Jan 17 (Reuters) Sri Lankan officials are looking to use animals in an early warning system for earthquakes and tsunamis, hoping to take advantage of the instincts that allowed wildlife to escape last month's giant waves virtually unscathed. more..

Jan 17 (DN) Thousands of tsunami affected victims in the Batticaloa district are returning to their homes as Government officials supported by the Security Forces have started issuing dry rations to help them settle down. more..

Jan 17 (Reuters) Laying fresh bricks and mortar on the tsunami-ravaged shell of his modest guesthouse in southern Sri Lanka, Ranjith Premakumara says he has no choice but to defy a government ban and rebuild by the sea. more..

Jan 17 (Yahoo) A young Sri Lankan tsunami survivor builds a mud house next to a camp for the displaced in Kumari, a village 100 km south of the town of Kalmunai on Sri Lanka's east coast more..

Jan 17 (Reuters) The Sri Lanka rupee weakened slightly on Monday as demand for dollars from banks put the local currency under pressure, dealers said. The rupee closed at 98.50 per dollar, a shade lower than Thursday's close of 98.45, falling about 0.05 percent. more..

Jan 18 (Age) Former West Indies paceman Michael Holding has warned the world's spinners that it is almost impossible to bowl the doosra with a legal action. Holding said yesterday the onus would be on match officials to rigorously enforce new throwing laws if, as expected, they are adopted when ICC chief executives meet in Melbourne next month. more..

Jan 18 (SBT) Dr. Pete Poovendran had expected his trip home to Sri Lanka for the holidays to be a leisurely visit filled with celebration and quality time spent with his parents. But shortly after he arrived in his native land from Singapore on Dec. 26, it was clear something was terribly wrong. more..

Jan 18 (TOM) "Little Malta" will become a place name on the map of Sri Lanka after the Malta Red Cross Society, acting through the Sri Lanka Red Cross, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the HDTDRDP providing for the Maltese-funded construction of 65 houses in an area known as Ranna, close to the south coastal city of Hambantota. more..

Jan 18 (CP) Prime Minister Paul Martin wades into Sri Lanka's murky domestic politics today when he meets with parliamentarians whose views reflect those of the Tamil Tigers, a separatist insurgent group. Martin will first pay a visit to Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, in Ampara, more..

Jan 18 (NBR) Purporting to be photographs of the Boxing Day tsunami coming ashore, a cluster of pictures from an unrelated event in China (like the one left) were picked up by a number of global press operations and published -- sometimes as front page leads. more..

Jan 18 (SPI) Before an audience hungry for answers, a group of American tsunami scientists spoke of some tantalizing findings, but said they remain far away from understanding and explaining the massive Dec. 26 tsunamis that have killed more than 160,000 in Southern Asia. more..

Jan 18 (CP) For 200 soldiers with Canada's disaster response team, Home Sweet Home is a decrepit factory populated by bats and monkeys. The former sugar plant had been abandoned for more than five years when the DART troops moved in. more..

Jan 18 (SS) As an anthropologist who does research in Sri Lanka, I have gotten very used to explaining to people many details about this country, which few have any reason to know or care about. more..

Jan 18 (NT) Enroute from the horror of it all, a pause to reflect on how quickly the world moves on. For a week or so after 26 December 2004, it seemed as if tsunamis and their devastation were all we knew. Vicariously, through television and tragically, through first hand experience, the world’s people came to fear their planet and its wrath. more..

Jan 18 (CP) Just two minutes spent visiting Sri Lanka's tsunami-shattered east coast would convince any Canadian of the value of sending in Canada's military, an awe-struck Prime Minister Paul Martin said Monday after wandering a devastated community here for close to an hour. more..

Jan 18 (NNS) The rhythms of the island are slowly returning, but punctuated with different sounds. The sounds of reconstruction. The sounds of hungry children crying. The sounds of houses rising brick by brick. The sounds of the breeze whispering through homes broken and abandoned. more..

Jan 18 (HT) India has so far sent 500 metric tones of relief supplies to tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka with the aircraft of the Indian Air Force and ships of the Indian Navy providing a "continuous bridge" between India and the affected parts of Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 18 (GI) A drawing created by a young tsunami survivor lies at a refugee camp January 17, 2005 in Galle. The drawings detail recent tsunami experiences and the event was sponsored by the New Life Rehabilation center and the Salvation Army. more..

Jan 18 (TN) Leader of LTTE, Mr. V. Pirpaharan, met with disaster management planners who are currently participating in relief and reconstruction planning and praised them for their services to the people of NorthEast. more..

Jan 18 (AT) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga presented the action plan for rebuilding the nation at the meeting of the High Level Committee for Disaster Management. The Leader of the Opposition Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and leaders of other political parties were at the Presidential Secretariat for the meeting which was held on Monday 17th January. more..

Jan 18 (AT) Leader of the LTTE, the reclusive V.Prabakaran has surfaced. The Tiger leader seems to be in good condition and was seen in his usual military fatigue. According to the LTTE’s official website, Prabakaran yesterday addressed a meeting with the intellectuals and disaster management planners, more..

Jan 18 (BBC) Amapara District Secretary (DS) has ordered an investigation after three Grama Sevaka's (village officials) were accused of cheating Rs. 69,000 of aid to tsunami victims. more..

Jan 18 (BBC) The Sri Lankan government on Monday announced plans to impose restrictions for building along the coastline. Speaking to the press Secretary for the public security ministry Thilak Ranaviraja said that the president has ruled that no buildings will be allowed to be built within hundred metres of the coastline along the South and West more..

Jan 18 (IL) Relief items taken to uncleared area in Trincomalee district was taken back by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna as the LTTE did not permit them to be distributed in the area. more..

Jan 18 (SAMN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga Monday presented the Action Plan for Rebuilding the Nation encompassing detailed plans to construct 15 new townships in the tsunami affected Southern and Eastern coasts of the country with better and modern infrastructure. more..

Jan 18 (SAMN) United National Party (UNP) deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya Monday launched a strong attack on his critics and said he was prepared to offer his post to anybody who aspired to take it. more..

Jan 18 (SAMN) The Treasury said Monday that the decision to provide Rs. 5,000 per month per tsunami-hit families as immediate cash relief through the People's Bank branches was to eliminate corruption and improve transparency. more..

Jan 18 (SAMN) During a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minster Paul Martin, the TNA Monday urged the international community to give the tsunami-hit North-East an "equitable proportion of international aid" as two-thirds of the affected people were from that region. more..

Jan 18 (WPH) Sri Lanka's elusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran made his first public appearance Monday, belying reports in the state-run media that he had been either killed or had gone missing after the devastating tsunami hit the island nation Dec. 26. more..

Jan 18 (CBS) Sri Lanka's seaside capital of Colombo was spared the tsunami's wrath. Life appears normal until you look up. White banners are everywhere. Strung across the streets, they're traditional signs of mourning. All of Sri Lanka's ethnic and religious groups are united in grief. more..

Jan 18 (TP) A special musuem housing souvenirs of the tsunami disaster like distinctive damaged household items, electrical equipment, instruments, parts of buildings, video tapes and photographs of the persons who died from the disaster and the persons who rescued others risking their own lives, is to be created more..

Jan 18 (Yahoo) A Sri Lankan tsunami survivor carrying her son takes cover from the rain in Akkripatai on Sri Lanka's east coast, January 17, 2005. more..

Jan 18 (G&M) Prime Minister Paul Martin met with Tamil politicians Monday who assured him tsunami aid is reaching all areas of Sri Lanka, despite fears that it might be blocked by rebel groups. more..

Jan 18 (AFP) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers said their elusive leader made a rare public appearance yesterday, his first since tsunamis devastated the island, and urged Tamils in areas under his control not to depend on handouts. more..

Jan 18 (AFPS) U.S. Marine Corps engineers and Navy Seabees are making a difference, demolishing heavily damaged buildings and hauling away debris, in this small island nation. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz today got a first-hand look at how Sri Lanka already is beginning the recovery process after the Dec. 26 tsunami more..

Jan 18 (Hindu) The Sri Lankan Health Minister, Nimal Siripala De Silva, today described India as the island-nation's "closest friend" and a "tower of strength," particularly in its post-tsunami relief operations. more..

Jan 18 (DR) Malcolm Gilchrist Fleming of Oxfam flew to Sri Lanka to help with the relief effort shortly after the area was devastated by the tsunami. Here he paints a personal picture of the devastated island and the lives that have changed forever. more..

Jan 18 (IO) It was unusual for us to be asleep at 9am on our idyllic Sri Lankan holiday. Christmas night had been spent at a turtle watch at a beach the other side of Tangalle and we had come back at 1.30am. more..

Jan 18 (ANN) A new ruse has been adopted by the LTTE to increase its income through so-called contributions from Tamil living abroad. Using the tsunami disaster as an excuse the organisation is sending some of its chosen benefactors to mainly Western industrial countries on the bogus grounds that they had lost all their possessions and were left helpless. more..

Jan 18 (ANN) The Architect Exhibition held annually in February for ore then two decades would go ahead as scheduled at the BMICH, from February 17-20 the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects announced on Thursday. more..

Jan 18 (AP) Their plight has touched hearts around the world: children left parentless and homeless, their futures uncertain and bleak. In the weeks since the tsunami claimed 31,000 Sri Lankan lives and tore apart a million more, adoption agencies here have been flooded with applications and inundated with telephone calls. more..

Jan 18 (TN) Around 500 workers of the Doleswala Estate in the Ratnapura District are on strike since last Thursday protesting against the refusal of the Estate management to refund moneys contributed by them from their wages in aid of Tsunami victims, Ratnapura District Doleswela Estate sources said. more..

Jan 18 (TN) Ms. Susan Blankhart, H.E. The Ambassador for The Netherlands and European Commission’s Charge d’Affaires Mr. Wouter Wilton expressed their condolences and their "solidarity to the people of the region in distress and bereavement" when they met with Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan more..

Jan 18 (TN) Out of the twenty three welfare centers in Mullaitivu district, all except one are located in schools in areas unaffected by the tsunmai, and there is an urgent need to relocate these centers to allow schools to function normally, said Emelda Sukumar, Government Agent of Mullaitivu district more..

Jan 18 (Yahoo) A Sri Lankan tsunami survivor looks into the camera in Kallar on Sri Lanka's east coast January 18, 2005. Sri Lanka revised its death toll figures on Monday up 7,000, more..

Jan 18 (SLA) A father who resisted abduction of his ten-year old son has been beaten severely by two LTTE cadres forcing him to seek admission to the KALAVANCHIKUDY hospital on 15 January 2005. more..

Jan 18 (SLA) LTTE during a ceremony held at the JAFFNA University premises on 16 January 2005 around 11.00 a.m. has hoisted its flag in contravention of the Ceasefire Agreement. The LTTE flag has been hoisted by LTTE political leader for JAFFNA, ILLAMPARITHI more..

Jan 18 (SLA) Troops on duty at the Forward Defence Line (FDL) of the Security Forces at NAGARKOVIL have observed about sixteen LTTE cadres, engaged in constructing a new bunker, about 500 metres, ahead of the FDL of the Security Forces on 17 January 2005 around 9.30 a.m. more..

Jan 18 (PRIU) At the request of the LTTE a fleet of pick up trucks and tractors and other equipment, have been sent to the North. President Chandrika Kumaratunga directed the Ministry of Rehabilitation to dispatch these requirements without delay. more..

Jan 18 (AT) The Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin, visited the tsunami ravaged southeastern part of Sri Lanka where he met with Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team [DART]. The Canadian DART team is providing relief services for the survivors of the disaster in Ampara district. more..