Jan 7 (TN) "Our people will not accept the directive issued by Sri Lanka's President to hand over the management of Tsunami welfare centres in the government controlled areas in the northeast to the Sri Lanka Army," a defiant Colonel Soosai, Special Commander of the Sea Tigers, said more..

Jan 7 (TO) SRI LANKA is calling on America and Europe to remove punitive tariffs imposed on the country’s clothing exports as it attempts to rebuild itself after suffering devastation in the Asian tsunami disaster. more..

Jan 7 (AFP) Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin will visit areas stricken by the tsunami disaster in Thailand and Sri Lanka later this month, an official said. Martin will amend a previously scheduled trip to Asia to visit Sri Lanka, more..

Jan 7 (AFP) A Canadian disaster relief team headed for Sri Lanka on a mission to pump safe drinking water and provide emergency care for victims of the tsunami disaster. A massive Russian-made Antonov cargo plane took off from an air force base in Trenton, Ontario, more..

Jan 7 (CTV) Our crew, including Lisa LaFlamme and cameraman Al Stephens, arrived in Sri Lanka five days ago. Since then we have seen villages flattened, homes demolished and hungry, homeless children. But despite the devastation, the people of this country still smile. more..

Jan 7 (BBC) A Scottish teacher is giving up her job to take her skills to Sri Lanka where she hopes to help the young victims of the nation's tsunami disaster. On hearing the news of the disaster Janette Smith decided she had to help with the relief effort first-hand. more..

Jan 7 (AT) Indian diplomatic circles have refuted reports in the pro-LTTE media that India was unhappy about the arrival of US Marines in Sri Lanka to assist in tsunami relief operations. It is learnt that India was informed in advance of the arrangement and Indian government agreed to the presence of US marines in Sri Lanka, a closer neighbour to India. more..

Jan 7 (AT) Indian’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka made it a point to say categorically here in Colombo that India has no objection to the US troop presence in this country, for humanitarian purposes. more..

Jan 7 (AT) The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles visited the oldest and the leading Buddhist temple in the UK to pay tribute to several dozen volunteers of different nationalities collecting and packing goods to be sent to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 7 (AT) Presidential Secretariat has pointed out in a press statement that for the past two decades the Government has been sending food and essential supplies to the Northern and Eastern Provinces to be distributed to people displaced by the military conflict. more..

Jan 7 (Yahoo) Public workers in Brasilia, Brazil pack boxes with food, clothing and medicine to send to Sri Lanka's quake victims, on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005. more..

Jan 7 (CNN) It was our first night on the ground here in northern Sri Lanka, a part of the country that is very much a rebel stronghold. It's held by the Tamil Tigers, which won this territory after a 20-plus-year civil war against the national government in the south. more..

Jan 7 (NBC) With over 30,000 people killed by the deadly tsunami, Sri Lanka is the nation that suffered the second most deaths in terms of sheer numbers. But, in proportion to its relatively small population of 19 million, Sri Lanka is in many ways the nation most badly battered by the catastrophic force. more..

Jan 7 (CNN) The children gather at a temple in Batapola, Sri Lanka -- laughing, playing and trying to forget. "When the water came, I was frightened," recalled Sanga, 12, of the tsunamis that struck in late December. "We ran, and our home is gone." more..

Jan 7 (CNN) We have received thousands of e-mails from people seeking news of friends and relatives in areas affected by the tsunamis. Complete this form to send us an appeal. Please note that we will need to publish your e-mail address. more..

Jan 7 (BBC) There are new signs of tension where disagreements over tsunami relief work have led to friction between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels. The Government is insisting that soldiers must be stationed in all camps accommodating displaced people - a move the rebels described as unacceptable. more..

Jan 7 (CNN) With relief aid and emotional support, Lyons said young victims can recover from the disaster. more..

Jan 7 (ANN) Taking a break between cooking chores at a makeshift refugee camp in Kalmunai, T. Sathya leans against a wall and stares into empty space the way many residents do when they take their eyes off the death and destruction in this town. more..

Jan 7 (ANN) Sri Lanka is bracing for a wave of suicide attempts as distraught victims and families who have lost loved ones, homes and jobs increasingly go into aftershock traumas. Authorities, while battling to bring the country back to normalcy, fear these incidents would occur if the victims are not given the necessary counselling. more..

Jan 7 (ANN) United States Secretary of State, Mr. Colin Powell is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka Friday to make his observations on disasters wreaked on this island by the worst ever tragedy that has struck this country in its long history. more..

Jan 7 (SAMN) The Government will introduce a special ration coupon system from January 15 to provide relief for the Tsunami victims. The main intention of introducing this system is providing relief for the victims effectively, Cabinet spokesman Mangala Samaraweera said. more..

Jan 7 (SAMN) The Government will present a Bill to set up an Authority for Rebuilding the Nation in Parliament by the end of January to give legal powers for the Task Force to Rebuild the Nation that is already in force to reconstruct the Tsunami hit areas in the country, Presidential Advisor Mano Tittawella told the media Thursday. more..

Jan 7 (SAMN) While the mystery viral flu in the south appears to have been swept out or swept under by the tsunami catastrophe, a patient with symptoms similar to bacterial pneumonia died Thursday morning at the Matale Base Hospital - the second case reported from the area. more..

Jan 7 (HT) Sri Lanka would need to re-build 100,000 houses, which were completely destroyed in the December 26 tsunami attack, said US Senator Mary Landrieu after visiting the affected areas in Galle and Amparai on Thursday. more..

Jan 7 (SAMN) The LTTE Thursday agreed to assist the military to carry out relief operations in the Trincomalee district. A senior military official said a special meeting was held yesterday at the Trincomalee Government Agent's office to discuss the relief distribution among the Tsunami victims in the district. more..

Jan 7 (IPS) Some two weeks after the devastating tsunami that hit countries around the Indian Ocean, the Kalmunai beach in eastern Sri Lanka looks like it has been at the centre of a nuclear explosion. Almost all the structures on the beach are destroyed, in some places as far as 400 metres island from the coast. more..

Jan 7 (HT) Animals in the Yala National Park in south Sri Lanka might have felt tell-tale signs of the tsunami three or four days ahead of the strike on December 26, and that is why there has been no report of animal death from there, says Dr Ranjith Premalal De Silva, an expert in geological information systems. more..

Jan 7 (NBC) Ganesan is a rare man in Sri Lanka. He is a father, husband, and the only psychiatrist for 1.3 million of the world's most traumatized people. His roving practice along this island nation's eastern shore stretches over 150 miles, all of it devastated by last week's tsunami. more..

Jan 7 (AP) On the edge of Tamil Tiger guerrilla country, soldiers long engaged in spilling rebel blood donated some of their own this week. In the capital, Colombo, a woman prays that rebels and the government forget their animosity. more..

Jan 7 (CNA) Starving, without access to sanitation and with just enough to eat and drink for two days, around 200 desperate refugees cram into one of the temporary camps in what is left of the town of Kattankundy. Among the desolation of the wrecked town stand a dozen or so blue tents, each home to around 20 people, more..

Jan 7 (Xinhua) A team of 10 Spanish doctors and volunteers arrived Thursday in Sri Lanka with medicines to help the victims of tsunamis. The team, whose members come from two NGOs -- the Messengers ofPeace and the Infancy Without Borders, would mainly operate in Kalutara, more..

Jan 7 (BBC) US Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan are due in Sri Lanka on separate missions to assess the tsunami damage. Their visits come after 200 US military personnel arrived to add their weight to aid operations on the island. more..

Jan 7 (ANN) As Sri Lankans remain doubtful whether fish caught off its shores is fit for consumption, a senior minister said that the entire cabinet of ministers including President Chandrika Kumaratunga ate fish on Wedneday night. more..

Jan 7 (ANN) Eight makeshift graves greet the waves as they roar from the Indian Ocean onto the beach in this eastern Sri Lankan fishing village, a grim reminder of the human toll from the tsunami that wrecked the country's southern and eastern coasts. more..

Jan 7 (CI) When we arrived in Trincomalee, an east-coast town that boasts one of the finest natural harbours in Asia, we were already drained. Our nerves had been frazzled by the driver, Muttiah Muralitharan, a well-known offspinner but little-known kamikaze behind the wheel. more..

Jan 7 (AFP) W.D. Ariyapala sits among a cluster of men, some skimming newspapers, others slurping on coconuts. Hanging out in the rubble where they used to live or work is their latest pastime. "I don't know what to do. I read the paper. I come in every morning, I look to see if anyone can help me here, then I wait, and I go home in the evening," more..

Jan 7 (TN) Pledging USD 25 million for immediate relief and reconstruction of Sri Lanka, US Secretaryof State Colin Powell said in a press briefing held at the runway at the Bandaranayake Memorial Airport, Katunayake Colombo, that US military presence will not affect the ongoing peace process. more..

Jan 7 (TN) International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a consortium of expatriate Tamil organizations based in Geneva Switzerland has appealed to the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to include in his itinerary a visit to the tsunami ravaged region of Mullaithivu in NorthEast of Sri Lanka, more..

Jan 7 (TN) Mr.Michael Sternberg, Ambassador of Denmark who is on a two day visit to Trincomalee district Thursday donated ten water purification units to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) to clean all wells in the Tsunami affected coastal villages. more..

Jan 7 (TN) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (L) chats with Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga during a visit to Colombo January 7. Powell toured Sri Lanka's tsunami-ravaged south on Friday, more..

Jan 7 (LT) Tigers' Organisation is reported to have placed an order for an extraordinary coffin with a foreign country. The Tigers' Organisation says that this coffin was ordered for the funeral of a Sea Tiger leader who was third in rank and fell prey to the tidal waves. more..

Jan 7 (LT) MP Wimal Weerawansa points out that the cost of the construction of houses in the affected areas should be estimated and thereby the cost per house could be calculated and provision should be made for able entrepreneurs to build houses in the devastated regions. more..

Jan 7 (LT) Donor countries are to consider revoking credit given to Sri Lanka and Indonesia, the two countries that were devastated most by tsunami on 26th December. Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawanse made an appeal in the Parliament requesting the developed countries to revoke credit given to Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 7 (SLA) Police on 6 January 2005 arrested an LTTE supporter who was found chasing after a civilian who had escaped from an LTTE office in MANNAR. Policemen while conducting another inquiry in the area suddenly saw two people running along the road. more..

Jan 7 (SLA) Foreign medical and rehabilitation teams now in Sri Lanka are busy attending to priorities in the general tsunami affected areas of KINNIYA, NILAVELI, and TRINCOMALEE. more..

Jan 7 (Misina) “The fishermen affected by the tsunami have asked to be able to return to work as soon as possible and as of today, 20 new boats are ready for them,” Mariska Smolders of the Dutch Caritas (Cordaid), tells MISNA by telephone from Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, one of the cities worst affected by the tidal waves on 26 December. more..

Jan 7 (Reuters) Sri Lankans have made huge progress in clearing the rubble left in the wake of the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami and thousands of displaced people have left camps for the homeless, officials and aid groups say. more..

Jan 7 (IT) Russian specialists have ended their work in the tsunami-hit region in Sri Lanka and return to Moscow. An Il-76 plane with Russian Emergencies Ministry rescuers and medical specialists flew out from Sri Lanka's capital Colombo at 12:20 Moscow time on Friday for Moscow, the Emergencies Ministry press service told Itar-Tass. more..

Jan 7 (Reuters) Secretary of State Colin Powell toured Sri Lanka's tsunami-ravaged south on Friday, surveying a crippled tourism hub and relief efforts just hours ahead of a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He flew to the historic southern town of Galle by helicopter, more..

Jan 7 (AP) She survived the tsunami, only to suffer the inhumanity of her rescuer. The young woman accompanying her family on a pilgrimage had lived a sheltered life. The journey was to seek protection. Instead, she nearly drowned, and then was raped. more..