Sep 10 (TN) Two day workshop for the Tamil women teachers in the Trincomalee district, on the role of women teachers in the trade unionism, concluded on Thursday. The workshop was organized by the Sri Lanka Women Teachers Network (SLWTN) in collaboration with the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) more..

Sep 10 (TN) Civil groups in Mannar district Friday appealed to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to take immediate steps to bring back all withdrawn LTTE political cadres to the government controlled areas and provide necessary assistance enabling them to recommence their political activities. more..

Sep 10 (TN) Displaced families in Jaffna district have begun submitting individual memoranda to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) seeking its intervention to resettle them in their lands and houses now being occupied by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), civil society sources said. more..

Sep 10 (TN) Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Special Task Force (STF) soldiers blocked six access routes to LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa district from Friday morning. A boat service, two ferry services and three land routes were blocked for all traffic between the LTTE controlled areas and SLA controlled areas more..

Sep 10 (BBC) A new row had developed between the President Chandrika Kumaratunge and the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse over the agreement the Prime Minister had signed with the JVP. Sources close to the president told the BBC, the letter was sent to the PM on a SLFP letter head. more..

Sep 10 (BBC) SLFP still believe in a federal system,says Minister Mangala Samaraweera. The Minister was explaining the government's stand at a news conference jointly called on Friday by the SLFP and JVP to clerify the current situation that has come up as a result of the deal Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse signed with the JVP. more..

Sep 10 (BBC) Norway has expressed its concerns over the continuing violence in Sri Lanka. The Norwegian Government in a statement said that they were deeply concerned by the continuing violence in Sri Lanka over the past months, which undermines the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. more..

Sep 10 (AT) The Norwegian lead SLMM has, acknowledged the presence of a strong breakaway faction of the LTTE which is fighting the Vanni LTTE in the East. SLMM spokesperson Ms. Helen Olafsdottir said that truce monitors patrolling areas dominated by Karuna cadres had met some renegade cadres. more..

Sep 10 (AT) The JVP is pleased with the recent accord between the JHU, advocating the Sinhalese, Buddhist cause in the country and SLPF presidential candidate, Mahinda Rajapakse, which supports the latter in the forthcoming presidential election. more..

Sep 10 (AT) The Sathosa (CWE) Employees Union which went hammer and tongs demanding the reviving of the now defunct largest retail network in the country, but now they appeared to have given up the protest campaign. Some workers pointed out several shortcomings for the failure of this giant retail network. more..

Sep 10 (AT) The JVP party, who met the special envoy of UN Secretary General Koffi Anon, Lakhdar Brahini recently urged him to take a firm stand against the LTTE and insist countries to discontinue their support to the Tamil terrorist group. more..

Sep 10 (CO) The agreement between the JVP and Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, who is backed by the JVP for the upcoming Presidential election, would disrupt the peace process underway in the island nation, MDMK, General Secretary, Vaiko said today. more..

Sep 10 (SPUR) The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) is extremely disappointed with the statement made by the EU commissioner for external affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. more..

Sep 10 (LT) President Chandrika Kumaratunga will leave to New York tonight to address the State Leaders' summit of the UNO. She has taken pains to accompany a large contingent to the USA mainly to hinder the presidential campaign of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse say those favourable to him. more..

Sep 10 (LT) The future of this country should be determined by the descendants of Bandaranaykes said Mr. Anura Bandaranayke, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism. He emphasized that SLFP could not be auctioned according to the whims and fancies of certain individuals. more..

Sep 10 (LT) The President has announced that the presidential candidature of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse will have to be reconsidered if he acts against the policies of SLFP. She has sent an official letter to the Prime Minister informing this and has asked him to send an explanation as early as possible. The President has sent this letter last afternoon. more..

Sep 10 (Hindu) President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday expressed dissatisfaction over the poll pact between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and the former ruling ally, JVP, sources close to her said. In an "intra-party letter," Ms. Kumaratunga expressed displeasure at Mr. Rajapakse not consulting her before concluding the agreement. more..

Sep 10 (TNN) Dancer-cricketer-bookie -underworld-Bollywood nexus is getting murkier. Apart from the top-flight Sri Lankan spinner who was known to frequent the Deepa ladies dance bar in Vile Parle, a star batsman in the team was also a patron. On September 1, TOI had reported on the links between the spinner and Deepa bar. more..

Sep 10 (SC) Sri Lanka 'A' beat South Africa 'A' by six wickets with a day to spare in the first 4-day match played at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo. Resuming the third morning on 108 for 6, the South Africans added 65 runs before they were bowled out for 173. more..

Sep 10 (FL) ENDING a phase of political uncertainty, the Supreme Court on August 26 ordered the holding of the next presidential election later this year. A five-member Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, in a unanimous verdict, ruled that Chandrika Kumaratunga's second - and final - term as President would end on December 22, 2005 more..

Sep 10 (UTHR) The life and death of journalist Dharmaretnam Sivaram reflect the advance of impunity on both sides of the ethnic divide. A number of Sinhalese intellectuals have rightly condemed Sivaram’s murder, pointing out that he challenged them in his writings, not with a gun and that it called for a civilised political response. more..

Sep 10 (TN) Asserting that "a major political change is needed if all communities are to live together in Sri Lanka," Teresita Schaffer, former U.S Ambassador to Sri Lanka, said at a US Congressional briefing of the Sri Lanka Caucus on Thursday that she hoped "Sri Lanka won’t throw away chances for this in the election campaign." more..

Sep 10 (LM) A workshop of the SLMC to seek peoples' opinion on the role of the party during the forthcoming Presidential elections was held at the IBM Hall in Puttlam. Participants who are internally displaced Muslims from Vanni, living as refuges in Puttlam for the last 17 years are also strong supporters of the SLMC. more..

Sep 10 (CT) In general poor masses think that rich masses are entitled to education facilities in international schools due to the various reasons. However, the international schools vow on current educational legal frame work and lack of some other facilities which they need. more..

Sep 10 (PIS) With a deadlock over the venue for talks on reviewing the implementation of ceasefire agreement the government was said to propose a new venue after the LTTE had rejected the suggestion by the Norwegian facilitators that the talks be held at the Colombo Airport. more..

Sep 10 (SLBC) The Ministry of Agriculture says the government has purchased nearly 13 thousand metric tons of paddy up to date. Over nine thousand metric tons out of the total have been purchased through the cooperative societies throughout the country while the rest has been purchased by the agricultural centres and agricultural societies. more..

Sep 10 (PIS) The Japanese Government extending further support for demining operations in Sri Lanka has provided a further grant amounting to US$ 1,845,721 (approximately Rs. 185 million) to five International NGOs in order to accelerate landmine clearance activities in the North and East. more..

Sep 10 (TP) Residents of the central town of Wariyapola came out in their numbers on Thursday to honour a police officer who was killed while trying to chase away a wild elephant, newspapers said. Several shops were closed and white flags were seen in houses both in Wariyapola and Seeduwa more..

Sep 10 (SAMN) The government said yesterday that there was no need to meet the LTTE abroad, since the proposed talks were aimed at reviewing the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement. more..

Sep 10 (SAMN) The UNP plans to rectify the controversial tsunami aid sharing deal a.k.a Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS). "We agree with the P-TOMS concept," UNP frontliner Mano Wijeratne, MP, said, acknowledging the need to amend the Oslo-arranged deal and make it operational. more..

Sep 10 (SAMN) SLFP Presidential candidate and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse will not base his decisions as President of Sri Lanka on a fear of going back to war, his campaign organiser, Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday. more..

Sep 10 (LNP) The UNP has requested Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara to remove former UNP MP and now UPFA Minister Rohitha Bogollagama from the chairmanship of the parliamentary watchdog on public enterprises'COPE. more..

Sep 10 (DN) "250 backwards villages in the Degamadulla division is to be devloped. The present Government has launched a special programme to uplift the living condition of these villagers", said the Housing and Construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development Minister Ferial Ashraff more..

Sep 10 (BO) Sri Lanka has expressed its interest to import medicines worth about Taka 300 crore from Bangladesh a year. Health and family planning welfare minister Dr Khandokar Mosharraf Hossain disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing newsmen after returning home from Sri Lanka more..

Sep 10 (GT) Sri Lankan authorities yesterday began investigating a bomb hoax aboard a Saudi Arabian Airlines jumbo jet that sparked a stampede in which a woman passenger was killed, an official said. “We are trying to trace the call which initially came to the airport telephone operator and then connected to the control tower,” more..

Sep 10 (AFP) Bangladesh will be hoping for a huge reversal of fortunes in a two-Test series against Sri Lanka which begins at the R. Premdasa Stadium here on Monday. Bangladesh were blanked 3-0 in the one-dayers and thrashed by 10 wickets in a preceding one-day practice match before again struggling in a drawn three-day warm-up game ahead of the Tests. more..

Sep 10 (AFP) Deep differences within Sri Lanka's government over peace moves with Tamil Tiger rebels have spilled into the open with outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga publicly slamming her premier. more..

Sep 10 (Reuters) President Chandrika Kumaratunga criticised her prime minister on Saturday for forging a pact with hardline Marxists, exposing a rift analysts said could cost him votes in upcoming presidential election. more..

Sep 10 (LM) President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday put her foot down against the newly signed pact between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and the JVP saying that several clauses contradicted the accepted policies of the SLFP and reiterated that she was in charge of the party committee drawing up the manifesto for the presidential election. more..

Sep 11 (TN) Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police instituted strict surveillance of Mannar district by establishing several roadblocks and sentry points in several key roads and junctions. Residents of Mannar town were perturbed Saturday morning when they were subjected to severe body checks passing through newly set up roadblocks and checkpoints, residents said. more..

Sep 11 (TN) Mr.Dayananda Dissanayake, Commissioner of Elections is awaiting clarification of the final paragraph of the landmark judgement delivered on August 12 by the Supreme Court directing him to hold the presidential election before the end of the year 2005. more..

Sep 11 (AT) Jayantha Dhanapala, President’s senior advisor and Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat continued his diplomatic endeavor on Friday, September 9 to impose his cogent arguments on top policy makers and diplomats in the South Asia Division of the U.S. Department of State here that more..

Sep 11 (AT) The UPFA is born again. This is evident in the recent agreement between the Prime Minister and the JVP. According to media reports Mr. Rajapakse will contest under the UPFA symbol, and as the candidate of the UPFA. more..

Sep 11 (AT) This is a tentative analysis and not a prediction of the outcome of the coming presidential elections. At this early stage, without even an opinion poll indicating the probable trends, it is not realistic to venture into the realm of prediction which, in any case, is a hazardous exercise. more..

Sep 11 (AT) All countries have done well which based their agriculture and small industries as the backbone of their economies. Unfortunately Sri Lanka without any strong national policy in trade or industry, everything pertaining to these aspects of the economy has gone haywire. more..

Sep 11 (AT) The Lion Brewery Ltd (CBL) as in the case of other manufacturers, were facing a huge problem of disposing their waste, specially the waste water sludge which is known as spent yeast a by-product of the brewery. more..

Sep 11 (LT) “EAP” News Network Chairman Mrs. Soma Edirisinghe has donated Rs 20 million to Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe. This has been given for his election propaganda work. Mr. Selvanayagam, Proprietor of EAP Technologies Ltd who is also a Shareholder of “Swarnawahini” has handed over this money to the Mr. Malik Samarawickrama more..

Sep 11 (LT) Mr. Susil Prema Jayantha in a letter to the Election Commissioner has requested to pay special attention to the polling stations in the North East Provinces as there may be influence from the Tiger terrorists. more..

Sep 11 (SLBC) The Ministry of Finance has undertaken an initiative to boost investment of opportunities. As its first step, on a special invitation of the government of Japan Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama will leave for Japan today to explore possibilities of attracting more foreign investments for the country. more..

Sep 11 (BBC) The complainant of the case, against the three Sri Lankans charged with theft and threathing civilians in Saudi Arabia has agreed to pardon them and not ask for compensation for the injuries he received. more..