Apr 30 (AT) The National Bhikku Front, an affiliated body of the government's main ally JVP, has warned that they would not allow Norwegian Special Peace Envoy Eric Solhiem to visit Sri Lanka again , until such time he stops issuing onesided bias statements on the proposed Joint Mechanism issue. more..

Apr 30 (AT) Dharmaratnam Sivaram was way above the run-of-the-mill journalists working in Grub Street. He was a leading Tamil intellectual who is the latest to sacrifice his life in a beastly war that nobody wants to continue, except those who thrive in it. more..

Apr 30 (AT) Vimukthi Jayasundara, the second Sri Lankan Filmmaker to be honoured at the International Cannes Film Festival after Dr.Lester James Peries . However, there were no Indian and no other South Asian entries selected this year, says the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival. more..

Apr 30 (CPJ) The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brutal killing of leading Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram, who was abducted yesterday and found dead this morning near the capital, Colombo, from gunshot wounds to the head. more..

Apr 30 (RW) As part of its operations in Sri Lanka to assist those affected by the devastating tsunami last December, IOM is helping survivors to regain a livelihood. In the eastern district of Batticaloa, a group of widows are again able to earn money by weaving mats. more..

Apr 30 (AKI) Life is slowly getting back to normal in the farming communities of northern Sri Lanka which had been torn apart by the 19-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, which were fighting for a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north-east of Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 30 (AFP) Sri Lanka plans to raise up to $250 million for tsunami reconstruction through a dollar-denominated bond issue, officials said Friday. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said the bond issue of between $150 million to $250 million will carry a two-year maturity period. more..

Apr 30 (TN) Mark Whitaker, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Carolina, Aiken, U.S.A, is completing an intellectual biography of Dharmeratnam Sivaram’s life and work in a book entitled “Learning Politics from Sivaram.” Prof. Whitaker summarizes Sivaram’s life and work in this feature. more..

Apr 30 (SAMN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga said Friday the LTTE had softened its stand in seeking a Joint Mechanism to distribute tsunami aid and it would be a major set back if the government did not agree. more..

Apr 30 (SAMN) The Central Bank revealed Friday that for the first time in the country's history, per capita income had topped the US$ 1,000 mark though prosperity is largely confined to the Western Province. more..

Apr 30 (TN) Accusing Sri Lanka military intelligence, and para-militaries collaborating with security forces as responsible for murdering Taraki D Sivaram, the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers in a press release issued from Vanni Friday said, more..

Apr 30 (SLA) The countdown to the departure of the Haiti-bound second UN contingent of the Sri Lanka Army began Friday (29) morning after soldiers of the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (SLSR) symbolically received the National Flag, United Nations flag, the Army one and the Regimental flag at a brief ceremony at Ambepussa, more..

Apr 30 (SLA) Both Officers and Soldiers of the Army, as thousands of other government servants did elsewhere, joined a full two-day long Shramadana campaign (voluntary community work) at Army Headquarters beginning Thursday (28) morning. more..

Apr 30 (LM) While recent doings of the government are aimed at the Presidential election; people in Eastern Sri Lanka are frustrated and disappointed. Their constant plea is the lack of post Tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction said Hakeem at the opening ceremony of the Ashroff memorial clinic in Udugoda, Atanagalla last Friday (29. more..

Apr 30 (LBO) The Sri Lankan government is planning a fresh round of US$ 250 million commercial dollar borrowing this year to plug gaps in the budget without putting too much pressure on domestic markets. more..

Apr 30 (LT) International Non Governmental Organisations (INGO’s) are developing their basic amenities and thriving on the monies channeled by people in various countries in the world for the provision of relief aid to tsunami affected people in Asian countries including Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 30 (LT) The second in command of the Eastern Tigers’ Organization (Karuna Faction), Parathi and one other person who was with him are reported to have been taken into custody with the intervention of a sergeant of the Ampara Police. more..

Apr 30 (SN) The government should immediately build houses and provide complete relief to the Tsunami Victims, instead of engaging in a "Novel Tsunami Mechanism", to bring relief. These were the kind words of advice and Buddhist Wisdom, offered to the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, more..

Apr 30 (KT) Sri Lanka will experiment some young cricketers in the tsunami relief triangular for the Zayed Cup here to officially inaugurate the Zayed stadium starting tomorrow. Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu leading the island nation in the unofficial day-night games more..

Apr 30 (TN) International Federation of Tamils (IFT) The purported murder was committed in a High Security Zone which is under the constant and vigilant protection of the Security Forces of the Sri Lankan government. more..

Apr 30 (ZN) Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran is in Sri Lanka on a four-day visit during which he will meet Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and other leaders to discuss the entire gamut of biltareral ties. more..

Apr 30 (SAMN) Some 26 Sinhala and Muslim undergraduates selected to the Jaffna University Medical Faculty urged the government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) to transfer them to the southern universities, citing security reasons. more..

Apr 30 (WP) Four months after the tsunami, Ranga Krishnarajan is not entirely back on his feet. But at least he's back in the kitchen. A gentle, soft-spoken man whose shy smile is partly hidden by an unruly beard, Krishnarajan barely escaped with his life when the ocean rolled inland last Dec. 26, more..

Apr 30 (SAMN) Although May Day is the day of the working class the question as to whether this day should be allocated solely to shout sensational slogans on behalf of the working class should be taken into serious consideration, the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said in his May Day Message. more..

Apr 30 (LNP) Upcountry Peoples` Front leader Periyathambi Chandrasekaran on Thursday said that his party and fellow citizens are doubtful whether the proposed university at the Uva Province will benefit the Tamil community. more..

Apr 30 (LNP) Alawwa police arrested the crew of another private bus, carrying over 100 passengers, which tried to zigzag through the Yangal Oya railway level crossing on Thursday (28), where, only the previous day, 37 passengers died when a bus was rammed by the intercity express train. more..

Apr 30 (LNP) Mrs. Yogarani Dharmaratnam, wife of journalist Sivaram Dharamaratnam, who was at the Police Morgue yesterday (29) to identify the body of her slain husband, told `The Island` that Sivaram did not have any enemies. more..

Apr 30 (BBC) I was visiting friends with my family when the call came through. It was around 10pm in London. We had to cut short the visit and rush home. My 11 year old son was not happy to go home as he had to leave his playmates. "What is going on?" more..

Apr 30 (HT) The LTTE has blamed the intelligence wing of the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil paramilitaries working with it, for the killing of top Tamil journalist, Dharmaretnam Sivaram alias Taraki, in Colombo on Thursday. more..

Apr 30 (IANS) Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran arrived here Saturday for talks that will discuss, among other things, the Sethusamudram canal project between the countries. Saran will discuss the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project, that involves creation of a navigable channel by India through the Gulf of Mannar to the Bay of Bengal through the Palk Strait. more..