Nov 17 (LBO) Sri Lanka's trade deficit for the first nine months expanded further, as a hefty oil import bill continued to take its toll on the country’s meager earnings, the Central Bank said Wednesday. The tropical island's US$ 20 billion economy is presently creaking under the strain of high international oil prices and double-digit inflation. more..

Nov 17 (AT) The number 13 figures prominently in this presidential election. There are 13 candidates competing to win the hearts and minds of 13 million voters. This is also Ranil Wickremesinghe's 13th attempt to win power. 56-year-old Wickremasinghe, the leader of the opposition, has lost 12 times before. more..

Nov 17 (LD) On 12 November 2005, Vaithiyanathan Loganathan, aged fifty-five and resident in Neuss, Germany, was brutally attacked by three to four men. Mr. Loganathan, known in the Tamil community as Loganathan Master, was a teacher at Central College in Jaffna in the early 1980s and has since been resident in Germany for the last two decades. more..

Nov 17 (TG) On one level it is a petty village squabble. But almost a year after the Boxing Day tsunami struck, killing 40,000 people, tiny Peraliya's problems could represent those of the whole country. more..

Nov 17 (TI) Kaluachchi Chaminda, a fellow fisherman, agrees. Mr Chaminda does not even have a temporary hut. His wife and all his children died in the tsunami. Now he is alone, and homeless. He roams around, sleeping on the floor of friends' huts or in the local Buddhist temple. more..

Nov 17 (ANN) Today is E-Day. Sri Lanka is poised to elect its fifth Executive President. The contest looks a neck-to-neck race with two candidates ahead of the rest and, weather behaving, heavy polling is expected. Conflicting reports were reaching Colombo from Kilinochchi yesterday (Nov 16) as to the LTTE's stand on the polls. more..

Nov 17 (AP) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the presidential candidate of Sri Lanka's governing party and a self-described "proud son of Sri Lanka," has campaigned on the simple message that his country must remain whole. more..

Nov 17 (AP) Security forces guarded polling sites across Sri Lanka Thursday as voting began in an election seen as a referendum on the peace process in a country bloodied by more than two decades of civil war. more..

Nov 17 (Hindu) SRI LANKA's 13.32 million voters have a vital task to perform on November 17. The fifth Presidential election is about much more than determining whether Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse or Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will be at the helm of affairs in the conflict-scarred island-nation for the next six years. An entire nation is at the crossroads. more..

Nov 17 (AFP) Presidential elections got underway Thursday as officials feared overnight violence that killed at least six people could scare away voters in embattled regions. Police and security forces kept up a red alert across the island as voting opened at 7.00 a.m. (0100 GMT) to elect Sri Lanka's fifth executive head of state. more..

Nov 17 (FT) Polling began in Sri Lanka on Thursday amid tight security, with a too-close-to-call contest between two candidates with radically opposing views on how to settle their country's 20-year civil war with Tamil separatists. more..

Nov 17 (TN) Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and police personnel of the Sri Lanka Police deployed in main junctions and near schools in the Trincomalee town since the controversy of the illegal erection of Buddha statue in the vicinity of the Trincomalee central bus stand have been withdrawn to barracks from Thursday more..

Nov 17 (TN) Very low attendance of voters was reported at the cluster-polling booths in the North-East as the voting in Sri Lanka to elect the fifth executive president began at 7:00 a.m Thursday. Situation in Jaffna remained calm in complete contrast to the polls eve marred with grenade attack incidents in the peninsula. more..

Nov 17 (LBO) Sri Lanka's tiny stockmarket plunged on the day of the presidential election with investors cashing out on fears that a crucial Tamil vote will not help the market-friendly opposition leader's victory. During a short three-hour stint of trading, the benchmark All Share Price Index dropped 57 points or about 2.2 percent to 2,494, more..

Nov 17 (LBO) The number of men and women moving to richer countries in search of better paying jobs, will increase further over the next 20 years. A World Bank report says aging labour forces in Europe, Japan and the US will pull in large chunks of working age men and women from developing countries. more..

Nov 17 (SLA) A SPATE OF TAMIL TIGER (LTTE) VIOLENCE, orchestrated in the north and east on the eve of Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election and Election Day saw four soldiers and one Policeman receive serious injuries, murder of civilians and political activists, attempted murders, grenade attacks against Tamil Tiger rivals or political offices, etc. more..

Nov 17 (AT) Somawansha Amarasinghe, Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP), appeared on ITN TV channel and Rupavahini during their noon news broadcasts today and stated that the UNP, enraged by certain defeat, is resorting to spread falsehoods. more..

Nov 17 (AT) The Tamil rebel outfit LTTE has let loose threat and intimidation in the North and East of Sri Lanka as the eligible voters in the other parts were set to elect the fifth executive president of the country. more..

Nov 17 (AT) Day-before-yesterday (15 November) 13 soldiers who were incarcerated at the Boyagane, Kurunegala Army Camp Jail have escaped, according to Army information. A senior Army Officer has revealed that when the prison gates were opened for the jailed soldiers to have their dinner, the imprisoned soldiers have assaulted those soldiers who brought the dinner and escaped. more..

Nov 17 (LT) JVP Parliamentarian Mr. Premasiri Mannage was injured in a clash that had occurred at a polling centre in Galle this evening. UNP Parliamentarian Mahinda Wijesekera had broken into the polling booth with about 150 of his supporters and created a disturbance. more..

Nov 17 (SAMN) Key campaign organizers of the UPFA candidate Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday accused the private media for continuing election publicity after Tuesday’s deadline and warned legal action would be taken against the offending media stations. more..

Nov 17 (SAMN) The PAFFREL interim report on media behaviour on the Presidential election has stated that the State media, both print and electronic, have been heavily biased in favour of the UPFA candidate Mahinda Rajapakse. The report also stated that the State media had allocated more time to the ruling party candidate Mahinda Rajapakse. more..

Nov 17 (SAMN) The commencement of reconstruction work of the Sri Sumangala College, Panadura was held on November 15 at the college premises. The estimated cost of the construction is Rs. 283 million. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) assisted in the preparation of the designing of the school building. more..

Nov 17 (SLE) Senior JHUer and Ex. Senior DIG, H. M. G. B. Kotakadeniya said that he firmly believes that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse will hold the scales evenly in all matters pertaining to the minorities and majority community. “We have to settle for good decisions taken on the basis of consideration of race, religion, caste, creed etc.” more..

Nov 17 (SLE) Every single Muslim vote cast for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse's victory would be vote ensuring the rights of Muslims in this country to live with respect as equal citizens with dignity Minister for Trincomalee District Development, Najeeb A. Majeed said yesterday. more..

Nov 17 (SLE) Polls chief Dayananda Dissanayake yesterday warned the two main candidates that in case of any intimidation, malpractices and violence during voting at polling stations from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. today he would annul the polls in the said centres and call for a re-poll on November 19 which would result in delaying the announcement of the final results. more..

Nov 17 (SLE) Both, the ruling party and the UNP, yesterday claimed victory at today’s presidential poll, as police and foreign-funded local NGOs, monitoring the poll, acknowledged that there was a significant reduction in pre-poll incidents. more..

Nov 17 (SLE) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday requested all citizens to act peacefully and exercise their right to vote at today's presidential poll. In her address to the nation over TV, President Kumaratunga said her government had ended the tradition of imposing a curfew after polls. more..

Nov 17 (DN) Two local monitoring bodies and three main international organisations will have access to polling centres to monitor the Presidential Election today. PAFFREL and CMEV have been permitted by the Elections Commissioner to deploy stationary observers at polling centres more..

Nov 17 (LNP) More than 13 million people are eligible to vote at today`s Presidential polls to elect Sri Lanka`s fifth Executive President into office. These voters will cast their ballots for the presidential candidate of their choice at 10,486 polling booths in the country in 22 electoral districts. more..

Nov 17 (LNP) Asoka Peiris appointed to oversee the state electronic media is believed to have met Rupavahini Chairman M.M.Zuhair at the latter`s office. Peiris, of the Administrative Service, is believed to have asked Zuhair not to sponsor a musical show that was to be held at the Independence Square today with the participation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse. more..

Nov 17 (AFP) Polling booths in this de facto border post were built for minority Tamils, seen as potential kingmakers in Sri Lanka's presidential elections Thursday, but only four turned up to vote. Election official P. Paskaran said 64 polling booths in this frontier area of Sri Lanka, racked by ethnic conflict, saw only four people cast ballots in the first four hours. more..

Nov 17 (BBC) Polling has now ended in a presidential election observers say will be key to Sri Lanka's future. However, most members of the Tamil minority in areas controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebels boycotted the poll. That could harm the main opposition candidate, the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. more..

Nov 17 (HT) Bomb blasts and a call for boycott by the LTTE had led to very low polling in the Tamil areas of the troubled North Eastern Province in the Sri Lankan Presidential election till mid day on Thursday. Outside the North East, about 50 to 60 per cent had polled by noon, an Election Commission official said. more..

Nov 17 (AP) Burning tires, well-armed rebels and sporadic explosions blocked thousands of minority Tamils from voting Thursday for a new president of Sri Lanka, a country bloodied by decades of civil war and devastated by last year's tsunami. more..

Nov 17 (Reuters) An election worker carries a ballot box as they are distributed for transportation to various regions of Colombo November 16, 2005 ahead of Sri Lanka's presidential election. more..

Nov 17 (Reuters) A pall of smoke from burning tyres on the edge of no-man's land in eastern Sri Lanka is enough to deter any voter wishing to cross from Tamil Tiger areas to vote in Thursday's presidential poll. more..

Nov 17 (Reuters) Sri Lankans voted in a closely fought presidential poll on Thursday seen as a referendum on how to rescue the country's faltering peace process and tsunami-hit economy, but a Tamil Tiger boycott and sporadic violence marred the election. more..

Nov 17 (AFP) Ten people have been wounded after unidentified attackers lobbed grenades at polling booths in the volatile northeast of Sri Lanka. The Thursday attack ripped through a booth at Chenkaladi, in the district of Batticaloa, wounding two women and five men. more..

Nov 17 (Reuters) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse puts his ballot into a box as his wife Shirani looks on at a Madamula college polling station in Weeraketiya, 220 km (137 miles) from Colombo more..

Nov 17 (Reuters) Sri Lankan presidential candidate and leader of the main opposition party, Ranil Wickremesinghe (R), and his wife Maithree walk toward a polling station in Colombo, more..

Nov 17 (AFP) Opposition candidate for president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, voted saying his first priority if elected would be to cut a peace deal with the Tamil Tigers. Wickremesinghe and his wife Maithree voted at the "College House" polling booth in Colombo, where he told reporters he was confident of becoming the island's fifth executive head of state. more..

Nov 17 (Xinhua) Counting of vote in Sri Lankan fifth presidential election started at 7:30 p.m. Thursday following polling booths closure. Election officials said counting of ballot papers cast Thursday would begin around 7:30 p.m., and it is expected to have all results available by early Friday morning. more..

Candidate	| Votes	| (%)
Mahinda Rajapaksha (UPFA)	4,880,950	50.3
Ranil Wickramasinghe (UNP)	4,694,623	48.4
Siritunga Jayasuriya (USP)	35,319	0.4
Achala Suraweera (JSP)	31,155	0.3
Victor Hettigoda (ELPP)	14,447	0.1
Chamil Jayaneththi (NLF)	9,286	0.0
Aruna De Zoysa (RJP)	7,671	0.0
Wimal Geeganage (SLNF)	6,633	0.0
Anura De Silva (ULF)	6,345	0.0
Ajith Kumara (DUA)	5,047	0.0
Wije Dias (SEP)	3,488	0.0
Nelson Perera (SLPF)	2,516	0.0
Shantha Dharmadwaja (UNAF)	1,310	0.0

Nov 18 (AP) Suspected separatist rebels tossed grenades into a Mosque during morning prayers Friday, killing at least four Muslim worshippers, police said. The attack came a day after Sri Lanka held its presidential election, which was boycotted by the Tamil Tiger rebels. more..

Nov 18 (AP) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse's office claimed Friday that he has won Sri Lanka's presidential election based on unofficial returns and appealed to supporters to celebrate peacefully. No formal announcement had been made by the election commission, which was still counting votes. more..

Nov 18 (TN) State armed forces who were taken out from the sentry points in the Trincomalee town Thursday early morning took up their positions again following the closure of Sri Lanka presidential polling in the evening. more..

Nov 18 (TN) A communiqué issued by the LTTE Political Division, Amparai District, Friday, has condemned the attack on innocent Muslim civilians congregated for prayers at the Grand Mosque, Akkaraippattu, during early hours, Friday. more..

Nov 18 (SLA) The hysterical crime wave of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in the north and east after the LTTE had ordered the masses to boycott the Sri Lankan Presidential Election just ended continues to claim more and more innocent lives as well as other damages including many gunfire and hand grenade attacks. more..

Nov 18 (SLA) TWO TAMIL TIGERS poised to harm Security Forces and Police personnel have fallen into their own snare and died on the spot following an explosion today (17) around 1.35 p.m. in the general area of PANDIRIPPU, KALMUNAI. more..