Feb 24 (HT) After nearly a year of hibernation, the renegade Tiger commander-in-hiding, Col Karuna, has roared! In an exclusive, written interview to the HindustanTimes.com, Karuna says that it's time Norway gave way to India as the facilitator in the Sri Lankan peace process. more..

Feb 24 (Yahoo) Young Sri Lankan tsunami survivors play with puppets at the Akurala Primary College relief camp in Galle in southern Sri Lanka February 24, 2005. more..

Feb 24 (PT) Despite all the hardships brought to the Sri Lankans in wake of Tsunami, they have neither given up their hope nor the dignity. W. Fatima Sri, an inhabitant of Goviyapa Village, Gall - Sri Lanka, happens to be among the very lot who lost her mother against the exigency two months only. more..

Feb 24 (IANS) Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar arrived here Thursday on a three-day working visit during which he will discuss the latest developments in his country's peace process with Indian leaders. more..

Feb 24 (TS) No matter how much I read or saw on the television about the tsunami's impact in Sri Lanka, nothing could have prepared me for the last five days as I travelled to many of the affected areas. The magnitude of the devastation is so vast and the personal loss so great it is difficult to absorb, let alone convey. more..

Feb 24 (AFP) Norwegian truce monitors were probing the killing of a soldier allegedly by Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern peninsula of Jaffna, a military official said. "The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is conducting an investigation into the incident ... where one soldier was killed and another wounded," more..

Feb 24 (RC) Remarkably, there is no mention of testing for influenza, even though outbreaks were reported in Sri Lanka before and after the tsunami. Before the tsunami the fatal flu was diagnosed as influenza B and was in the southern portion of Sri Lanka. more..

Feb 25 (TN) A minister and a deputy minister of President Kumaratunga's coalition government submitted their resignations Thursday. The ministers, Mr. Muthu Sivalingam MP and Mr. M. S Sellasamy belong to the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC), more..

Feb 25 (BBC) The ceasefire monitors in Sri Lanka say, shooting of a Sri Lankan soldier by the Tamil Tigers was a clear violation of the cease-fire agreement. A spokeswoman of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission also said that it was not yet apparent who was fully responsible for the incident. more..

Feb 25 (BBC) The JVP said that it may pull out from the governing Coalition if its counterpart would decide to hold talks with the Tamil Tigers based on Interim Self Governing Authority proposals. more..

Feb 25 (TN) Education International (EI) and Oxfam-Netherlands Thursday signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Central Ministry of Education for reconstructing fourteen schools which were destroyed in December 26 tsunami in the northeast and south of Sri Lanka. more..

Feb 25 (TT) Manmohan Singh has decided to start his first bilateral visit as Prime Minister with a trip to Colombo next month, in a clear signal to identify Sri Lanka as a “good neighbour”. He will also visit the island nation of Mauritius, which is important to Delhi, following a postponement late last year. more..

Feb 25 (CBS) you also have limited supplies. That's exactly what was facing CBS 11'S medical correspondent Dr. Mona Khanna, who reports on treating patients after the Tsunami. "This is where the day begins for many medical relief workers," said Mona Khanna, more..

Feb 25 (Hindu) Sri Lanka yesterday endorsed the recommendations of the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for targeted measures including sanctions by the Security Council against the LTTE and other groups for continued child recruitment. more..

Feb 25 (WB) Sri Lanka’s commitment to ease the burden of its tsunami victims and rebuild devastated parts of the country, received a boost today when the World Bank announced a total $150 million in financial support for the country’s reconstruction and recovery program. more..

Feb 25 (AT) It was only a defensive action and not a planned attack on the Sri Lanka Army’s Forward Defence Line on 23 rd evening at a no man’s land announced, LTTE in a press release about the killing of the Sri Lanka’s soldier and injuring another. more..

Feb 25 (Hindu) The TNA members of parliament had failed in their duty to the people of North-East Sri Lanka who they represent by their refusal to participate in the Sri Lankan Government's post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, a prominent Tamil politician said today. more..

Feb 25 (LT) The JVP says that the government has no right to give an Interim Administration Authority to the Tigers’ Organisation or even to discuss about it and no mandate has been given to give effect to such a thing. The genertal secretary of the JVP made these remarks at a press briefing yesterday. more..

Feb 25 (IL) Virtusa Corporation, a global software development and IT services firm, spearheaded the design and development of an open source system for Disaster Relief in the wake of Asia's devastating tsunami. more..

Feb 25 (IL) Tsunami victims are to be provided temporary shelters costing between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 35,000 each by the Essential Services Department. Each housing unit would be built to last between 12-18 months. more..

Feb 25 (AT) Twenty four students, consisting of 20 Muslims and four Sinhalese who were granted admission to the Jaffna University for the 2005 Academic Year are urging authorities to provide them with alternate Universities as they are afraid to go to the Tamil populated University because the situation in the North is extremely ‘tense'. more..

Feb 25 (LNP) The UNP said it welcomed the government`s initiative to start the stalled peace process but said there was lack of clarity and unity in the government`s policy on the process. The main UPFA coalition partner, the JVP on the floor of parliament criticized the government`s move to start the peace process more..

Feb 25 (SAMN) The Bill to decentralize the functions of the Court of Appeal and increase its number of Judges was commended in Parliament yesterday with many MP's making submissions and suggestions in support of enhancing the proposal. more..

Feb 25 (SAMN) Former Army Chief Gerry de Silva who is leading a Sri Lankan delegation to Pakistan Thursday called on the government of Sri Lanka and Pakistan to sign a defence agreement to cement the decades old military relations between the two countries. more..

Feb 25 (TN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga told Norwegian special peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim that there aren’t any paramilitaries working with the Sri Lankan armed forces, according to a press release by the Presidential Secretariat Friday. more..

Feb 25 (SLA) Naval troops have found twelve Sri Lankan refugees returning from India after they had been left behind near the 5th SAND BANK in the general sea area of URUMALAI on 24 February 2005. Information revealed that those refugees have reportedly paid Indian Rs. 3000/= each to an Indian trawler for the journey. more..

Feb 25 (SN) Aturaliye Rathana Thero MP, who questioned the LTTE activities in the Government, controlled areas last week, questioned again in Parliament yesterday 24th of February 2005 regarding the recommencement of Peace Talks with discussions on the ISGA proposal of the LTTE. more..

Feb 25 (LT) Parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake has said that the Government should reveal whether the communiqué issued on the 23rd was the common stand of the Government or whether it was that of the SLFP. more..

Feb 25 (KCC) I just want to say thank you again to all of you who read my journal and supported me in my trip to Sri Lanka. It was certainly a life-changing experience and one that I won’t soon forget. In fact, I’m already planning my second trip to Sri Lanka. more..

Feb 25 (DJ) Although the post-tsunami reconstruction effort in Sri Lanka will help domestic economic growth, it may affect the country's fiscal outlook, the International Monetary Fund said. "Lower tourism receipts and a reconstruction-related surge in imports are expected to widen the current account (budget) deficit more..

Feb 25 (AFP) Sri Lanka is struggling to cope with a flood of tsunami food aid and has begun distributing perishables even among those unaffected by the disaster, social services minister Sumedha Jayasena said. more..

Feb 25 (LNP) Opposition Whip Mahinda Samarasinghe yesterday denied reports that he would be accepting the media ministry portfolio offered by the government and assured he would never leave the UNP. more..

Feb 25 (DN) The space for expression of the different viewpoints and perspectives of the country's different interest groups on the one side, and for the communication of a variety and diversity of political, social and cultural messages to the public on the other, are partly a function of the social responsibility of the private as well as public media. more..

Feb 25 (HT) There were discordant views on the desirability of a defence pact between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, at a high level interaction between Pakistani and Sri Lankan experts in Islamabad on Thursday. more..

Feb 25 (BP) Sri Lanka so far this year is the world's third best performing stock market in the world, up 20% year-on-year, outpaced only by Egypt (47%) and Pakistan (25%). Investors take notice: Is the end in sight or is this just the beginning for a small equity market more..

Feb 25 (AT) President Chandrika Kumaratunga deplored the killing of a Sri Lankan soldier and injuring another by the militant cadres belonging to LTTE on 23rd evening on the third anniversary of the Ceasefire Agreement at Muhamalia in the Jaffna Peninsula more..

Feb 25 (AT) The Society for Peace Unity of Sri Lanka (SPUR) has emphasised that it supports peace talks with the affected parties provided the agreed agenda of the proposed peace talks result in a long term solution to the terrorist problem and the full disarming and disbanding of the LTTE. more..

Feb 25 (AT) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Friday announced $7 million for Tsunami hit Sri Lanka and it is a part of the rural finance sector programme to provide emergency microcredit to tsunami-affected people in the country. more..

Feb 25 (GDN) Twenty-six Sri Lankan women were flown home last night by their own government after allegedly being stranded in Bahrain for six months without pay.The women worked for Garment International and are believed to have come to Bahrain on three-year contracts. more..

Feb 25 (ANN) A Sri Lankan soldier was shot dead and another wounded by the LTTE within the defence lines of the Muhamalai camp at Jaffna on Tuesday evening. It will not cause worldwide concern as when a terrorist leader, Kashalyan, was shot dead by his own kind sometime ago. more..

Feb 25 (LBO) Sri Lanka's ceasefire was negotiated in secret, concluded behind the back of the president, but three years later it appears there may be more skeletons locked up in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's cupboards. more..

Feb 25 (CI) Unbeaten centuries from Thilan Samaraweera and Thilina Kandamby rescued Central Province from a perilous overnight position against North Central Province in the final round of Provincial Tournament group matches. more..

Feb 25 (AFP) FOUR people drowned when their truck toppled over a jetty at a tsunami-battered fisheries harbour in southern Sri Lanka and crashed into the Indian Ocean, police said Friday. more..

Feb 25 (AFP) Sri Lanka is seeking a deal with Tamil Tiger rebels on handling tsunami relief despite a spate of killings undermining mutual confidence, the government said. President Kumaratunga has told Norway's peace envoy Erik Solheim that the government wanted to establish a mechanism with the LTTE to handle tsunami aid, more..

Feb 25 (PRIU) Hindu Religious Affairs Minister Douglas Devananda and a group of Hindu religious dignitaries involved in tsunami relief called on President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday. Minister Devananda and the Hindu clerics briefed the President on the relief work done so far and their plans for the future. more..

Feb 25 (Reuters) Britain's Prince Charles will come within a stone's throw of Tamil Tiger territory when he tours Sri Lanka's tsunami-ravaged east next week -- and the rebels want him to pop in for a chat. more..

Feb 25 (AP) Sri Lanka's ruling alliance lost its majority in parliament Friday after an ethnic Tamil party withdrew its support, putting the country in a state of political uncertainty as it recovers from the Asian tsunami. more..

Feb 25 (FL) EVEN as the legitimacy and international acceptance that the LTTE sought continued to elude it, the rebel organisation suffered a major loss when its political wing leader for the eastern Batticaloa-Amparai district, E. Kousalyan, was shot dead in an ambush on February 7 at Welikanda, more..

Feb 25 (BBC) Sri Lanka has so many tsunami relief supplies it is now distributing them to those unaffected by the disaster. The country's social services minister said goods were being sent to homes for the elderly and institutions for children and the disabled. more..

Feb 26 (SKY) Two months after the Asian tsunami disaster, Sky News reporter Ashish Joshi has returned to a Sri Lankan village devastated by the waves to see how people are rebuilding their lives: Katugoda lies on Sri Lanka's beautiful south coast. A largely Muslim community, it straddles the coastal railway line. more..