Hospital, without the assistance of a compassionate and diligent police officer stationed at the Dubai International Airport. more..

Sep 8 (Reuters) Stocks fell on Wednesday as retailers sold property shares after the government reintroduced a 100 percent tax on some land and property transfers by foreigners, brokers said. The key Colombo all-share index fell a provisional 0.71 percent. The bourse has gained 32 percent so far this year. more..

Sep 8 (PSL) Sri Lanka’s government has earmarked almost 5 million rupees (about US$ 50,000) for the restoration of five churches damaged during the country’s 20-year civil war. Three parishes in Jaffna diocese and two in Mannar diocese will benefit from such funds. more..

Sep 8 (PSL) President Chandrika Kumaratunga today wrote to President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation expressing her shock and grief at the school siege in southern Russia, in which more than 330 people died last week. more..

Sep 8 (PIS) The Norwegian government said foreign investment and trade with Sri Lanka had gone down partly due to the stalled peace talks. Norway's Deputy Development Minister Olav Kjørven who is visiting Sri Lanka told that Oslo's private sector like that of any country would be interested in coming to Sri Lanka only when the peace talks resume. more..

Sep 8 (PIS) The LTTE yesterday sought a swap of the two homeguards held by it for two LTTE cadres in police custody in Ampara, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said. SLMM deputy chief Hagrup Haukland said the monitors were discussing the matter at a local level. more..

Sep 8 (Reuters) England and Sri Lanka will eye a possible Champions Trophy semi-final against Australia as they battle for top spot in Group D with a Zimbabwe side that has had its spine ripped out by internal politics. more..

Sep 8 (SMH) Test cricket's highest wicket-taker, Muttiah Muralitharan, was snubbed in a stunning judgement handed down by some of the biggest names in the game on Tuesday when the controversial spinner was omitted from the International Cricket Council's inaugural team of the year. The XI included Shane Warne. more..

Sep 8 (DN) Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama assured foreign investors that the reimposition of 100 per cent tax on land transactions by non-citizens will in no way discourage foreign investors in the country as it is only aimed at reimposing a law which prevailed until 2002. more..

Sep 8 (Reuters) Sri Lanka is sending 750 troops who waged war against the Tamil Tiger rebels to bolster peacekeeping efforts in Haiti, the army said on Wednesday, in the South Asian island’s first United Nations peace mission. more..

Sep 8 (HT) The dissident LTTE group, led by Karuna, on Wednesday over-ran a post of the mainstream LTTE in Pullimalai located in a LTTE - held area in Batticalao district, and killed three LTTE cadres, a military official told Hindustan Times. The official said that four to five other cadres were injured. more..

Sep 8 (AFP) Tamil Tiger rebels accused government forces of launching an attack against them in eastern Sri Lanka in one of the worst outbreaks of violence during the current ceasefire. The LTTE Wednesday said heavily armed men suspected to be army commandos mounted an attack overnight against one of their posts at Pullumalai, in Batticaloa district. more..

Sep 8 (HT) Bradman Weerakoon, International Affairs Advisor to former Sri Lankan President, R Premadasa, has cast doubts on the popular notion that it was the LTTE which assassinated the President. more..

Sep 8 (4NI) The Law Centre has appealed to Home Office Minister Des Browne to stop the deportation of a Sri Lankan man and his family who have been resident in Northern Ireland for move than three years. more..

Sep 9 (TN) More than one-fourth, about 18,666 vacancies are not filled in the the North East Provincial Council (NEPC), which administers eight districts of the province, Jaffna Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. more..

Sep 9 (TN) Major General Sunil Tennekoon, Jaffna area commander of the Sri Lanka Army met with the Jaffna Bishop Most Rev. Thomas Soundaranayagam at the Bishop's House Wednesday evening around 4.30 p.m. and discussed in detail on allowing prayers in churches which are located in the high security zones in the Jaffna district, more..

Sep 9 (ET) A former music teacher at an Edgware school has become the first person in the UK to be jailed for sex tourism, after he was caught trying to groom young Sri Lankan boys over the internet. more..

Sep 9 (ABC) Sri Lanka's President has vowed action against state employees who have encouraged get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, through which some 50-million US dollars has been siphoned out of the country. more..

Sep 9 (IFJ) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, has welcomed the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Commission finding against the government of Sri Lanka in its use of criminal defamation against a Sri Lankan editor. more..

Sep 9 (TN) Three-day awareness campaign of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which was scheduled to be held in the Trincomalee district on September 11,12 and 13, has been put off for a later date, TNA sources said Wednesday night. more..

Sep 9 (AT) When Colombo based foreign journalist asked President Chandrika Kumaratunga What is wrong in helping Karuna, she asked What is right in it? She emphasized Karuna is as much a terrorist as Prabhakaran. I don’t believe in any form of terrorism. more..

Sep 9 (Rupavahini) President Chandrika Kumaratunge has pledged not to privatize the public sector transport services in whatever manner. The president made this pledge when she met the chairmen, directors, managers and officials of the cluster bus companies at the presidents’ house today. more..

Sep 9 (Rupavahini) A parliamentarian of all shades has pledged not to give themselves a salary increase. Making a special statement in parliament today, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said that the reports published in this regard in the Lankadeepa and Daily Mirror newspapers were totally false. more..

Sep 9 (ET) Even as private airlines from India — Jet and Sahara — are trying to make their presence felt on the Chennai-Colombo sector, SriLankan Airlines is set to increase the frequency of its flights to India from the present 66 per week to 77 by mid-November. more..

Sep 9 (AT) LTTE will remain on that list of terrorist organizations as long as they do not negotiate in good faith in word and in deed, US Ambassador at Large, State Department Coordinator for Counter Terrorism J. Cofer Black said yesterday in Colombo. more..

Sep 9 (SN) District Judge of Mt Lavenia ordered yesterday Mr Nihal Tissa Wickremasinghe Editor of pro-JVP Lanka and Lanka Multi Publishers Limited to pay Rs 20 million to Mr Champika Ranawaka secretary of Jathika Hela Urumaya as compensation for the defamation caused by them. more..