Sep 29 (AP) The EU's ban on Tamil Tigers - and its veiled threat to brand the group "terrorists" - may force the rebels to re-think their violent tactics as they claim to support peace talks to end Sri Lanka's civil war, analysts said. more..

Sep 29 (IANS) After hosting Tamil Tiger guerrillas for over two decades, Europe has finally decided to show its displeasure with the world's most lethal insurgent group over its adamant refusal to give up violence. But Norway will not join the European Union (EU) decision not to receive any more LTTE delegation, but only because it is the mediator in peace process. more..

Sep 29 (CT) A proposal to make a constitutional amendment in Sri Lanka will be discussed by the national Parliament next week. The 19th Amendment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in December 2004 and has been placed on the Parliamentary Order Paper for a Second Reading on 4 October. more..

Sep 29 (AP) The main opposition candidate in Sri Lanka's upcoming presidential elections said Thursday that he and his longtime political rival, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, should try to agree on how to permanently end a simmering ethnic conflict in this South Asian nation. more..

Sep 29 (BBC) Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) say that there is no hurry for presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa to publish an election manifesto. However, the JHU Buddhist monk parliamentarian Athuraliye Rathana thero told BBC Sandeshaya that there will be a "public proclamation" on the policies of premier Rajapaksa prior to the closing day of nominations. more..

Sep 29 (BBC) President Chandrika Kumaratunge says whoever is going to come to power as president should exert to continue with the educational reforms introduced by her government. President Kumaratunge was addressing a ceremony held in her honour in Colombo to felicitate her for ten years of service to education. more..

Sep 30 (CI) The three four-day unofficial Tests against the touring New Zealand A team, next month, will provide the Sri Lanka A players with their final chance to catch the eye of the national selectors before their performances during 2005 are evaluated. more..

Sep 30 (TN) In the first public rally attended by Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge since her return from the UN annual general meeting in New York on Tuesday, she avoided making statements in support of her party's Presidential candidate Premier Mahinda Rajapakse, sources said. more..

Sep 30 (AT) To be economically prosperous a country should have an intelligent and healthy people, and in Sri Lanka health and education have become major constraints on the economy as the expenditure on these two annals are borne by the government. In these two areas somewhat success has been achieved and the private sector too is involved now. more..

Sep 30 (LT) A UN delegation including Mr. Wouter Wilton, permanent representative of UN in Sri Lanka met JVP leader Mr. Somawansha Amarasinghe in JVP headquarters at Nugegoda yesterday (29th). Mr. Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the JVP too was associated with Mr. Amarasinghe in the discussion. more..

Sep 30 (LT) Minister Mangala Samaraweera, media spokesman for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse in the Presidential campaign has complained to the President that his statements and communiqués are being censored by SLRC on orders from Mr. Nishanthe Ranathunga, Director General of SLRC. more..

Sep 30 (AT) Despite LTTE accusing the government of discriminating against the ethnic minority, the United States has long held that the outfit was not in fact a liberation movement but a terrorist organization, which position influenced the European Union to consider eventually to declare them as terrorists and in the meantime imposing travel ban to EU countries, last Monday. more..

Sep 30 (AT) As an essential contribution to help post-tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka, the European Commission (EC) has delivered to the Sri Lankan authorities very high-resolution satellite imagery of the entire affected coastline of Sri Lanka before and after the tsunami. more..

Sep 30 (AT) In the early Seventies, the IMF and its sister organization the World Bank had invented the Structural Adjustment Programme to exploit the Third World. They brought the Third World countries to their knees by liberally showering on them credit, that inevitably turned into debts that they could not repay. more..

Sep 30 (TBB) SriLankan Air Taxi, the domestic arm of SriLankan Airlines, will begin daily scheduled return flights from Colombo to Bentota and Koggala from 1st November, providing a further boost to the country’s tourism industry. more..

Sep 30 (TN) An electric short circuit was blamed for an early morning fire Thursday that gutted the luxury house located along Field Road in Mannar town rented by members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), sources in Mannar said. The short circuit was traced to an air conditioning unit in the basement of the house. more..

Sep 30 (TN) Ranil Wickremasinghe, the leader of Sri Lanka's opposition United National Party, in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga on Thursday emphasised that the solution to the national problem lay on a Federal structure to the war-torn North-East. more..

Sep 30 (TN) Two unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mr. Yogakumar Krishnapillai the distributor of the Batticaloa-Eelanatham newspaper. The killing took place in the heart of Batticaloa town on Central Road in front of HNB Bank, a high security area of Sri Lanka Army, Friday morning around 7:30 a.m. more..

Sep 30 (TN) An unidentified gunman shot and killed Abdul Hakeem, the leader of a Muslim armed Group. The incident took place at Palainagar, Mutthur, around 7.50 p.m., Thursday. His body was found riddled with eight bullets, the Police said. more..

Sep 30 (SLA) A civilian was gunned down by three unidentified pistol men , suspected to be Tamil Tigers on a motorbike (JH 0506) while the victim was in the general area of PALANAGAR, about 15 km south of TRINCOMALEE town on Thursday (29) night around 7.50 p.m. more..

Sep 30 (SLA) Naval troops in the general area of KADDAIPARICHCHAN, about 14 km southeast of TRINCOMALEE town on 29 September 2005 around 5.35 p.m. observed four Tamil Tigers engaged in video-filming the Naval camp and its surroundings. more..

Sep 30 (LM) Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse threatened to walk out of the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday after a heated exchange of words with President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The threatened walk out was triggered when the President presented a letter sent by UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya asking for clarification on the apparent contradiction in policies between the SLFP and its Presidential aspirant. more..

Sep 30 (LM) LTTE captured seven Muslims persons who had gone to Akkurana forest in the LTTE control area to cut tree. They are still detained by the LTTE. They are as follows- 1. Pakiri Muthu Basheer 2. Ali Ismail 3. Adhambava Vellaithamby 4. Asanar Muhamadu Nasar 5. Muhamadu Ismail Eliyas 6. Scapillai Ismail 7. Rasoor Maharoop more..

Sep 30 (LT) At a ceremony held in recognition of her services to education at the BMICH yesterday, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga disclosed that massive oil deposits has been detected along the coastal belt running from Putlam to Hambantota. more..

Sep 30 (LT) Messrs Wije Dias of the Socialist Equality Party and Shantha Dharmadwaja of the United National Alternative Front also made their deposits for the forthcoming presidential polls increasing the total number of deposits upto seven. more..

Sep 30 (LT) The work to rule action avoiding overtime carried out by the postal workers based on filling of vacancies, promotions, and salary anomalies has affected the postal delivery throughout the country. The discussions held between the Minister of Posts Mr D M Jayaratne and the Union has ended without a settlement. more..

Sep 30 (AT) In the backdrop of the series of Tamil resurgence events taking place in the North and East of Sri Lanka the LTTE and their Diaspora communities appear to have geared up for their unilateral declaration of Tamil State. more..

Sep 30 (LBO) Absorbing thousands of unemployed graduates into the public service has joined the usual list of breadwinners like telecom, manufacturing and agriculture to expand Sri Lanka's second quarter economy, the country's Central Bank said Friday. more..

Sep 30 (PIS) The United States yesterday welcomed the European Union travel ban on the LTTE and said it believed the ban would remain till the purpose of imposing it was achieved. Christina Rocca, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs said the EU ban reflected the international community's strongest message that acts of terrorism by the LTTE would not be tolerated. more..

Sep 30 (SAMN) Addressing a media conference at the Opposition Leader’s office yesterday, UNP Assistant General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the UNP was getting ready to solve the people’s burning issues unlike the JVP, the JHU and other parties who were getting together only to defeat the UNP and not to solve their problems. more..

Sep 30 (SAMN) If the LTTE was prepared give up its demand for Tamil Eelam or separate state the other people and groups of the country would no doubt meet them halfway for a non-military settlement to the problem of the North and East, JVP parliamentary group leader and co-coordinator of the Mahinda Rajapakse presidential election campaign Wimal Weerawansa said yesterday (29). more..

Sep 30 (SAMN) The recently announced European Union action falls far short of Sri Lanka’s call to enforce a US-style ban on the LTTE, authoritative sources said. "We appreciate their decision not to receive LTTE cadres in any of the member States until further notice. But this is not exactly we asked for," an official said more..

Sep 30 (LNP) President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who returned from cyclone hit America, had rapped two senior ministers, considered her confidantes, a day after return. She returned on Tuesday afternoon. The two politicians, holding key party posts as well as important positions in the UPFA parliamentary group, were ordered to leave when they met her at Janadhipathi Mandiraya, well informed sources said. more..

Sep 30 (LNP) The UNP`s hastily drawn up Presidential election manifesto was only a piece of paper containing a policy framework rejected by the people 11 times out of 12. But more importantly, it left out the main thrust of the Regaining Sri Lanka programme`s privatization of national ventures and assets, Minister Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday (29). more..

Sep 30 (LNP) The UNP yesterday said it would submit more evidence, on the `Helping Hambantota Account`, to the Bribery Commission. Kandy District UNP parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake told the media that they would furnish all information in their possession pertaining to the Rs 82.9 million in tsunami relief funds being deposited in the `Helping Hambantota Account`, more..

Sep 30 (LBO) The United States will restructure US$ 40 mn of Sri Lanka’s debt for this year, deferring payments for a year and freeing up cash for tsunami re-building. “The deferred debt will be repaid in seven equal semi-annual instalments, the first on December 01, 2006 and the last on December 01, 2009,” the Finance Ministry said more..

Sep 30 (DP) On its surface, the M.I.A. single "Sunshowers" is one of the most irresistible club bangers of the past decade.With the relentless 808 drum machines, M.I.A.'s oblique London colloquialisms and a restless hook, dance floors never stood a chance. more..

Sep 30 (Gulf) Three Scandinavian monitors escaped unhurt in a fire which engulfed their office-cum-residence in the north western Mannar district yesterday. The office had only hours earlier directed a pro-Tamil guerrilla front not to fly the guerrilla flag in a government-controlled area. more..

Sep 30 (HT) The United National Party (UNP) has failed in its bid to get the Crime Investigation Department (CID) to sully the image of the Prime Minister and Presidential candidate, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in the run up to the Presidential election. more..

Sep 30 (TN) About 10,000 square meter area in Kanniya and about 8,000 square meter area in Thiriyai in the Trincomalee district have been declared mine free by the Danish Demining Group (DDG), civil society sources in Trincomalee said. more..

Sep 30 (RW) Nine months after the devastating tsunami that struck Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004, the approximately 800,000 people directly affected by the disaster face tremendous uncertainty. The transition to the phase of long-term recovery is lagging. more..

Sep 30 (AFP) Sri Lanka plans to raise 100 million dollars through an international bond issue aimed at its nationals employed abroad, a Central Bank official said. The island hopes that its one-million work force employed overseas will subscribe to the bond issue which will help the government finance its ballooning oil import bill, more..

Sep 30 (UNI) Reacting to the European Union's travel ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels, the Sri Lankan government today said the EU's move would "influence the LTTE to resume the stalled peace talks" with the government and facilitate forward movement in the Norwegian-brokered process. more..

Sep 30 (DN) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday disclosed that a massive oil deposit has been detected along the Puttalam to Hambantota coastal belt. This rare resource that could take the country and its people to prosperity is to be exploited from next month, President Kumaratunga said. more..

Sep 30 (Gulf) Kumar Sangakkara is not just another wicketkeeper. He is technically one of the most perfect left-handed batsmen in the game today. The lean Sri Lankan has time and again guided his team to victories and now averages 48.02 in Tests, with an aggregate of 3,698 runs. more..

Sep 30 (LBO) The Railway Authority says it will help set up small businesses for the men manning its bamboo gates at level crossings, to ensure their presence at their posts. Of the 1175 level crossing in Sri Lanka, some 149 points are guarded by bamboo gates, operated manually by a local livelihood aid recipient. more..

Sep 30 (AP) A British man arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing Sri Lankan children was ordered detained until Oct. 7, an official said Friday. The ruling was made after the 51-year-old suspect appeared before the Magistrate Court Friday, said an official from the National Child Protection Authority, or NCPA. more..