Jan 26 (TN) Special Task Force (STF) soldiers had assembled the tsunami refugees in the Mandaanai camp in Amparai district Tuesday morning and had told them that relief supplies the STF was planning to deliver to the camp will not be given as the LTTE had intimated that shelter residents do not like to receive hand outs from the STF. more..

Jan 26 (PRIU) Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar briefed the Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik who is on a two-day visit here, on the ongoing relief work and reconstruction plans of the government. more..

Jan 26 (SLA) A group of LTTE cadres who arrived in a vehicle have threatened the Special Task Force (STF) personnel on duty near the SHAKTHI VIDYALAYA Welfare Centre on POTHUVIL road in the general area of THIRUKKOVIL on 25 January 2005 around 9.15 p.m. more..

Jan 26 (SLA) Troops have observed approximately twenty LTTE cadres transporting logs in a tractor and busy constructing a bunker on their old Defence Line in the general area of NAGARKOVIL on 25 January 2005 around 11.30 a.m. more..

Jan 26 (PRIU) In a message to her counterpart Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on India’s Republic Day President Chandrika Kumaratunga thanked India for its immediate and generous response during last month’s catastrophe. India was the first to come to Sri Lanka’s assistance. more..

Jan 26 (PIS) With peace and ethnic harmony being essential for the rebuilding of Sri Lanka after the tsunami annihilation, extra attention needs to be given to peace education as done in several countries, including India. more..

Jan 26 (GI) Sri Lankan students of a Colombo school light candles, 26 January 2005 on the first full month since the tsunamis lashed the island's coastline and killed nearly 31,000 people. more..

Jan 26 (LBO) The Inland Revenue is launching an intensified tax collection drive, up to June this year, to meet budgeted revenue targets. "Around half of the tax payers are yet to settle their full dues to the department for the previous year of assessment," more..

Jan 26 (HT) Scientists and religious leaders have expressed doubts that a statue of Hindu deity Hanuman found on a beach in South Africa had been carried there from Sri Lanka by strong waves from the tsunamis. more..

Jan 26 (AP) A silent memorial of candles and multicolored Buddhist flags lined the highway hugging Sri Lanka's shattered coastline Wednesday, a month after killer waves swept away nearly 31,000 people in this island nation. more..

Jan 26 (AFP) The overwhelming scale of the global response to the Indian Ocean tsunami has left inexperienced aid agencies working in the disaster zone without the necessary skills and competence, charity Oxfam warned on Thursday. more..

Jan 26 (CTC) The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), in partnership with various organizations including the Toronto & York Region Labour Council and the Tamil Disaster Relief Coordinating Committee, will be observing a vigil on Saturday, January 8th 2005 at Nathan Phillips Square at 4:30 for the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster. more..

Jan 26 (Gulf) Sri Lanka armed with an ambitious plan to rebuild the nation after the tsunami disaster has got off to a quick start to restore normalcy. The government however does not hope to stop at reconstruction and instead is looking forward to taking the opportunity to modernise the affected areas more..

Jan 26 (Dawn) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga will pay an official visit to Pakistan from February 8-9 during which a number of agreements will be signed to promote bilateral cooperation , particularly in the economic field, it is learnt. more..

Jan 26 (Dawn) Sri Lanka' Coast Conservation Department has advised the authorities to take precautionary measures against the possibility of a fresh, "stronger" tsunami hitting the island and that could affect buildings such as the President's House, the parliament and a skyscraper in the heart of Colombo. more..

Jan 26 (LT) The ways of solving the crisis between the JVP and the SLFP was lengthily discussed at the central committee of the SLFP held yesterday at about 7.30 p.m. in President’s House. Strong criticism of the President and the SLFP leadership in the Government by the JVP Minister K.D.Lal Kanthe too had been discussed. more..

Jan 26 (LT) A media meeting of the JVP which had been scheduled to take place at 11.00 a.m. today in Colombo was suddenly cancelled. Local as well as foreign media institutions had been invited for this media meeting, which the JVP had said will be addressed by senior leaders of the party more..

Jan 26 (CI) Sri Lankan temple musicians play drums to announce evening prayers in Hikkaduwa, some 100 km south of Colombo, 26 January 2005. more..

Jan 26 (WS) Home is a distant place in the far-off future for thousands of people living in coastal areas of Sri Lanka, says a Winnipeg doctor who just returned from a two-week mission to some of the areas hardest hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. more..

Jan 26 (NYT) In the pediatric ward of the town hospital, Sri Lanka's most celebrated tsunami orphan dozes, drools and when he is in a foul mood, wails at the many visitors who crowd around his crib. His identity is unknown. His age, according to hospital staff, is somewhere between four and five months. more..

Jan 26 (AFP) Sri Lanka's leading aid donors appealed to the government and Tamil Tiger rebels to forge a united front in their response to last month's tsunami disaster. Aid officials from the European Union, Japan, Norway and the United States met here Tuesday to review the island's peace process more..

Jan 26 (Reuters) As many Sri Lankans observed a minute's silence on Wednesday and prayed for the thousands killed by last month's tsunami, Buddhist monk Pittugala Sumana had no time to stop as he organised food for survivors. more..

Jan 26 (DN) Certain sections of the media and some political personages have ventured to misinterpret the President's call to all political parties to unite. The President made this appeal after launching a new housing project for the displaced in the Hambantota district. In the course of her address on the 19th of this month she said ...., more..

Jan 26 (BBC) One month on from the devastation of the Asian tsunami, development charity VSO says more than 200 volunteers are desperately needed to work in affected communities. While thousands of people offered to help the relief effort in the immediate aftermath, the focus is now turning to long-term projects requiring specific skills, more..

Jan 26 (IC) LIVERPOOL is set to twin with Sri Lanka's second biggest city in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, the Daily Post can reveal. The city council will officially announce the unprecedented move to twin with Galle later today. It will mean the city will have unique links with the port, more..

Jan 26 (IPS) The stress is beginning to show on Kasumathi Thangamani's face. She hardly smiles while rummaging through the remains of what was once her house in this small coastal hamlet, 60 kilometers north of the main eastern town of Batticaloa. more..

Jan 26 (Reuters) Asia's tsunami may have muffled the war drums between Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and the island's government, but the rebels are still recruiting child soldiers, the United Nations Children's Fund said on Wednesday. more..

Jan 26 (Reuters) Sri Lanka stocks rose to a third consecutive record high on Wednesday, driven mainly by foreign investor buying in bluechip shares which are expected to perform well this year, brokers said. The Colombo all-share index rose a provisional 0.61 percent, or 9.82 points, to 1,632.77 points. more..

Jan 26 (Reuters) There has been no train to Sri Lanka's southern Telwatta railway station for a month. The last one that took passengers from the small village on the country's southern shore never reached its destination. more..

Jan 26 (SFG) Inside the children's building of the public hospital in Maruthamunai, a silent jumble of empty white metal cribs screams out testimony to what happened here one month ago. It was the day of a full moon, or poya. The full-moon day is a monthly national holiday in the Buddhist tradition of this island nation more..

Jan 26 (GI) A Sri Lankan woman lights an earthenware lamp as she sits with others at Unawatuna Beach in Galle, some 123 km south of Colombo, 26 January 2005. more..

Jan 26 (LAT) The old man frowns and says he has had enough of the sea. For 55 years, Samson Silva thought he had worked out a partnership with the turquoise ocean waters that each morning responded to his visits by yielding a bounty of tuna, mullet and grouper. more..

Jan 26 (CI) New Zealand had a taste of their own medicine as they were forced to struggle for their winning runs in the third one-day match against the FICA World XI at Hamilton's Westpac Park. Having dismissed the World XI for 81, more..

Jan 26 (CNA) The tsunami on December 26 killed over 30,000 people in Sri Lanka and left nearly a million others homeless. Almost one third of those displaced are children. A month after the tsunami, these children still live in fear. The entire eastern coast of Sri Lanka was ruined by the December 26 tsunami. more..

Jan 26 (LBO) The government is doling out up to US$ 500 each for 40,000 families whose homes were completely destroyed by the tsunami. The government proposes to allocate US$ 200 and a cash advancement of US$ 300 per family for houses that were fully damaged by the tsunami, more..

Jan 26 (AFP) Sri Lanka has ruled out Tamil Tiger rebels receiving direct foreign aid to be distributed among tsunami survivors and said all external help must go through Colombo. President Chandrika Kumaratunga's spokesman Harim Peiris said there was no question of aid going directly to the LTTE, more..

Jan 26 (CBN) The whole world knows about the devastating tsunami tragedy in Asia. But there were also stories of incredible miracles during that crisis, including one man who stood against the waves to save some orphans. more..

Jan 26 (TN) Amid cries among those attending the various ceremonies, a highly emotional day of mourning was observed throughout the Northeast Wednesday on the 31st annivesary day of the Tsunami that devastated the Northeast on 26th of December. more..

Jan 26 (TN) A Southeast Asian Buddhist shrine made of wood that had drifted in the sea was found on the Vakarai beach Wednesday. Crowds from the Tsunami devastated village flocked to see the curious floating shrine. The decorated structure was borne by the tide through the estuary of the Vakarai lagoon and beached in the early hours of the morning Wednesday. more..

Jan 26 (HT) A development of great political importance is currently taking place in eastern Sri Lanka, because of the tsunami onslaught of December 26, 2004. Decades-old animosity between the Tamils and Muslims, which had led to displacement, land grabbing and massacres, is beginning to disappear, with the two communities bringing succour to each other in their hour of need. more..

Jan 26 (BBC) Sri Lanka's newspapers take a solemn overview of events, exactly one month after the Asian tsunami struck, killing over 30,000 people there. The distribution of aid is an issue of concern in several dailies, while some papers reflect on the enormity of the disaster by focusing on the damage caused to livelihoods and families. more..

Jan 26 (Yahoo) School children gather to look at photographs of classmates and parents who lost their lives to the Dec. 26 tsunami, at a beginning of a Buddhist memorial service, at Ambalantota Central College, Ambalantota, more..

Jan 27 (Xinhua) A Sri Lankan tsunami relief official said on Wednesday that the country is working hard to getmost affected children back to learning by the end of the month. "Our aim is to make sure as many children as possible to go back into academic work in a school environment,"said Dr. Tara deMel, more..

Jan 27 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan officials said Wednesday that they were still in the process of reconciling the death toll after one month of the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. Tilak Ranaviraja, the secretary to the Ministry of Law and Order, told reporters that only 22,000 people had been confirmed dead and another 17,000 is still missing. more..

Jan 27 (AP) A judge will begin hearing evidence next week from nine women who each claim that an infant dubbed "Baby 81" is her lost child, officials said Wednesday. One month after being separated from his family during the Indian Ocean tsunami, the child is still being cared for at a hospital in eastern Sri Lanka where he was the 81st admission on the day of the disaster. more..

Jan 27 (AN) More than 60 women’s groups have formed the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW) in Sri Lanka to address threats to the physical and psychological safety of women and children who survived the December 26 tsunami. more..

Jan 27 (TN) Religious dignitaries of all faiths and communities participated in the national mourning day held in Trincomalee playgrounds Wednesday evening and paid respect to the dead in the December 26 Tsunami which devastated the coastal villages in the Trincomalee district. more..

Jan 27 (GU) I cannot remember when or where I slept or what I last ate. I spend my time looking after 65 families who are living in my family compound. We have five big houses and they are full with people. There is no place for my own family. I have sent my wife and two children to Colombo to stay with friends. more..

Jan 27 (AFP) The United Nations children’s fund Wednesday accused Tamil Tiger rebels of recruiting at least 40 child soldiers since tsunamis devastated Sri Lanka’s coastlines and killed nearly 31,000 people. more..

Jan 27 (SI) Local fishers are being asked to help support devastated countries by donating fishing gear. Fishing industries in Sri Lankan and Indian and Asian countries have been devastated by the tsunami and Australian residents help rebuild the industry. more..