Jan 13 (SAMN) In the wake of recent LTTE attacks in various vulnerable areas, the Army is to be deployed around the perimeter of the Sacred Jayasri Mahabodhiya in Anuradhapura, replacing the police guards. more..

Jan 13 (LNP) Prisons officials handed over one of their colleagues to the CID for forging President Mahinda Rajapakse`s signature on a letter recommending him to secure a jailer post in Welikada Prison, sources said yesterday. more..

Jan 13 (LNP) UNP Deputy General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said in Colombo yesterday that with the National Police Commission rendered inactive, lists are reportedly being prepared at `Temple Trees` to effect the transfers of a large member of police officers, including one hundred officers in charge of police stations. more..

Jan 13 (LNP) President Mahinda Rajapakse said yesterday he would approach the diplomatic community in Colombo in a bid to strengthen the international presence in the country`s shaky peace process. President said he would approach diplomatic missions such as those of the US, India and China and get them involved in the peace process. more..

Jan 13 (DN) President Mahinda Rajapakse will hand over ownership deeds to 800 independent housing units to plantation workers in the Nuwara Eliya district soon, said S.J.Pathirana, Secretary to the Ministry of Estate Infrastructure and Livestock Development. more..

Jan 13 (CI) If Sri Lanka faced a daunting ask when they started their innings, after 15 overs that had become an impossible one as Brett Lee's opening two-wicket burst and a third from Nathan Bracken all but ended this match as a contest. At the drinks interval, Sri Lanka were 3 for 40, needing another 279 off 35 overs. more..

Jan 13 (SLBC) Small and medium scale factories will be set up at district level. Every district will get 20 factories each. According to a budget proposal, financial allocations needed for this task will be given under the Lankaputhra Bank which is newly set up. more..

Jan 13 (AFP) Britain's trade minister has announced that he would lead a delegation of businessmen to India and Sri Lanka next week to boost Britain's bilateral business relationships with the South Asian countries. Ian Pearson will visit India from January 16-18, and Sri Lanka from January 19-20, more..

Jan 13 (Reuters) Two groups of Sri Lankan Tamils have fled to India by boat, fearing the island is sliding back towards civil war, Indian police said on Friday. A group of nine arrived on the coast of southern Tamil Nadu state on Friday from northwest Sri Lanka, a police officer said. more..

Jan 13 (AP) Heavily armed troops searched for Tamil rebel infiltrators Friday in government-held areas in Sri Lanka’s restive north, a day after an anti-personnel mine killed nine sailors in the latest deadly attack on the military. more..

Jan 13 (AFP) Tamil Tiger rebels, blamed for a series of deadly attacks on Sri Lankan troops, are battling to gain the upper hand over the military ahead of a new round of peace talks, analysts said Friday. more..

Jan 13 (AFP) Scandinavian truce monitors pointed a finger at Tamil Tiger rebels over a wave of mine attacks that has killed dozens of troops and called for urgent action to prevent full-scale war in Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 13 (HT) The Scandinavian-staffed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has said that it cannot accept the LTTE's contention that the recent attacks on the Sri Lankan security forces have been done by "the people" and not by its cadres. more..

Jan 13 (AFP) Navy sailors speak to a relative of a sailor killed in a mine attack outside the main morgue, in the capital Colombo. A packed army bus narrowly escaped a mine blast as truce monitors pointed the finger at Tiger rebels for a wave of deadly bombings more..

Jan 13 (IANS) Tamil Tiger guerrillas have thrown an open 'challenge' to Washington by killing nine Sri Lankan sailors days after warnings from the US to desist from violence, a top official in that country said Friday. At the same time, the government leader said in a telephonic interview from Colombo that Sri Lanka would remain glued to the 2002 ceasefire signed with the LTTE. more..

Jan 13 (Reuters) With more than 100 people killed in December, international truce monitors questioned on Friday whether Sri Lanka still had a ceasefire and said both government and Tamil Tiger rebels had to face up to their responsibilities. more..

Jan 14 (DJ) Martin McGuinness will travel to Sri Lanka next week to meet with the country's president Mahinda Rajapakse, political parties and representatives of the Tamil Tigers to advise them on how methods employed in the Irish peace process can be applied to their own conflict situation. more..

Jan 14 (IANS) The international community will not allow hostilities to break out between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces, India's army chief said here Friday. "I personally feel the world would not be encouraging active hostilities in any part of the globe," Gen. J.J. Singh told a news conference more..

Jan 14 (BBC) Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu said fielding first may have been a mistake after losing by 116 runs in the opening VB Series match against Australia. The tourists conceded a daunting 318 runs after putting the hosts into bat in the day-night contest in Melbourne. more..

Jan 14 (PTI) Sri Lanka's supplies of oil, wheat and cement were disrupted following a protest campaign in the northern town of Trincomalee, police said today. At present, Indian Oil's local unit Lanka IOC, Singapore's Prima and Tokyo Cement use their Trincomalee base to supply oil, wheat and cement respectively to the rest of the island, but the strike disrupted the free flow of supplies. more..

Jan 14 (PC) The Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka will seek President Mahinda Rajapakse's permission to invite the Dalai Lama to Sri Lanka to grace the occasion of 2550th Buddha Jayanthi. The society's chairman, Ven. Banagala Upatissa Nayaka Thera said that the society had decided to ask President Mahinda Rajapakse to invite the Dalai Lama to Sri Lanka, more..

Jan 14 (TN) A group of Sinhalese residents in Abeyapura, a suburb in Trincomalee town, Friday afternoon around 4 p.m. attacked the vehicle of Mr.Jayantha Wijeysekara, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian of Trincomalee district when he was traveling through the area. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) The LTTE mouth piece tamilnet.com in its latest disinformation campaign targeted Trico district JVP Parliamentarian Jayantha Wijesekara. According to a tamilnet report, a group of Sinhalese attacked JVP MP on the basis of organizing a Harthal and creating communal tension in the area. However, JVP MP publicly denounced the Harthal yesterday claiming that that it is organized by a group of racists. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) We publish here an observation on Sri Lanka made by the Commissioner for External Relations European Commission, Mrs Benita Ferrero-Waldner that reflects the sad pathetic state of Sri Lanka one year after the terrible tsunami that struck coastal populations in the country. more..

Jan 14 (BBC) Media watchdogs in Sri Lanka have protested an alleged threat to a senior editor of an English weekly by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Free Media Movement (FMM) urged an impartial inquiry into the complaint made to the police by Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of Sunday Leader. more..

Jan 14 (AT) The leasing industry is fastest growing industry in Sri Lanka. If there is war or not, the industry can maintain its position without heavy losses. If country’s security is in a bad condition the industry can achieve 22 per cent growth. more..

Jan 14 (AT) I became a Canadian citizen recently after 16 years of domicile in North America. I am proud to be a Canadian and I intend to vote for the Conservatives this January. Considering that I am supposed to be an Ethnic or visible minority Canadian, it must come as a surprise to some political 'pundits'. more..

Jan 14 (TN) A minicamp of the Liberation Tigers in Trincomalee district was attacked by Sri Lankan troopers Friday evening, the Tigers have informed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) truce monitors in the east port town. more..

Jan 14 (BBC) Tension prevailed in the volatile eastern Sri Lankan district of Trincomalee as the minority Tamil community prepares for Saturday’s festival, Thai Pongal. The Sinhala parliamentarian of the district, Jayantha Wijesekara, was assaulted by a group of Sinhala youths as he was distributing leaflets asking not to continue with the Hartal on the day of Tamil religious festival. more..

Jan 14 (Reuters) Attackers threw a grenade into the compound of truce monitors in Sri Lanka's restive east early on Saturday, damaging vehicles and a building but causing no injuries, officials said, as fears of a return to war grow. more..

Jan 14 (Xinhua) Sri Lanka has surpassed half a million tourist arrivals for the third consecutive year in 2005, director general of the Tourist Board (SLTB) has said. Total tourist arrivals of 564,200 in 2003, 566,000 in 2004 and 498,137 (only up to November 2005) have been recorded more..

Jan 14 (AP) Tamil Tiger involvement in a series of attacks against Sri Lankan armed forces cannot be ruled out, European cease-fire monitors said Friday. Some 70 government-armed personnel have been killed since Dec. 4 in an upsurge in violence blamed on the Tiger rebels that is endangering a four-year-old cease-fire more..

Jan 14 (AT) Despite building tensions between LTTE and security forces, the Sri Lanka Army has no plans of initiating a dialogue with the Tamil Tiger rebels to bring down the escalating hostility. Army Spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe confirmed that the Army had no intentions of meeting with the LTTE. more..

Jan 14 (SLA) TROOPS ON PIQUET DUTIES in MALLAKAM, JAFFNA were fired upon by LTTE terrorists on Friday (13) around 3.45 p.m. One soldier Private K.S PRASAD KUMARA died in the LTTE attack. Troops during subsequent search have arrested one LTTE suspect with one T-56 weapon and some ammunitions. more..

Jan 14 (SLA) ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND FOUR (1,704) lorry loads of food and other essential items had been dispatched to un-cleared areas in the northern province during the period between 06 January 2006 and 12 January 2006. Those consignments had reached areas in KILINOCHCHI and MULLAITIVU districts via OMANTHAI and UYILANKULAM Entry/Exit points. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) Two motorbike riding LTTE pistolmen shot and killed an Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) member (13th) around Morning in Kallady area, Batticaloa, according to Army sources. The victim Arunabalan Sundralingam (36), a father of three children was living at an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Center, sources added. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera seeks to get Washington’s attention to bring about an end to the resources of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He says that the LTTE has been waging a war against the Government of Sri Lanka since 1983 with the aim to carve out a separate state for the Tamils. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) During the British colonial period, thousands of workers from South India were brought over to the leech-infested hilly regions of Sri Lanka to toil under terrible conditions on the tea and rubber plantations. They were housed like cattle on estate lines, whatever that means in the name of housing, paid a pittance and lacked several amenities that were basic to human habitation. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) The SLMM had done a grand service to this country, although very few people have recognize the service the group had done to our country. The JVP and JHU parties, similar to the LTTE who spread an ideology of black and white, where “we good patriots” and “they bad traitors” had effectively brainwashed the Southen intellectuality polarizing an anti SLMM stance in the South. more..

Jan 14 (ISL) Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse has arrived in Delhi on an official visit with a large ministerial entourage along with government officials. Back in Sri Lanka, the country is once again atop a powder keg with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blazing the trail for a bloody war. more..

Jan 14 (TW) January second of the new year 2006 was a monday. It was 5.30 in the evening when 20 year old Manoharan Rajihar set off from home on St. Mary's road in Trincomalee town. Both his father and mother were medical doctors jointly running the welcome Medical clininc. He told his parents that he would be going to worship at the Pillaiyar temple and the Pathragali Amman temple. more..

Jan 14 (TW) The 1990 - 94 period was a very challenging phase in the life of Joseph Pararajasingham. The difficult period was like a baptism of fire for the new Parliamentarian. Yet he coped with the challenge creditably. He was aided greatly in his duties by his wife Sugunam. more..

Jan 14 (TW) Ever since the LTTE’s Batticaloa-Amparai commander, Karuna, decided to raise the flag of mutiny in March-April 2004, the east has witnessed an orgy of killing. A contest that began by intelligence agents of the two sides – the Sri Lanka military and the LTTE – targeting each other, escalated till any member of the rival’s forces was fair game for the others’ assassins. more..

Jan 14 (AT) The United States government is sending the third ranking official of its Department of State Under Secretary Nicholas Burns to Sri Lanka for talks with top officials of the Government of Sri Lanka to assess the current deteriorating situation in this Indian Ocean island state. more..

Jan 14 (ANN) The US warning to the LTTE against ceasefire violations was still oven-hot, when the outfit in a show of contemptuous defiance blew another hole in the cease-fire agreement (CFA) by killing ten sailors and injuring several others on Thursday (Jan 12). It was, we reckon, not an attack on the Navy as such; it was a thundering slap on Uncle Sam's face. more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) Sri Dalada Maligawa has launched a project for the conservation of four hundred (400) Buddhist places of worship in Sri Lanka. The programme has been designed by the Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela Bandara with the consent of the Mahanayake Thero of Malwatte and Asgiriya. more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) The Inspector General of Police has defended his men against allegations of discrimination. Speaking on the allegations made by certain Tamil political parties, IGP Chandra Fernando told The Island "The Police do not discriminate against the minority, neither do we favour the majority. The police are on the lookout for suspects.Their ethnicity is not the issue". more..

Jan 14 (SAMN) Medical Faculty Students Union has called upon the government to take a policy decision to overlap the internship appointments and take remedial measures to overcome difficulties faced by newly passed out doctors. It has also called upon the government to overlap appointments of the medical graduates of AL 1997 batch by three months. more..

Jan 14 (LNP) THE hartal by two Sinhala organisations in Trincomalee protesting LTTE atrocities against the Sinhala community in the East, continued for the second day yesterday bringing normal life to a halt. Shops and businesses remained closed for the second consecutive day while public transport too was paralysed as a result of the Hartal. more..