Dec 30 (AT) The Environment Foundation Ltd (EFL) has called upon the Sri Lankan Government and the international community to identify, recognize and address the serious issues regarding the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and to make the public privy to all the available scientific knowledge regarding the possible risks associated with them. more..

Dec 30 (ISL) The Sri Lanka Democracy forum in press release said that the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE must immediately halt violence to ensure the lasting peace in the North East areas. more..

Dec 30 (UNI) The Dravida Kazhagam today urged the Manmohan Singh led UPA government not to provide any assistance to the Sri Lankan government saying it would go against the interests of the Eelam Tamils. more..

Dec 30 (AT) Questions are raised in Batticalao as well as in the East, about the plight of Ilanthirayan (Marshall) alias Irasiah, who was LTTE’s the political disvison head for Amparai – Batticaloa districts. There is already a grave suspicion looming that he has been dumped after taking him for an inquiry to Vanni by Pottu Amman’s intelligence operatives. more..

Dec 30 (AT) The Jaffna University Students Union has given an ultimatum to President Mahinda Rajapakse that they will take the law into their own hands, if the Government fails to immediately withdraw the military from civilian habitats and educational institutions in the North. more..

Dec 30 (AT) President Mahinda Rajapakse is returning home tomorrow with a brief stop over in Kochi to pay his obeisance at the famous Guruvayoor temple amidst indications that he has relented to let Oslo play host to peace talks next month. more..

Dec 30 (LeN) An influential group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party provincial councilors of the Western Provincial Council is to appeal to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to remove Chief Minister Reginald Cooray, as the party would struggle at the next provincial council elections under his leadership. more..

Dec 30 (LT) Placing a sovereign state and a murderous terrorist organization on an equal status for emphasizing certain facts by Mr. Erik Solheim in his communiqué of 27th instant is detestable states the JVP in a communiqué. more..

Dec 30 (LT) Several leading Indian companies have expressed their desire to invest in Sri Lanka. Among them are several companies dealing in electronics, electricals and power. They expressed their desire to invest at a summit presided by President Mahinda Rajapakse. more..

Dec 30 (GU) A new tsunami is gathering force in Sri Lanka. A country which lost over 35,000 people in last year's catastrophe is facing a disaster which could dwarf that death toll. Yet the looming threat has hardly been noticed by the outside world. more..

Dec 30 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan police and the Tamil Tiger rebels had been involved in an exchange of fire in the northern Jaffna peninsula, defense officials said Friday. The police station at Kodikamam in Jaffna came under fire at around 8:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) Thursday. more..

Dec 30 (Reuters) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels fired at police in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north before dawn on Friday, the military said, as Norway's top peace envoy planned to visit the island amid surging fears of a return to civil war. more..

Dec 30 (SLA) A cordon and search operation was immediately launched in ARSADY junction area close to JAFFNA Hindu College after suspected Tamil Tigers (LTTE) opened fire on a group of soldiers carrying lunch to their colleagues this afternoon (30) at about 2.15 p.m.. more..

Dec 30 (SLA) HUNDREDS OF AGITATORS in the general area of TRINCOMALEE town on Thursday (29) morning staged a protest campaign to condemn continuing LTTE (Tamil Tiger) atrocities against the Sinhala community living in those areas. more..

Dec 30 (SLA) PROVOCATIVE LTTE (TAMIL TIGER) TERRORIST ACTS, GRENADE AND FIRE ATTACKS and other atrocities against members of the Security Forces, Policemen, political activists and civilians seem to be the order of the day for LTTE cadres in some parts of the north and east of the country, irrespective of numerous appeals made to Tamil Tigers (LTTE) for restraint. more..

Dec 30 (ISL) Several Tamils living in Denmark expressed their disappointment on the recent escalation of violence in Northern Sri Lanka. Seetha Raman, a student from Denmark said that the violence would undermine the ceasefire. She told The Independent newswire that LTTE had told the final battle to capture Jaffna is ongoing and predicted heavy civilian causalities. more..

Dec 30 (CT) Ex-Socialist politician and present Labour Minister of Sri Lanka Athauda Senaviratne says that 83 year old labour laws will be amended and new laws would be introduced to streamline employee-employer related issues. During the British regime British rulers brought a set of law to administer the local labour sector. more..

Dec 30 (LT) A plan is being launched in the endangered villages in North and East by certain NGOs that a war will be started soon. The Wanni tiger affiliated NGOs are further spreading that the security forces are not strong enough to defeat the tigers in a war. more..

Dec 30 (GI) A woman studies earthenware pots displayed by a vendor at a roadside stall in Colombo. Many Sri Lankans use new utentsils to prepare their first meal of the New Year as the Central Bank reported a better than expected 6.4 percent economic growth more..

Dec 30 (LT) It is reported that the Police is taking only the ‘sprats’ into custody leaving the ‘seer fish’ in connection with the illegal heroine business. According to the Narcotics Bureau of the Police a large number of police officers in the Colombo District have relationships with the heroin businessmen. more..

Dec 30 (LBO) “It was noted that India has made an initial allocation of a Credit Line of US$ 100 million for the integrated development of the Colombo – Matara rail network,” said a joint press statement on Friday, on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Indian visit from December 27 – 30. more..

Dec 30 (LBO) A long overdue project to modernize hydrographic maps of the sea around Sri Lanka has been bogged down for more than a year, after the research ship used in the venture was caught and destroyed in the December 26th tsunami. more..

Dec 30 (LM) President Mahinda Rajapakse has reiterated that his government would give top priority and its fullest commitment to develop a broad consensus for devolving maximum power within a unitary state as a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict. more..

Dec 30 (PIS) My government is determined to take the peace process forward in an all inclusive and transparent manner. We will do so through a consultation process involving all concerned parties and stake holders, said President Mahinda Rajapakse at the special banquet hosted by the President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam in honour of the visiting Sri Lankan President. more..

Dec 30 (PIS) The LTTE has embarked upon a strategy to create a war psychosis in the minds of the people in the North and the East by senseless killings, the Communist Party said on Wednesday. "This trend of violence frustrates the aspirations of the peace-loving people and provokes the security for a for retaliation," more..

Dec 30 (SAMN) President Mahinda Rajapakse extended an invitation to Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi to attend the first Rajiv Gandhi memorial oration to be held in Sri Lanka next year. He extended the invitation to Sonia Gandhi, when she called on him at the Rashtrapathi Bhawan. more..

Dec 30 (SAMN) The Finance Ministry has sent instructions to Cabinet Ministers to use the vehicles that were given to them when they were ministers in the earlier regime and not to look forward to acquiring new vehicles in the new ministries allocated to them. more..

Dec 30 (SAMN) The duty reduction on paper imports will lead to the demise of National Paper Corporation, the oldest national industry of Sri Lanka started as far back as 1932 a press release by Dr. Ajanatha Perera Founder National Programme on Recycling Solid Waste said on Wednesday (28). more..

Dec 30 (LNP) Several Sinhala and Muslim undergrads of the Vavuniya campus of Jaffna University on Wednesday staged a walkout from the campus premises, despite ongoing examinations, claiming the escalating violence in the North posed a threat to their studies and lives. more..

Dec 30 (LNP) A massive fraud involving sewing machines purchased by the Colombo Municipal Council, for distribution amongst the needy, was uncovered recently by the Modera Police. Acting on a tip off, the police raided a place in Kiribathgoda where negotiations were being carried out for the sale of 110 machines. more..

Dec 30 (DN) Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka following his visit to Jaffna in the wake of the recent claymore mine attack on Army personnel in Puloli West, has strengthened manpower and transport requirements to facilitate clearing operations to round up those responsible for the violent acts in the peninsula. more..

Dec 30 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's economic growth picked up in the third quarter to its fastest annual pace in more than a year, boosted by services and industry, prompting the central bank to raise its expectations for 2005 expansion. The central bank said gross domestic product in the third quarter rose 6.4 percent over a year earlier, more..

Dec 30 (AP) European truce monitors warned that a return to civil war may not be far away as Sri Lanka's military announced it recovered four anti-personnel mines set to explode near passing military convoys. "If this trend of violence is allowed to continue, war may not be far away," more..

Dec 30 (KT) SRI LANKA has sought India’s help in resolving the Tamil question. President Mahinda Rajapakse has reached out to the big neighbour by visiting New Delhi this week after his election last month. Rajapakse is keen that India should involve itself in international efforts to resolve the conflict with the Tamil separatists. more..

Dec 30 (HT) The India-Sri Lanka Joint Statement issued at the end of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's four day visit to India on Friday, hints that Rajapaksa may be moving away from his fixation about finding a solution to the ethnic conflict within a "unitary" state, to considering some federal options. more..

Dec 30 (DNA) India on Friday repeated its support for Sri Lanka's peace process but skirted a request by visiting President Mahinda Rajapakse to play a greater role in helping end conflict in the troubled island. more..

Dec 30 (IANS) Following is the joint statement issued by India and Sri Lanka Friday at the end of President Mahinda Rajapakse's state visit: 1. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka, and Shiranthi Rajapaksa paid a state visit to India from Dec 27-30, 2005, at the invitation of the President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. more..

Dec 30 (AFP) The main Marxist backers of Sri Lanka's president have asked him to reconsider the role of a Norwegian minister who urged the government and Tamil Tigers to meet urgently for peace talks. more..

Dec 30 (IANS) President Mahinda Rajapakse flew out from here Friday after hearing from India that the best way to end the bloody ethnic conflict in the island was to embrace federalism - a dirty word for many in his country. more..

Dec 30 (AFP) A depleted New Zealand and out-of-form Sri Lanka are playing for more than a simple win in the one-day cricket series starting here Saturday, knowing defeat could deny them direct entry into the ICC Champions Trophy in India. more..

Dec 31 (HT) President Mahinda Rajapakse’s visit to India will have served its purpose if it prompts the early resumption of the stalled peace process in the island. Mr Rajapakse had wide-ranging talks on ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields, particularly in business. more..

Dec 31 (AT) Bishops who met the media persons in Kilinochchi were nonplussed when questioned why they were reluctant in issuing a press statement condemning the killing of Joseph Pararajasingham, a Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament. more..

Dec 31 (AT) Any reading of the events in Sri Lanka since the Presidential elections in September, and particularly the fast deteriorating security situation in the North and the East, would warn any independent observer that a futile and a brutal war again is imminent in the Island Nation. more..

Dec 31 (Hindu) In a wide-ranging joint statement, which seeks to catalyse a broader economic relationship between the two countries, India and Sri Lanka reiterated their support for — and commitment to — the embattled peace process in the island nation more..

Dec 31 (AP) Sri Lanka's Christian clergy Friday urged Tamil Tiger rebels to return to peace talks with the government and end increasing violence in the northeast which is threatening to throw the country back into civil war, a pro-rebel report and a priest said. more..

Dec 31 (TW) Joseph Pararajasingham is the latest in a long line of Parliamentarians done to death by political violence in Sri Lanka. The 71 year old Politician was shot dead within the hallowed precincts of the St. Mary's Cathedral in Batticaloa at 1. 10 am on Christmas day. more..

Dec 31 (TW) President Mahinda Rajapakse at a meeting with Parliamentarians of the TNA held at Temple Trees on December 21 is reported to have given them an assurance that “he will consider the North East Problem in an innovative spirit and dedicate himself in the search for a new path for a solution”. more..

Dec 31 (FL) THE past year has been one of mixed emotions for the tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka. The initial trauma and shock gave way to hope of a proper rehabilitation, which receded with each bout of political bickering and ended in dejection. more..

Dec 31 (TW) Sri Lanka has faced two major tragedies since we gained our independence. A man-made disaster, which has led to three insurrections, one of which is still ongoing, with preparations for another Eelam war under way. The other is the tsunami tragedy, which overwhelmed us beyond our imagination. more..

Dec 31 (TW) It is very revealing that the Sinhalese themselves have begun to refer to political and other issues outside the northeast of Sri Lanka – especially in relation to the Tamil question – as politics of the south (dhakune deshapalanaya). Realising this polarisation is a very important development in the political psychology of this country. more..