Apr 12 (DN) A decision was taken at a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday to set up a new Company linking it with Sathosa to ensure that essential goods are sold at a reasonable price to the consumer. more..

Apr 12 (CI) Lou Vincent and Stephen Fleming strengthened New Zealand's grip on the second Test on a day that started under clear autumn skies and ended 16 overs early after a thick fog enveloped Wellington. Sri Lanka may hope it lingers because New Zealand, who finished on 253 for 4, more..

Apr 12 (AFP) Court of Appeal has prevented sports minister Jeevan Kumaratunga from dismissing office bearers of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), officials said. The court issued an order Monday restraining the minister from taking any action against the cricket governing body which he suspended last month, more..

Apr 12 (HT) The LTTE has re-established top-level links with South Africa. The Leader of the outfit's political wing, SP Tamilselvan, met the South African Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, in Durban on Monday. more..

Apr 12 (AP) A Tamil lawmaker wants the Sri Lankan government to arrange transportation for returning refugees who fled to neighboring India during the island nation's two-decade civil war, a Tamil Web site reported Tuesday. more..

Apr 12 (LM) The Jathika Hela Urumaya organized a rally today (12'th) which they claimed was a protesting against Rauff Hakeem , Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. Slogans and speeches at the protest accused Mr Hakeem of destroying Sinhalese heritage in Eastern Sri Lanka and polarizing the Muslim community to resort to extremism. more..

Apr 13 (TN) Several hundred residents of Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district held a protest march Monday morning demanding the establishment of ISGA for the northeast and joint mechanism for implementing relief and rehabilitation programme for tsunami affected people, more..

Apr 13 (TN) Sri Lanka’s main press watchdog, Free Media Movement FMM, Tuesday expressed grave concern that a speech by Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of the JV), could incite violence against journalists and media institutions. more..

Apr 13 (LM) The main Muslim ally of the Government has condemned TNA Parliament Group Leader R. Sampanthan’s recent statement that ‘Muslims have not earned the right to become party to a settlement in the peace process’. Deputy Leader of the National Unity Alliance M. Abul Kalam reacting to the TNA statement termed it as ‘illogical and unfair’. more..

Apr 13 (LM) The Army soldier, who was kidnapped by the LTTE but later released, has sustained severe injuries after Tiger Cadres inhumanely assaulted the Army Sergeant. Army officials claimed that, “the LTTE torture unleashed on the soldier made seven nasty gashes on the soldier’s head and body, which had to be medically treated upon his release on Sunday. more..

Apr 13 (LM) Due to the non implementation of the coal fired power plant, Sri Lanka is currently losing an astounding Rs. 22 Million Daily. This was revealed by Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) General Manager Ranjith Fonseka to the media yesterday afternoon. more..

Apr 13 (BBC) Attorney General's Department is to take legal action against ASP Ranmal Kodituwakku for allegedly arresting and torturing of Nimal Silva Gunaratne of Panadura, Solicitor General, C.R.de Silva told reporter K.S.Udayakumar. Nimal Gunaratne was arrested by the police in June 2000 but upto now no case has been filed against him. more..

Apr 13 (BBC) Human rights organisations expressed fear that the country is once again heading towards an era of terror. Complaints against Sri Lanka’s police force of killing and torturing suspects while in custody are disturbingly increasing, they pointed out. more..

Apr 13 (BBC) Central Bank says the petorl and diesel prices will go up shortly. "Essentially, the fuel prices should go up", says W.A.Wijewardena, Senior Deputy Governor of the Central Bank commenting on bank's latest monetary policy review. more..

Apr 13 (AT) Deputy Defence and Buddha Sasana Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake warned that certain elements were sending `feelers’ on the possibility of resuming fighting in the North. Abducting soldiers, shooting at them and other ceasefire violations were an indication of this dangerous trend. more..

Apr 13 (AT) The local business community said that they have found the post-tsunami reconstruction work in Sri Lanka to be moving at a very slow pace, and has called for the setting up of co-ordination mechanisms at the provincial level to speed up the process. more..

Apr 13 (ANN) Apart from articulating long term plans to meet the power crisis, officials of the Ministry of Power and Energy were totally void of ideas to contain or address the immediate crisis in fuel imports, and escalating cost of electricity. more..

Apr 13 (AT) The National Citizens Committee- NCC has organized a Public commission on judicial reforms to inquire public views on Sri Lanka’s judicial system and activities of the local courts. The NCC was formed by local intellectuals and Professionals of Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 13 (LNP) The STF has bared an LTTE fraud involving the production of new National Identity Cards where the names of the LTTE cadres, who had perished in the tsunami disaster, were replaced with Sinhala names. more..

Apr 13 (LNP) The police have cracked a racket involving an organised gang specialised in stealing vehicles from car parks, particularly at leading Colombo private hospitals. The gang had used, what DIG Jayantha Wickremaratne termed as, a master key bought from Singapore to start parked vehicles and drive them away. more..

Apr 13 (SAMN) The Government has changed tax laws due to a number of Sri Lankan's living abroad expressing interest to work in Sri Lanka and and give us the benefit of their experience and knowledge. more..

Apr 13 (SAMN) In a National New Year attack, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Tuesday accused the government of deceiving a heavily burdened people, by advertising false price lists for essential items. more..

Apr 13 (SAMN) Human rights lawyers and civic action groups Tuesday accused the government of setting a dangerous trend by pushing through general bills as urgent bills without giving the people a chance to scrutinize them and petition the Supreme Court on any ill-effects before they become law. more..

Apr 13 (TN) About three hundred members of sixty four Tamil families in Salli, a fishing hamlet, eleven km off north of Trincomalee town Tuesday morning held a protest that the Sri Lanka government has not provided any relief after tsunami destroyed their fishing boats and houses. more..

Apr 13 (TN) LTTE Political Head Mr. S.P.Thamilchelvan and his delegation met Tuesday Human rights activist, Nobel laureate and Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa in Cape Town. more..

Apr 13 (CI) Prasanna Jayawardene and Jehan Mubarak ran into form at a crucial juncture and steered Sri Lanka A to an imposing position at the end of an absorbing third day of the second Test at Dambulla. more..

Apr 13 (CI) The government is preparing to restructure the state-owned oil and electricity corporations despite the opposition of workers in these sectors. The ruling UPFA was only able to avert all-out industrial action in late March with the assistance of trade union leaders and the JVP, which is a member of the UPFA coalition. more..

Apr 13 (SLA) LTTE and its bona fides are once again called into question in many a concerned quarter after nine armed LTTE men on Saturday (9) abducted an Army Sergeant in Trincomalee and caused injuries to him before he was released the following day as a result of the enormous pressure placed on LTTE. more..

Apr 13 (RW) Children in tsunami-affected districts across Sri Lanka have returned to school - some to the few schools that were left undamaged, while others attending makeshift schools until more permanent structures can be built. more..

Apr 13 (ANN) The air is filled with festivity and shops overflow with goodies. Streets are chock-a-block with thronging crowds on a spending spree with profligacy oozing from every pore. The smell of sweet meats pervades the air and titillates nostrils from cadjan huts knocked up opposite super markets. more..

Apr 13 (PIS) President Chandrika Kumaratunga, in a new year message, extolled the nation to resolve with determination to rebuild and restore peace and prosperity while letting bygones be bygones. In her message the President says, more..

Apr 13 (CI) Lou Vincent's magnificent 224, the seventh-highest Test score by a New Zealander, left Sri Lanka looking down the barrel of a series defeat as their opponents piled up a mountainous 522 for 9. Chris Martin then added to Sri Lanka's misery by firing out Sanath Jayasuriya to leave them in desperate trouble on 10 for 1, more..

Apr 13 (DN) The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL) has received and followed up on 268 complaints and communications during its first 14 months. Out of them 245 complaints have been resolved and 23 unresolved. more..

Apr 13 (LNP) Former Defence Minister Tilak Marapana yesterday dismissed claims that the LTTE had built an operational airstrip by the time President Chandrika Kumaratunga stripped him of the Defence portfolio in early November 2003 during the Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA). more..

Apr 13 (AP) A senior U.S. official will be visiting Sri Lanka next week amid stalled efforts to restart peace talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said Wednesday. Details of Christina Rocca's visit, which starts next Tuesday, weren't immediately known, more..

Apr 13 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka Army has complained to the international truce monitors that the Tamil Tigers had fired mortars which landed near a military camp in the Eastern Province. Military officials in the eastern port town of Trincomalee said that the LTTE fired two mortars from the rebel controlled area of Thoppur midday Tuesday. more..

Apr 13 (Xinhua) India has given the greenlight to a proposed joint tsunami-relief mechanism to be entered between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers, a report here said Wednesday. more..

Apr 13 (HT) India must help solve the Sri Lankan ethnic question, a major security issue in its backyard, to demonstrate its credentials to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a leading Sri Lankan political commentator has said. more..

Apr 14 (TN) Responding to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) statement that pieces of artillery shells fired by LTTE fell on the army controlled area where Thoppur army camp is located, Mr.S.Elilan said Wednesday, "LTTE cadres conducted normal military training in our controlled area in the Muttur east in the Trincomalee district on Tuesday morning," more..

Apr 14 (TN) Trincomalee Economic Consultancy House (TECH) in collaboration with a non-governmental organization "SUSTAIN-United Kingdom" distributed ten sewing machines to women who lost their husbands in the tsunami disaster in the Muttur east villages. more..

Apr 14 (TN) Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has taken steps to verify if relief and other related assistance are equitably distributed to victims of war and tsunami disaster sheltered in several welfare centres in the Jaffna district, civil society sources said. more..

Apr 14 (BS) Sri Lanka is not too keen on setting up its 300 mw power plant in collaboration with state owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Sources involved with the development said, “Sri Lankan officials have developed a cold feet for the joint venture with NTPC and they did not seem to be keen on setting up the plant in collaboration with us.” more..

Apr 14 (REA) The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) of Australia has approved partial financing toward the AUD $21.2 million (US $16.5 million) project to supply 5,000 of the irrigation systems to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation. more..

Apr 14 (BBC) Sri Lanka’s tsunami refugees said Thursday's Sinhala, Tamil new year is just another day as they have no facilities to celebrate the most important family event of the year. Sudharma Niroshinee, a mother of two, lives in a tsunami refugee camp in Egoda Uyana, Moratuwa, said the refugees are only focussed on surviving rather than celebrating. more..

Apr 14 (BBC) International Monitory Fund (IMF) announced that an emergency assistance of US$157.5 million was approved for Sri Lanka in March for tsunami reconstruction work. “The approved amount became available immediately,” IMF said. IMF said Sri Lanka’s recovery however could take much longer than expected. more..

Apr 14 (PTI) Sri Lanka has thanked Pakistan for providing training to its military personnel and assistance during "moments of great distress". Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar thanked Islamabad for its assistance when a 17-member delegation from the Pakistan National Defence College called on him on Monday, more..

Apr 14 (AT) Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves continued to show an unusually healthy position due to increase of inflow. In addition to the garment export earnings and increase in remittances from expatriate Sri Lankan workers, the country received a sudden boost due to influx of hard currency after the tsunami tragedy on December 26, 2004. more..

Apr 14 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga called on nationals to shed all differences and resolve to rebuild the nation in unity as the country began to celebrate its traditional New Year on Wednesday. more..

Apr 14 (TP) Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan wants to come back to Sri Lanka, despite the terrifying experience on his last visit when bombs were thrown at a concert where he was performing. He told the Island newspaper in an interview in Mumbai that he enjoyed his stay in Colombo in spite of the incident. more..

Apr 14 (TN) Mercy Ships International with other international non-government organizations, Education For Service (EFS) and Peace and Hope Trust (UK) distributed six fishing boats and outboard motor engines to tsunami affected fishermen of Pallathoddam, Nilaveli, Selvanayakapuram and Sambalthivu, coastal suburbs of the east port town. more..