Mar 2 (Xinhua) The Sri Lankan government has appointed a presidential probe committee to inquire into recent attacks against the Tamil Tiger rebels and escalation of violence in the east, a statement from the president's office said Tuesday. more..

Mar 2 (VV) Although M.I.A.'s "Galang" failed to render me instantly ecstatic the way a hot single should, soon enough Arular had my entire household dancing around the dining room. Compared to most grime or whatever, its nursery rhyme tunefulness breathed female principle. more..

Mar 2 (LM) The four dissident MPs of the SLMC are angered that the government has sidelined them, thus depriving them of serving the community they represent. They feel that though they are holding non-cabinet ministerial posts at district level, they are non entities in that the outside holders of portfolios are better off. more..

Mar 2 (TN) Discussions held Tuesday between the officials of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and representatives of Vadamaradchchi fisheries societies ended without resolving the dispute over deepening of about twenty one fisheries jetties covered with tsunami debris along the northern coast of Jaffna district. more..

Mar 2 (IL) Gampaha District UNP MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena has requested Director, UNHCR, Ruude Lubbers to take whatever appropriate action to ensure that the displaced Sri Lankan tsunami victims are resettled according to the universally accepted UN guideline principles on Internally Displaced Persons. more..

Mar 2 (LT) Kuilen, political leader of the tiger organization in Batticaloa has stated that the three tiger women cadres were shot down by members of security forces. He has further said that those who came for the shooting had spoken in ‘broken’ Tamil and hence they could not be from Karuna faction of the tiger organization. more..

Mar 2 (LT) A survey conducted has revealed that the damage for agriculture in Sri Lanka due to tsunami catastrophe is more than Rs.11.5 billion. This survey has been conducted by the ‘Green Movement’ together with University of Jaffna, Eastern University and University of Ruhuna. more..

Mar 2 (LT) The leader of the opposition, Ranil Wickramasinghe says that a national policy which does not change with the change of governments must be adopted if the country is to be developed according to some definite master plan. more..

Mar 2 (IL) AustraLanka Helpline today announced the release of tickets for 'Child Aid 2005' , a special concert showcasing top Australian talent designed to raise funds for a foster parents scheme to help children that have lost everything from the Tsunami in Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 2 (LNP) On the edges of large nature preserves in India, farmers and fishermen often protect themselves from wild tigers by wearing a false face mask on the rear of their heads. Tigers like to attack from behind, and this two-faced look evidently confuses them. more..

Mar 2 (LNP) University lecturers who supported the UPFA government at the last general election, yesterday threatened to withdraw their support if the proposed reforms in the education sector were implemented. more..

Mar 2 (LNP) Commandant of the Police Special Task Force, DIG Nimal Lewke yesterday categorically denied any involvement by the STF in any form in the Akkaraipattu shooting incident where a senior LTTE female leader and two other female cadres were wounded on Monday night. more..

Mar 2 (TP) A human rights group called the Human Rights Organisation (HRO) in the southern town of Galle says it has received about 200 complaints regarding incidents of injustice and irregularities caused to tsunami-displaced persons. more..

Mar 2 (TP) Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, currently visiting New Delhi to thank the Indian government for its support in tsunami relief work, told a distinguished Indian audience that it was time for India to speak her mind about the national problem of Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 2 (BBC) A Sri Lankan teenager who survived the Asian tsunami which claimed the lives of 100 of his family and friends is to be reunited with his father in London. Thanis Sinnathamby, 16, has been granted a visa to come to the UK to visit Sinnathamby Ponniah who has been living in Walworth, south-east London. more..

Mar 2 (TO) AT 62, Somasiri Kaluachchi is older than most of the survivors of the tsunami that washed away his village. But age and oppressive heat could not stop him joining neighbours and contractors to rebuild his home, one of the first permanent houses to be rebuilt after the Boxing Day disaster. more..

Mar 2 (SAMN) Three faculties of the Ruhuna University were shut down Tuesday after clashes between two student factions over the proposed university reforms. The violence began after students of a pro-JVP union launched a week-long protest against the proposed reforms including a decision to give private institutes the right to confer degrees. more..

Mar 2 (OW) We have just concluded our travel and arrived in Colombo on the 11th to conclude some last minute coordinating efforts before departing to Washington DC. As we look back, we are happy to share that we traveled to about 75% of the tsunami affected areas of Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 2 (SAMN) The Cultural Affairs and National Heritage Ministry has organised a special program in Kandy Wednesday to mark the day the patriot Ven. Wariyapola Sumangala Thera raised his voice against imperialism. The event is organised as the 500th anniversary of Portuguese invasion of Sri Lanka falls this year. more..

Mar 2 (SLBC) The JVP emphazies it will never leave the government. Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake points out that the dream of power hungry politicians of the opposition and a section of the private media is that the JVP would leave the government. more..

Mar 2 (SAMN) Environmentalists Tuesday protested the Government's decision to implement the first phase of the Upper Kotmale Power Project, which they called 'technically badly done, economically dubious and environmentally an insult.' more..

Mar 2 (TN) In camps off the North-East coast of Sri Lanka, over 300,000 people drink water from bowsers brought in from kilometres away. Dependant on an unsustainable water source, they are unaware of the NGOs' struggle with Sri Lanka's bureacracy and fight against Government's mechanisms to throttle relief reaching NorthEast. more..

Mar 2 (TN) Fisheries societies in Vadamaradchchi division, with funding assistance from the non-governmental organization Sewa Lanka, have initiated a project to remove debris from damage coral reefs found scattered in coastal areas due to tsunami disaster to allow normalization of fishing activities, sources said. more..

Mar 2 (LT) PLOTE member, Thangarasa who had been detained in Vaunia Tiger office for two days for interrogation and released later made a complaint to the Vaunia police and SLMM office in Vaunia that 8-10 more detainees are being held and subject to torture in Vaunia Tiger office. more..

Mar 2 (LT) A former Tiger activist Jhonsens Jayakanth who operated in the East at Karuna’s time had left the country with the split of the organization and resided at Thirukkovil on his return. He lived by the pseudo name Pradeepan to evade from Tiger threats. more..

Mar 2 (SN) Yesterday the JHU in announced that no discussion should be commenced with the LTTE on an ISGA. The JHU warned that they will take a decisive step within parliament and if the Government face to response the JHU was prepared to take it to the people and create a National opinion to prevent such talks. more..

Mar 2 (PRIU) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday 1st March met with a group of Sri Lankan participants of the forthcoming Future World Leaders Summit in Washington. The 58 students chosen from 23 leading schools in the island will leave on March 18. more..

Mar 2 (PRIU) New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff arrived in Sri Lanka for a three-day visit. He called on his Sri Lankan counterpart Lakshman Kadirgamar at the Foreign Ministry and conveyed condolence to the people of Sri Lanka on behalf of his government. more..

Mar 2 (PRIU) It is a little over two months since the word tsunami entered the local vocabulary. In Japanese tsunami means “harbor wave,” but tsunamis have little to do with tides. They emerge from the open ocean and pack enough energy to smash towns and drown the unwary. more..

Mar 2 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Ceylon Petroleum Corp. (Ceypetco) would soon finalise a government-to-government deal with India to import up to 2.7 million barrels of oil products for April to July, a Ceypetco official said on Wednesday. more..

Mar 2 (IPS) When forty seven year old businessman Anura Ananda opens the front doors of his drapery shop, he is now greeted with a clear view of waves lapping the beach. The shops that used to block the view were wiped off by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which caused more than 31,000 deaths in Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 2 (AD) The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents a major exhibition of Sri Lankan art in its only West Coast viewing, March 2–June 12, 2005. Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka is augmented at its Stanford venue by the additional display of an important collection of rare Sri Lankan palm leaf manuscripts and manuscript covers. more..

Mar 2 (ABC) In his young life, 4-month-old Abilass Jeyarajah — known to the world as "Baby 81" — has survived the tsunami in Sri Lanka and endured a legal battle to be reunited with his parents, becoming a symbol of hope during the tragedy. more..

Mar 2 (SLA) LTTE in the process of eliminating its rivals has missed its latest target when an ex-LTTE man managed to escape LTTE retaliation and reached the Special Task Force (STF) personnel on duty at the PATHIMAPURA Social Welfare Centre for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in KALMUNAI on 1 March 2005 around 4.30 p.m. seeking protection. more..

Mar 2 (SLA) A group of armed LTTE cadres have abducted a person while he was at his residence in the general area of VALAICHCHENAI on 27 February 2005 around 8.30 p.m. According to information, approximately six armed LTTE cadres have entered stormed the house of the victim, more..

Mar 2 (GDN) More than 100 garment factory workers staged a demonstration yesterday, claiming they had not been paid. Some of Garment International's Sri Lankan employees' homes were destroyed in the tsunami disaster and they say their families are desperate for cash. more..

Mar 2 (BT) SriLankan Airlines is to increase its capacity from Bahrain to Colombo, an official told Bahrain Tribune yesterday. “This is being done to accommodate additional passengers that we’re carrying these days and to cope with the rush,” said Sales Manager in Bahrain Dammikka Kulatunge. more..

Mar 2 (DN) A high level team comprising two senior Ministry officials and two senior cardiologists yesterday came to the conclusion that the mystery disease spreading in the Badulla area is a mild form of myocarditis. They said this was a very mild form. There were no deaths or adverse effects on the heart due to this disease. more..

Mar 2 (AP) More than 10,000 people demonstrated in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday against recent attacks on Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said. Some also accused the government of discriminating against minority-Tamil tsunami survivors in delivering aid. more..

Mar 2 (UNI) The Tamil militant group led by renegade rebel commander V Muralitharan, well-known as 'Colonel' Karuna, had emerged as a formidable opponent to the mainstream Tamil Tiger rebels especially in the Eastern Amparai district, STF Deputy Inspector General of Police (GIG) Nimal Lewke has said. more..

Mar 2 (AFP) President Chandrika Kumaratunga has ordered an investigation into increased attacks on Tamil Tiger rebels who warned that the violence will have "far-reaching consequences" for a fragile truce. The rebel LTTE said the attacks were aimed at provoking them more..

mar 2 (AFP) The Sri Lankan Police on Wednesday arrested a senior civil servant on a charge of siphoning off relief aid meant for thousands of tsunami survivors in the island's devastated North East, a police official said. more..

Mar 2 (BBC) An organisation of disabled people in Sri Lanka calls upon the government to take access of the disabled into account in post tsunami reconstruction. Project co-ordinator of Motivation Thanusha Navaratne said that the government should take the opportunity of post tsunami reconstruction to overcome lack of facilities for the disabled in Sri Lanka. more..

Mar 2 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are fascists who deserve neither self-rule nor direct tsunami aid, the government's Marxist ally said on Wednesday, vowing to quit and topple the ruling coalition if it agrees to either. more..

Mar 3 (AT) Sri Lanka has been fortunate enough to survive without war for the past three years, and a sigh of relief passed over the country as it marked the third anniversary of the cease fire agreement signed between the government and the rebel LTTE on February 22, 2002. more..

Mar 3 (LM) The Chief of the Islamic Centre of North America (ICNA) Relief Organisation, Mr Irfan Khurshid called on the Leader of the SLMC, Mr Rauff Hakeem, at the latter's residence in Colombo, today. The discussions between the two leaders centred on relief efforts after Tsunami. more..

Mar 3 (ICRC) The tsunami caused by the undersea earthquake that struck near Sumatra on 26 December 2004 devastated coastal areas in the north, east, south and south-west of Sri Lanka. More than 30,000 Sri Lankans lost their lives in the disaster, over 15,000 in the north and east. more..

Mar 3 (TN) Medical students of Jaffna University Wednesday demonstrated against Sri Lanka Government's decision to establish aprivate medical college. Medical students boycotted classes and participated in the protest held at Thirunelveli junction, sources said. more..

Mar 3 (TN) Sinhala nationalists Wednesday declared 2 March as national ‘Anti-neo-colonialism Day’ at a rally to mark to commemorate Ven. Wariyapola Sumangala, the Buddhist monk who pulled down the Union Jack and hoisted the Sinhala lion flag 190 years ago. more..

Mar 3 (IFEX) The Free Media Movement (FMM) is appealing for international support to help rural journalists in Sri Lanka recover from the devastating effects of the December 2004 tsunami. The IFEX member recently completed field visits to areas affected by the disaster and found that many provincial journalists were in need of basic equipment to carry out their work. more..