Mar 25 (BBC) Sri Lanka must speed up its post-tsunami relief effort, the vice president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has insisted. The official, Liqun Jin, spent two days travelling around the devastated areas to assess the scale of the destruction. more..

Mar 25 (BBC) Authorities on Thursday accused the media of spreading false rumours of another tsunami on 26 March. Following conflicting media reports some confused and panicked villagers living along coastal areas are getting ready to run away if there was another tsunami. more..

Mar 25 (BBC) Sports minister Jeevan Kumaratunga on Thursday dismissed Sri Lanka Cricket and appointed an interim board. The six-member interim board appointed by the minister is to be chaired by Jayantha Dharmadasa. more..

Mar 25 (AT) The Government and the LTTE have agreed on a structure of a joint mechanism for tsunami rehabilitation in North East Sri Lanka. After three rounds of face to face talks and protracted negotiations conducted through Norway’s shuttle diplomacy, the two sides are now closer to signing a deal. more..

Mar 25 (AT) In the 1970’s the Tiger Tamil rebel outfit was organized to end the atrocities unleashed by the Sinhala Government and Army and to stop the Sinhalese colonization in the hereditary Tamil homeland. One of the earliest members of the Tamil Tiger outfit was Raghavan. more..

Mar 25 (LT) Circular No. 18 on Managerial services which the former UNP government wanted to implement should be abolished and the right of pensions for government employees should be confirmed said Mr. Piyasiri Wijenayake, Member of Parliament for Kalutara District. more..

Mar 25 (LT) One more soldier serving for the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Haiti was reported dead (23rd) bay before yesterday. The deceased was one Lance Corporal J.B.G.J. Jayasinghe who was a resident at North Beliaththa. more..

Mar 25 (LT) The UNP says that monies of the President’s Fund have been misappropriated. UNP parliamentarian G.L.Peris said so in a media briefing held in Colombo today. According to audit reports, Development Lotteries Board has donated 631 million rupees to the President’s Fund, but the president’s reports put the figure at 156 million rupees. more..

Mar 25 (LNP) About 30 LTTE cadres, of the Vanni faction, sent on a mission to track down Karuna loyalists had disappeared in the east. Intelligence sources said that at least a few senior cadres were among the missing. The Vanni headquarters had directed the Ampara-Batticaloa leaders to track down the missing cadres. more..

Mar 25 (LNP) The JVP front organization Peoples' Movement for Protecting Schools (PMPS) said yesterday it would not involve school children in its protest campaigns against to the UPFA government's educational reforms. more..

Mar 25 (LT) The JVP says that it believes that the president has courage and determination to cast her vote against an Act the USA is going to present to the United Nations Organisation saying that Cuban Government is violating the human rights of its people. more..

Mar 25 (SAMN) THE long delay in granting internship appointments has led to a large-scale brain drain, with newly qualified medical graduates opting to seek greener pastures abroad. The delay has caused 1600 medical graduates to kill time till their internship appointments are granted in Government hospitals. more..

Mar 25 (ANN) Temporary shelter has become a top priority for the Tsunami affected masses with government’s efforts to provide permanent shelter running into snags. Authoritative government sources told "The Island" that it would take at least three years to build permanent houses for the tsunami victims, more..

Mar 25 (SAMN) Parliament Thursday agreed that Supreme Court rulings should be issued in all three Languages according to language rights contained in the constitution. The matter was brought before Parliament by Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, more..

Mar 25 (Jang) Pakistan A maintained their impressive momentum in the Triangular Series in Colombo, by powering to a 73-run victory over Sri Lanka A here at the Moors Sports Club ground on Thursday. Having bundled England out for 79 on Wednesday, Pakistan went to the other extreme yesterday, rattling up an impressive 290 for five after being asked to bat first. more..

Mar 25 (Jang) Sri Lanka Under-19s rattled up a score of 280 runs for four wickets, on the opening day of the four-day second Youth Test against the host Pakistan side, here at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Thursday. Their position could have been even better if the visitors had capitalised on the 140-run start given by their openers. more..

Mar 25 (TN) LTTE’s commitment to maintain the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with integrity and exercising flexibility in the matter of formulating proposals for a Joint Mechanism, remains undiluted, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan was quoted as saying by the LTTE website to the Austrian Government officials in Vienna on Thursday. more..

Mar 25 (TN) A concerted move bid by the Sri Lankan Navy to convert a French deep sea fishing trawler, SIMON KEGHIAN, which was gifted on humanitarian ground by a French Subsidiary company to help tsunami-devastated Sri Lankan fishermen in the South, has been widely exposed in French media. more..

Mar 25 (TN) Vadamaradchchi North Fisheries Societies Federation Wednesday decided to conduct a protest march on March 28 demanding the removal of 100 meter buffer zone, condemning the reintroduction of pass system by the security establishment for fishing and requesting the government to allow resettlement in high security zones, civil sources said. more..

Mar 25 (TN) The Business Development Centre (BDC) network Wednesday signed an agreement with K.Thurairajah and Sons Private Limited headquartered in Trincomalee to establish a modern ice plant with the Chinese technology with a capacity to produce seventy tones of ice per day. more..

Mar 25 (TN) Large number of devotees thronged at the historic Trincomalee Pathirakali Amman Temple to witness the annual chariot festival held Thursday morning. Three chariots one for Pillaiyar, other for Murugan and the third big one for Goddess Pathirakali Amman began their annual procession around the temple with devotees singing hymns. more..

Mar 25 (SN) Yesterday at the clock tower venue Buddhist Monk Ven. Hamulugamuwa Nandaretna, Viharathipathi of Mahadiulwewa Sri Pabatharama Raja Maha Viharaya, gave up his fast unto death and accepted a glass of King Coconut water offered by the Presidents envoy Mr.Miithreepala Siriseeena, more..

Mar 25 (SLA) LTTE PRABHAKARAN faction’s unwillingness to accept hitherto two dead bodies of their cadres, who were killed on Monday (21) during rivalry clashes with LTTE KARUNA’s cadres in SENAPURA, WELIKANDA areas, despite authentication of their LTTE identity, serves a classic example of how embarrassed were LTTE PRABHAKARAN’s men to receive mortal remains of their own cadres. more..

Mar 25 (LBO) Moves by the Sri Lankan government to slip in a law to mandate a pay hike among private businesses, has irked top trade chambers and the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon. The voting catching move for a Rs. 1,000 pay hike this year was earlier limited to state employees. more..

Mar 25 (PIS) THE Army yesterday categorically denied the existence of any LTTE camp in Government-controlled areas in remote Thivichchenai village in the Polonnaruwa district. It refuted allegations that this village was ringed by Army camps and detachments. more..

Mar 25 (LM) Rauff Hakeem, Leader of the SLMC, in Parliament yesterday, urged the government to prevent the construction of any more Buddha statues in the Muslim majority areas of the East in order to prevent possible communal clashes. more..

Mar 25 (LM) Secretary General of National Muslim Congress and former SLMC MP, H.M.M. Haress whilst applauding SLMC Leader, Rauff Hakeem, on his efforts to bring some hope for Muslims in the Tsunami rehabilitation and in the peace process, roared loud and strongly at Minister Athulla on his failure to help the battered Muslims of the East, more..

Mar 25 (AT) The Deputy Leader of the main Opposition, UNP, Karu Jayasuriya, told the Asian Tribune that they opposed the appointment of Kusumsiri Balapatabendi as High Commissioner to Australia when it came up before the High Post committee in Parliament. But they were outvoted by the majority of the government members, he added. more..

Mar 25 (AZC) When naturopathic doctor Eric Udell arrived in the tsunami-ravaged Sri Lankan village of Wellamada last month, the American doctor and his brand of medicine seemed strange to the villagers. Skeptical and curious, they lined up nonetheless, glad to see some form of medical aid that they so desperately needed. more..

Mar 25 (PA) Three months on from the December 26 tsunami, the Sri Lankan government is “dithering” over the rebuilding of permanent housing, a British aid agency worker said today. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the treacherous waves as they ripped up coastal communities and killed more than 30,000 people on the island. more..

Mar 25 (DN) THE Government has decided to go ahead with the Norochcholai Thermal Power Project with Chinese Government support. The agreement between the two countries will be signed when Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visits Sri Lanka on April 8, a Tourism Ministry spokesman told the Daily News. more..

Mar 25 (AFP) Children in this tsunami-battered village in southern Sri Lanka are painting to forget. Three months after losing their homes and loved ones, the pictures are getting brighter but the future still looks fuzzy. more..

Mar 25 (DPA) Sri Lanka’s foreign minister believes a deal with Tamil Tiger rebels to coordinate tsunami relief in guerrilla-held territory could be signed soon, despite opposition to the plan. “There seems to be a fair prospect that there will be an agreement. What I am being told is that there is movement,” more..

Mar 25 (ANN) Sri Lanka is committed to the ongoing UN military mission (MINUSTAH) deployed in Haiti, authoritative sources said. The government is divided over Lanka’s continuing role in the Caribbean island with the Marxist JVP demanding the immediate withdrawal of the over 800 strong battalion more..

Mar 25 (LNP) As part of a comprehensive modernization of Parliament, the first three out of nine projects identified by an expert research group will be implemented this year with United Nations Development Programme assistance. This includes the introduction of information technology to Parliament, more..

Mar 25 (Reuters) Sitting cross-legged in the shade of tsunami ruins, Arokiyanathan Anandarajah gazes despondently at the rubble-strewn beachfront of this once bustling fishing town in Sri Lanka's rebel-held north. more..

Mar 25 (CI) The government has taken over the management of Sri Lankan cricket, preventing the annual general election planned this weekend from going ahead. Jeevan Kumaratunga, the sports minister, justified the move on financial and administrative grounds, claiming "wastages" and "no accountability". more..

Mar 25 (PTI) Government has ruled out an early resumption of stalled peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels but said a deal on distributing aid for tsunami victims was possible. "A formal resumption of the peace process is very much on the backburner," Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar told more..

Mar 26 (BBC) Sri Lanka arrived in New Zealand on Friday for their re-scheduled Two-test series which was postponed in January following the tsunami in Asia. And captain Marvan Atapattu says it is important that the series goes ahead. more..

Mar 26 (BBC) Sri Lanka’s new cricket chief says he will run a “corruption free” administration until a new board is elected. Speaking exclusively with bbcsinhala.com from Dubai Jayantha Dharmadasa said he would not betray the trust placed upon him by the minister. more..

Mar 26 (HT) The Sri Lankan government-LTTE "Joint Mechanism" to administer post-tsunami reconstruction is entirely within the constitution of Sri Lanka and is not at all like the controversial Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) suggested by the LTTE in 2003. more..

Mar 26 (G2L) Walter’s Bay, the North American arm of the sprawling Bogawantalawa tea plantations of Sri Lanka bagged the covetous first place in the most watched event of the largest Tea show- the best commercially brewed black iced tea contest at the World Tea Expo held at the Las Vegas Hilton, that closed yesterday. more..

Mar 26 (TN) Several thousand devotees participated in the water-cutting festival of the historic Trincomalee Pathirakali Amman Temple held in the Back Bay Sea in the east port town Friday (March 25) early morning. more..

Mar 26 (TN) An organisation for the 'Samurdhi' poverty alleviation program officers in Sri Lanka's northeast and in the Nuwara Eliya District was inaugurated Friday in Vavuniya. Thousands of people living in poverty in several districts of the northeast do not receive any benefit under this program, more..

Mar 26 (TN) The Consortium of Welfare Centres for Internally Displaced Persons in Jaffna District Friday said that it would not accept alternate lands for their own lands now occupied by the government forces and declared as high security zones in the district. more..

Mar 26 (TS) EXACTLY three months ago today, early on Boxing Day morning, I was enjoying a rare day off and looking forward to lunch with my family at a beachside restaurant when the first sketchy information of the tsunami reached us. more..

Mar 26 (TT) Sri Lanka's chief tourist official this week thanked British travellers who have begun to return to the country and urged others to follow suit - particularly while they can still take advantage of "two-for-one" holidays offered following the tsunami disaster. more..

Mar 26 (AP) At a 300-year-old Buddhist temple near where the Asian tsunami swept up to 2,000 people aboard a train to their deaths, dozens of monks chanted blessings Friday at an all-night ceremony to help the wandering spirits of those killed three months ago. more..

Mar 26 (APP) The Pakistan Under-19 were in great trouble on Friday when the Sri Lankan bowlers took their five wickets for just 160 runs on the second day of the four-day Test at the Multan Cricket Stadium. more..

Mar 26 (ANN) Three months ago this day, struck by the worst ever disaster, we were a stunned nation. Our beaches, and towns and villages abutting them wore the look of a cemetery. Tens of thousands lay dead, many missing; their abodes no more. more..