Dec 27 (LM) A pro TNA / LTTE Tamil group has called on the public to declare a day of mourning for Joseph Pararajasingham the Batticoloa parliamentarian of the TNA who was gunned down by gunmen inside a Church on the day of Christmas. The group has requested all shop keepers to close their shops and hoist black flags in all buildings including houses as a mark of protest. more..

Dec 27 (BBC) A Hull woman has spent much of the past year in Sri Lanka helping animals in the wake of the devastating tsunami. Animal welfare worker Dawn Peacock, 26, flew out to see what help could be given to animals whose owners had died. more..

Dec 27 (LNP) The JHU yesterday condemned the assassination of TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham, alleging that it was an act by the LTTE to gain international sympathy by implicating the government. Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thera said parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham raised his voice for the Tamil Tigers` separatist movement both locally and internationally by justifying its cause. more..

Dec 27 (LNP) Taking into consideraton the problem of energy supply as a national priority the Minister of Power and Energy, W. D. J. Seneviratne, under the instructions of the President, has appointed an advisory board to take decisions based on legal policy planning, to solve the problem of energy supply in the future. more..

Dec 27 (LNP) The dastardly crime of assassinating TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham inside a church is shocking. It is nothing but an act of barbarism, which should be condemned unreservedly by one and all. A few criminals had found their way into the crowded St. Mary`s Cathedral, Batticaloa during the Christmas Mass in the early hours of Sunday, more..

Dec 27 (SAMN) Colombo’s Anglican Bishop Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera yesterday condemned the spree of killing in the North East and urged the government and the LTTE to open up talks soon. A statement issued by the Bishop office insisted that the stalemate over the location for talks should be ended immediately. more..

Dec 27 (SAMN) Minister of Power and Energy W. D. J. Seneviratne has directed the Ceylon Electricity Board to discontinue the services of a large number of private contractors providing services such as extending the existing power lines, removing trees and branches that obstruct power lines, etc. more..

Dec 27 (SAMN) Two special police units have been deployed to arrest ten senior police officers who became millionaires with the assistance of drug kingpins, police headquarters sources said yesterday. During the ‘Operation Clean up’, launched by the police narcotics unit, they found that leading drug peddlers had been backed and protected by ten top senior police officers. more..

Dec 27 (DN) The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation celebrates 80 years in 2005 - a historic landmark in the world of broadcasting. To this day the SLBC is the oldest and finest radio station in South Asia. Broadcasting on an experimental basis was started in Ceylon by the Telegraph Department in 1923, just three years after the inauguration of broadcasting in Europe. more..

Dec 27 (ANI) President Mahinda Rajapakse has arrived in India on a four-day state visit along with several of his Cabinet members, a couple of Members of Parliament and at least half-a-dozen heads of department and public sector undertakings. Rajpakse was received at the Air Force Station, Palam on the outskirts of the capital by several Government dignitaries. more..

Dec 27 (GI) Sri Lankan women light candles during a candle light memorial tsunami ceremony on December 26, 2005 in Unawatuna. One year ago the Asian tsunami's devastation effected 12 countries killing more than 200,000 people, more..

Dec 27 (UNHCR) "We lived happily together for 19 years before the break up. Now we're back together, it's just like the old days," said Faleela Hameed, recently reconciled with her husband, M.I Mohamed Mubarak. Now living together with their four children in a UNHCR transitional shelter in Chavalakadai, Ampara District more..

Dec 27 (Reuters) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse arrives in India on Tuesday to seek New Delhi's support for Colombo's flagging peace bid with the Tamil Tigers, but he is unlikely to meet with much success, officials and analysts said. more..

Dec 27 (CH) Alexandr Vetengl who was Czech diplomat in Sri Lanka at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s has been hiding in Sri Lanka from his family, business partners and debts, the daily the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes. Vetengl left for Sri Lanka a year ago as a member of a Czech humanitarian mission after the island was hit by a devastating tsunami. more..

Dec 27 (HT) President Mahinda Rajapaksa begins his four-day visit to New Delhi on Tuesady amid a dramatic upsurge in violence in his country that threatens to shatter the Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement. The visit, at the invitation of President APJ Abdul Kalam, is the first tour abroad by Rajapaksa after assuming office as the President of Sri Lanka. more..

Dec 27 (BBC) In his second report remembering the devastation caused by last year's tsunami, Iolo ap Dafydd looks at the impact on Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, like Thailand is fortunate that it is more well-known in Wales than India or Indonesia. This may seem a strange statement to make, as all these countries have suffered their worst natural disaster in living memory. more..

Dec 27 (HT) The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is being a "supreme pragmatist" by giving pride of place to India in his foreign policy, says Daily News the most widely read English language newspaper in Sri Lanka. more..

Dec 27 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's stock market fell sharply on Tuesday as a deadly new attack on the military by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels deepened fears of a return to civil war and kept big investors to the sidelines, traders said. Ten soldiers were killed in the island's far north on Tuesday in the second deadly claymore attack in less than a week. more..

Dec 27 (HT) Even as the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrives here seeking a more active Indian mediation in the peace talks with LTTE rebels, analysts here are doubtful of any positive outcome. According to Colonel R Hariharan, counter-insurgency expert, "undoubtedly, Rajapaksa's planned visit to India is threatened by the worsening "ceasefire situation. more..

Dec 27 (Reuters) An elderly woman cries during a tsunami victim's burial at a graveyard in Manalkadu village, northern Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka December 26, 2005. more..

Dec 27 (Reuters) Fuelling fears of a return to civil war, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed 10 soldiers in the island's far north on Tuesday in the second mine attack in less than a week, the military said. The blast followed a string of guerrilla ambushes on the military and the assassination of a pro-rebel member of parliament at a Christmas mass that are straining a 2002 truce to breaking point. more..

Dec 27 (HT) The LTTE believes that with the growing importance of regionalism in India, and the increasing clout of regional parties in the central cabinet of ministers in New Delhi, the Government of India will have to listen to it. This belief was expressed by the LTTE's ideologue, KV Balakumaran, more..

Dec 28 (BBC) International truce monitors in Sri Lanka have described the volatile situation in the Jaffna peninsula as ‘Very dangerous’. Hagrup Haukland, head of SLMM said the bombings and shooting in the recent weeks were ‘pushing hard’ the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) signed in 2002 between the government and the Tamil Tigers. more..

Dec 28 (WS) Mahindagamanaya, Mahindachintanaya are matters of the past, but let us dwell on it for a while as a curtain raiser. Thirty seven years is a lot of time, that's about half of today's life expectancy. Mahinda has come a long way gathering a lot of experience with a balanced approach with friends on both sides without loosing his moustache, that is why people call him street wise. more..

Dec 28 (WS) After the Duraiappah murder Prabhakaran hid himself in a few houses that belonged to his friends and relatives in the Jaffna town, making his entry and exit in to those houses as unobtrusively as possible. As usual he was however paranoid about his security and he wouldn't even step out of the house to go to the toilet located outside. more..

Dec 28 (AT) Naththal Nadagama produced by Jackson Anthony and televised over Swarnavahini on the 24th December was a treat to watch and is a far cry from the aping of western Christian drama by our vernacular educated Catholics: why should we eastern Christians ape the west in celebrating Christmas or as a matter of fact any other Christian drama when Jesus Christ himself is an easterner? more..

Dec 28 (AT) Undoubtedly LTTE has covertly declared a war on the Sri Lanka Government. The LTTE’s belligerent campaign has taken the propensity of an undeclared war. It all started in earnest when on 4th December this year; LTTE activated a claymore mine killing seven soldiers on a tractor at Kondavil, in Jaffna. more..

Dec 28 (TN) Three fishermen who went to Mannar seas for fishing last Thursday and four other persons, including three who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA)in various parts of Jaffna, have been reported missing in Jaffna. more..

Dec 28 (GI) 82-years-old S. Danapala sits in the ruins of his home, destroyed by the Tsunami that he is rebuilding along with his son on December 27, 2005 in Rathgama, Sri Lanka. more..

Dec 28 (CSM) Escalating violence in Sri Lanka involving government forces and separatist rebels has raised fears that the island could return to civil war. International pressure is intensifying for immediate peace talks. At least 40 Sri Lankan Army and Navy personnel have been killed so far this month - including 10 Tuesday - more..

Dec 28 (BP) Silva wants his daughter to remember Dec. 26, 2004, to know for certain her young life is a miracle for which he is forever grateful. “I want her to know how her mother [saved] her in the tsunami -– not her father, because I was away,” he said. more..

Dec 28 (TO) Twelve months after the tsunami brought unimagined misery to large parts of Sri Lanka, disaster threatens the island again. The guns of the country’s civil war have been officially stilled since the ceasefire brokered in 2002. more..

Dec 28 (NYT) Today, a landmine attack killed 11 soldiers on the northern Jaffna peninsula, while a policeman was killed patrolling the eastern town of Kalmunai; both attacks were blamed on the ethnic separatist LTTE. Early on Sunday, a pro-rebel parliamentarian was assassinated during Christmas Mass at a Roman Catholic service in Batticaloa, more..

Dec 28 (Hindu) The CWC — a key minority party representing Plantation Tamils — will extend issue-based support to President Mahinda Rajapakse, its leader, Arumugan Thondaman said on Tuesday. Mr. Thondaman elaborated on his party's relationship with the new Government, his recent talks with the LTTE and the expectations of the plantation Tamils from the Government. more..

Dec 28 (Hindu) FOR A quick take on how much India matters to Sri Lanka, look no further than the planner of every new government that takes office in Colombo. Undeterred by editorial writers in the Sri Lankan press railing against "paying pooja to the Delhi maligawa [temple]," the first foreign visits of newly elected Sri Lankan leaders are inevitably to New Delhi. more..

Dec 28 (AT) The newly appointed ministers of the Sri Lankan government have come up with some positive plans to boost the economy and increase job oriented industries to overcome unemployment in Sri Lanka. more..

Dec 28 (AT) The Central Bank has introduced a new loan scheme for tsunami affected small business ventures. The loan scheme is being carried out in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme and several other banks and financial institutions. more..

Dec 28 (AT) "The focus now has to be on the need to stop the bloodshed and prevent further loss of life. The CFA must be upheld to prevent the further escalation of violence," emphasized Erik Solheim, Norway’s Minister of International Development and formerly the Special Envoy involved with the facilitation of the peace process more..

Dec 28 (TP) The Examinations Department has started investigations against a principal of a top school in Ratnapura for allegedly helping his daughter to cheat at the recent GCE Ordinary Level Examinations. A Department spokesman said the principal who supervised the exam centre which his daughter too attended, had allegedly threatened invigilators and assisted her to cheat. more..

Dec 28 (TP) Five liquor and tobacco companies on Monday filed petitions before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions of a new Bill titled National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol. more..

Dec 28 (Bloomberg) Sri Lanka's cease-fire agreement with Tamil Tiger rebels is being eroded by increasing violence, including the deaths of 24 soldiers in the past five days, the U.S. State Department said. more..

Dec 28 (TW) Were there to be any doubt that the ceasefire has been violated beyond credibility and relevance for some time, the horrific and egregious murder of Joseph Pararajasingham on Christmas Day and the attack on the bus which killed 13 navy personnel, must surely put those doubts to rest. more..

Dec 28 (BBC) Maria Lucia surveys the tin shed that is her temporary home and then shrugs her shoulders in despair. For the past three hours she's been bailing out floodwater from inside the basic single-room structure using a pot normally used to cook rice. more..

Dec 28 (Reuters) A Sri Lankan government soldier walks on a street in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka. Fuelling fears of a return to civil war, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed 10 soldiers in the island's far north on Tuesday more..

Dec 28 (TO) THE fragile peace process in Sri Lanka was in jeopardy last night after suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked government troops for the second time in a matter of days, killing 11 soldiers and wounding 12 others, including eight civilians. more..

Dec 28 (LeN) The vast majority of high ranking police officers in charge of Colombo range are corrupt individuals who maintain close links with drug dealers and underworld kingpins, a senior official of the Defense Minsitry told 'Lanka e News'. more..

Dec 28 (LeN) Fuel stations run by Indian Oil Company have suspended the sale of kerosene. Kerosene is heavily subsided in Sri Lanka and the Company alleges that the government has failed to settle the subsidy. A liter of kerosene is purchased at Rs. 48 but sold between Rs 25- 27 and the Company incurs a loss of 21 rupees from each liter of kerosene. more..

Dec 28 (TN) Unidentified armed men forced into the parking garage located close to the offices of Halo Trust, located at the junction of Nallur Cross Street and Navalar Road, and drove away two vehicles belonging to the NGO after tying the guards Tuesday afternoon, sources in Jaffna said. more..

Dec 28 (LeN) The Jathika Hela Urumaya has emphatically stated that it is unbecoming of a leader committed to peace and elected to power through a democratic consensus to further tolerate unilateral attacks committed by the LTTE on the security forces violating the cease fire agreement. more..

Dec 28 (ANN) The US had declined to join the Tokyo co-chairs (EU, Japan and Norway) delegation that visited Kilinochchi last Saturday (Dec 24) in the backdrop of stepped-up terrorist attacks since the Nov 17 presidential polls. more..