Jan 7 (CNN) The tsunami ended so many human lives, the environmental impact has taken second place. In Sri Lanka, though, there are fears entire species can be wiped out. At particular risk are sea turtles. Amid the rubble lies the remains of one of the world's last hopes for five endangered species of marine turtle. more..

Jan 7 (DN) The government will pay Rs. 25 million for all damaged private buses caught in the tsunami disaster. The Government has agreed to pay this to the private transport sector on a request by the Sri Lanka Private Bus Association (SLPBA). more..

Jan 7 (Xinhua) High-toned working songs and efforts on clearing up the remnant strewn along beaches are registering for a new town blueprint. Sri Lanka starts to recuperate after the worst-ever tsunami disaster. more..

Jan 7 (HT) The tsunami-warning equipment gifted to Sri Lankan by Japan had been out of order since August 2003, and the authorities had not bothered to repair it, says disaster management expert Dr Ranijth Premalal De Silva. more..

Jan 7 (AT) President Kumaratunga today received the US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the President's House. He was accompanied by US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead and Director of USAID Mr. Andrew Natsios and senior US officials. more..

Jan 7 (Reuters) Sri Lanka off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has passed himself fit to participate in the fundraising match for tsunami victims between an ICC World XI and an Asian XI in Melbourne on Monday. more..

Jan 7 (TA) SRI Lanka's high commissioner to Australia was "hurt" the Australian Government had failed to provide more aid to his country and urged the Howard Government to give more generously. more..

Jan 7 (Reuters) The Sri Lanka rupee strengthened on Friday on low demand from importers and increased foreign currency inflows into the country as tsunami aid rolled in, dealers said. The rupee closed at 99.10 against the dollar. more..

Jan 7 (AP) A cargo plane loaded with more than 40 tons of medicine and medical supplies departed for tsunami-devastated Sri Lanka on Friday as part of an effort spearheaded by a nonprofit organization from Kansas. more..

Jan 7 (JS) Sri Lanka’s clothing industry has quickly resumed normal operations in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster which killed more than 30,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s battered southern, eastern and northern shores. more..

Jan 7 (Yahoo) Tsunami victims cross a river at the eastern coastal village of Kallar, south of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, Friday, Jan. 7, 2005. more..

Jan 7 (BBC) It was hoped that out of such great suffering, some good could come. The Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels were thrown together to bring aid to hundreds of thousands of tsunami victims. But many believe the antagonists have blown the chance for reconciliation. more..

Jan 7 (Reuters) More than 30,000 Sri Lankans lost their lives when the tsunami hit their island the day after Christmas, but perversely the economy looks like it will gain from the destruction, analysts said on Friday. more..

Jan 8 (GPC) The Dec. 26 tsunami killed 36 members of the Sri Lankan gay organization Companions on a Journey. Twelve additional members remain unaccounted for. One hundred twelve of the group’s members had their homes destroyed by the waves. more..

Jan 8 (BBC) The authorities and relief agencies in Sri Lanka have been delivering aid on the tsunami-ravaged island using maps produced 24 hours a day by a team of British volunteers. Eleven experts, from UK-based charity MapAction, which specialises in mapping for humanitarian operations, flew to the capital Colombo more..

Jan 8 (TN) Civil organizations and churches in the northeast have appealed to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit the tsunami hit regions in the LTTE controlled areas as he reached Colombo Friday 6.10 PM. more..

Jan 8 (NZH) Straining against her mother's arms, brown eyes wide, a tiny underweight girl is wary as Dr Slushna Weeramuni peers inside her mouth. Her undernourished, singlet-clad frame makes her look half her age of 18 months. Fathima Azra has a glue ear infection and a high temperature. more..

Jan 8 (LBO) Sri Lanka Telecom is minting foreign exchange revenue, due to a heavy flow of international voice and data calls to pick up the latest news since the tsunami struck on Boxing Day. "Since the tsunami, SLT's traffic volumes have significantly increased, specially in the areas of international traffic," more..

Jan 8 (NZH) Behind an unremarkable Colombo shopfront and up a dim stairwell in a third-floor office, Douglas Clark is answering his mobile phone. On the line is a Red Cross field assessor, ringing to say he can find suitable warehouse facilities in the tsunami-stricken eastern region of Ampara. more..

Jan 8 (CSM) "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" is one of Rangika De Silva's favorite English songs. So when the 5-year-old, whose favorite food is mangoes, sang it perfectly amid the heavy rubble of her former oceanfront home, applause was spontaneous. more..

Jan 8 (CSM) Until further notice, Sri Lanka has banned the adoption of children orphaned by the tsunami. Indonesian officials have also ordered police to stop children from the Aceh provinces from leaving the country. Both moves are in response to unconfirmed reports of child trafficking rings snatching refugees. more..

Jan 8 (ND) On the last day of their lives, the friends and playmates of 11-year-old Kirishanthini were at an orphanage overlooking a peaceful lagoon near the sea. When the water came - "It came very fast and black in color," Kirishanthini recalls - it rose over her head, swept her out of her room and dragged her to a tree. more..

Jan 8 (TN) “To the ancient Tamil world natural calamities like the tsunami that hit the east coast on 26 December 2004 is not unknown,” says professor A.Shanmugathas, head of the department of Tamil, Jaffna University. more..

Jan 8 (UNI) The US Marines may well have to stay for a longer period in Sri Lanka after US Secretary of State Colin Powell's refusal to set a time frame for their departure. "We will be here for a long period of time by the simple fact that our Embassies are here, our USAID missions are here and the US military forces are here in the region. I can't tell you how long they will stay," Mr Powell said. more..

Jan 8 (BBC) The Indonesian tsunami relief summit is promising says the Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama. “Sri Lanka could gain much by the promised relief on debt could be provided” he told BBC Sandeshaya after participating in the Jakatata tsunami relief conference concluded on Thursday. more..

Jan 8 (BBC) Child traffickers are trying to sell orphans from the tsunami disaster to Tamil Tigers, police warned. A man arrested with two children from Batticaloa by the Vavuniya police has been remanded for 14 days by the magistrate's court. more..

Jan 8 (BBC) Fish sales in Sri Lanka have dropped dramatically due to unnecessary fears among the public that it is unhealthy to consume fish following the tsunami disaster. “People think that the fish may have eaten human flesh and avoid consumption of fish,” said Upali Nimalsiri Perera, a fish dealer at St John Fish Market, Pettah. more..

Jan 8 (NPR) In northern Sri Lanka, tsunami survivors are going back to their regular jobs, schools are reopening, and people are struggling to resume normal lives. And there are efforts to begin rebuilding towns and villages that were destroyed. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports. more..

Jan 8 (AT) The LTTE of Sri Lanka needs to own or disown “Sudar Oli”, the Tamil newspaper published in Sri Lanka, and “Puthinam”, a Tamil website newspaper. Both of them carried aspersions on the United States last week. more..

Jan 8 (AT) Outgoing US Secretary o State Colin Powell met the foreign and Sri Lankan press corps briefly in a Hollywood movie type of pres conference organized with much dash and panache on the airport tarmac, just before he emplaned for his trip back after a brief tour of the Tsunami damaged Galle. more..

Jan 8 (AT) Tsunami related news dominates, converge in the Sri Lankam media these days --- to point at which all other news almost needs to be referred to as “in other developments." But S. B. Dissnayake, the jailed former UNP Minister and the President’s most hated opponent, seems to want to change all that. more..

Jan 8 (AT) Sri Lanka’s "aid for Tsunami victims" campaign though functioning in some places, is a massive complicated quagmire. It’s a minefield, some say, not counting the landmines that have been hampering aid workers in LTTE controlled areas. more..

Jan 8 (CNN) A young Tamil boy stops crying after aid workers serve him lunch at a makeshift refugee camp January 4 in the village of Palai in northeastern Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 8 (IE) Mary Jansia, 26, thought the safest place for her 3-year-old daughter was on her shoulders. Thanaranjani, 28, swears that she never let go of her 4-year-old daughter. Bamini, 29, said she left her 6-year-old daughter and 6-month-old son alone for only five minutes. more..

Jan 8 (BBC) "My mother, my father, my brother and my two sisters," lists 13-year-old Rejilka. All of them dead but she doesn't shed a tear. Her face is blank but she clenches her fists and presses them together as if she is in physical pain. Rejilka ran for her life with her 17-year-old brother to high ground. more..

Jan 8 (AP) The U.S. government has temporarily stopped deporting people to Sri Lanka and Maldives, two of the countries devastated by the tsunami disaster. Citizens of those countries with deportation orders will be allowed to stay in the United States until April 7, more..

Jan 8 (NBC) The coast of Sri Lanka, once a tropical paradise, now looks like a war zone. The beaches are deserted. The locals won't even step into the water anymore. Sumith Wijsen owns a diving shop on a stretch of sand that caters to foreign tourists. more..

Jan 8 (ABC) A Chicago area nurse leaves for Sri Lanka next week to offer medical assistance to victims of the South Asian tsunami. Betsy Egan of Frankfort is packing and getting ready for what may be the trip of her life. more..

Jan 8 (AFP) A baby-hippopotamus that survived the tsumani waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombasa, officials said. more..

Jan 8 (Yahoo) Tsunami victims wait in line for medical attention at a camp in the eastern coastal village of Paddiruppu, south of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, Friday, Jan. 7, 2005. more..

Jan 8 (SA) For Sujeewa Amarasena, a Sri Lankan doctor, the alarm bells rang on learning of the first suicide since the tsunami devastated much of his country. Amarasena, who is also head of the children's department in Karapitiya hospital, said: "We have to undertake psychological care immediately." more..

Jan 8 (TP) Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the country should raise its head from this calamity by sticking to one policy for the sake of the people. He said it is necessary to first end the war stressing that the country did not have the strength to go to war again. more..

Jan 8 (TP) Police on Thursday arrested Ajith Wasantha Kumara alias Wambotta, one of Sri Lanka’s most notorious criminals who has been leading a gang terrorising residents in the southern region, newspapers said. more..

Jan 8 (TP) Three world leaders flew into Sri Lanka yesterday to assess the crisis in the tsunami-affected country amidst a political row over whether visits to devastated areas should include those in Tamil rebel territory, officials said. more..

Jan 8 (AR) Harindra Joseph Fernando returns today to his tsunami-stricken native Sri Lanka to practice the cool disciplines of science while, in a living hell around him, thousands of suffering countrymen cry out for compassion. more..

Jan 8 (NBC) As unforgiving as the tsunami was, the wave of despair that has followed is just as relentless. Doctors have come from around the world, ready to deliver medicine and to mend broken bones. But how do you heal a nation filled with patients who have lost spouses, children, homes, an entire way of life? That is the challenge doctors are facing. more..

Jan 8 (TN) Referring to a news item broadcasted by the Government owned SLBC Saturday morning, quoting Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri as the source person, that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Intelligence Chief of the organisation are among the dead or reported missing more..

Jan 8 (TN) Sri Lanka's government has stopped visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from touring tsunami-ravaged areas controlled by the LTTE, despite his requests, a Reuters report filed from Hambantota said. Annan was quoted as saying: "I am here on a humanitarian mission. more..

Jan 8 (SLA) One thousand one hundred and one (1101) lorry loads of food and other essential items had been dispatched to un-cleared areas in the northern province during the period between 31 December 2004 and 06 January 2005. more..

Jan 8 (Xinhua) South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan ended his tour of Tsunami devastated Sri Lanka after a two-day visit, Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. Lee Hae-chan called on President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse for talks on the tidal wave disaster and bilateral relations during his stay here. more..