May 5 (AP) Sri Lanka's navy on Friday thwarted a suspected attempted suicide attack by Tamil Tiger rebels using an explosive-laden boat, which blew up when it was hit by fire from navy vessels, a military spokesman said. In a separate incident Friday, three police and three civilians were injured in an anti-personnel mine blast that government officials also blamed on the rebels. more..

May 5 (AFP) Sri Lanka launched air and sea attacks against several Tamil Tiger boats off the island's northwest and destroyed one vessel and a truck transporting reinforcements, the military said. Naval craft confronted at least four boats of the LTTE near Kuthirimalai Point off the coastal district of Mannar, they said on Friday. more..

May 6 (UCAN) Lay Catholics are conducting a chain of rosaries for the first 15 days of May to pray for a peaceful solution to ethnic strife and the cessation of all violence in Sri Lanka. Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo prompted the initiative with a message to Catholics following a female suicide bomber's attempted assassination of the Sri Lankan army chief on April 25 in Colombo. more..

May 6 (DNA) Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera, a fashion designer before he joined politics, will be here early next week to discuss the situation in his troubled island home with India’s top political leaders, including the prime minister. The growing violence in the island has threatened the fragile cease fire which held the peace in the island for the last four years. more..

May 6 (PTI) Three fishermen of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, who were arrested and imprisoned for over a year by Sri Lanka, have been released and repatriated. The fishermen were detained by the Sri Lankan Navy on March 3, 2005 for trespassing the International Maritime Boundary and were put in a prison at Anuradhapuram. more..

May 6 (BBC) Media watchdogs in Sri Lanka have strongly criticised attempts to oust Tamil journalists from state media institutions. A group called "Ravana brigade" has threatened all Tamil journalists working in state media to immediately resign from their positions. The statement issued on World Press Freedom Day, 03 May, has urged Tamil journalists to leave their jobs in response to attacks on pro-LTTE Tamil media. more..

May 6 (GN) Mass Media and Information Secretary W.B. Ganegala, at a press briefing held today at the Auditorium of the Government Information Department, said that the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) has made arrangements to broadcast live programmes from India to mark the 2550 Buddha Jayanthi. more..

May 6 (GN) The Italian Government is keen to invest more aggressively in Sri Lanka and the present political situation has not had any negative impact on these proposed investments. This was made known by the Italian Ambassador Pio Mariani when he met the Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Rohitha Bogollagama at the ministry yesterday. more..

May 6 (TN) The Parliamentary group of the TNA in a letter sent to all foreign missions in Sri Lanka said that the Sri Lanka Government's version of the killings of seven youths in Nelliady, that the youths were "cadres belonging to the LTTE, and were killed in retaliatory fire immediately after the attack on the Military Camp," was false as there is evidence that more..

May 6 (CI) Today England A's game at Worcester, in effect the first Test-match trial since 1974, had an old-fashioned whiff. The Women's Institute served up tea and cake. England's middle order served up a collapse. And the stands bubbled with unaccustomed debate about the team for the next Test. Question: Jon Lewis or Liam Plunkett? Answer: It's irrelevant. more..

May 6 (LeN) The government has detailed the Criminal Investigations Department to gather information about the Non Governmental Organizations and their employees. Two CID officials yesterday visited the office of 'Bergof Foundation' lcated at Gowers Lane, Colombo yesterday looking for details of its senior officials and its activities. more..

May 6 (LeN) The special leave of application filed by the UNP challenging the rejection of its nomination for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) was dismissed by the Supreme Court today without even consulting the respondents. The application was filed by UNP General Secretary N.V.K.K.Weragoda challenging the Court of Appeal ruling more..

May 6 (LeN) As the international media has reported that the abducted vehicle of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization along with 7 employees had been found from a Karuna faction camp at Welikanda in the Polonnaruwa, the TRO has requested the authorities to conduct investigations on the basis of these reports. more..

May 6 (LeN) The Awissawella police are to seek a court order to carry out DNA testing on the headless bodies found recently from two plantations in the area. Over 50 persons have visited the police morgue to identify these bodies and even though two bodies have been identified by relatives, such identifications cannot be regarded as legal, more..

May 6 (AT) Canadian Tamils for Peace has appealed to the Tamils in Canada not to fall prey to the tigers but reject the call made by the Canadian Tamil Congress, which is a front organisation of the LTTE, to participate in the Tamil solidarity gathering in Toronto from May 8th to May 14th. more..

May 6 (AT) In a letter addressed to Velupillai Prabakaran, Leader of the LTTE, V.Anandasangaree, has admonished him, demanded him to halt all violent activities immediately, allow the people to live in Peace and start negotiations without delay. more..

May 6 (RW) Volunteers are always at the forefront of any Red Cross Red Crescent operation and the post-tsunami recovery programme in Sri Lanka is no exception. Almost a year and a half after the devastating Asian tsunami, hundreds of volunteers from the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) are continuing to work with affected communities, proving that their skills remain crucial to the country’s recovery process. more..

May 6 (IE) Colombo might have turned to Pakistan with a comprehensive list of weapons and other military hardware it wants to procure after India kept it waiting, but the UPA Government seems in no hurry to change the status quo. Of the various requests Sri Lanka made to Delhi over the past 18 months, very few items were actually cleared for transfer. more..

May 6 (TW) The year 2006 marks the 2550 anniversary of the Buddha-Jayanti or Birth of Gotama the Buddha. In the history of the religions of the world, Gotama the Buddha, a religious teacher, did not make any claim to the fact that he is an incarnate, or a messenger or a descendant of any Divine Being. more..

May 6 (TN) The main opposition United National Party (UNP) Friday lost the legal battle to contest the election for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) under UNP banner. The UNP has now been forced to contest the election through an independent group, which was accepted by the Returning Officer on the nomination day. more..

May 6 (SLA) A JOINT ARMY, NAVY, POLICE SEARCH OPERATION conducted at KYTS in JAFFNA Friday (05) since early morning through the day resulted in the capture of five hard core LTTE terrorists along with a considerable amount of weapons, ammunition and explosives. more..

May 6 (SLA) ONE MORE POLICE CONSTABLE died and four others were seriously injured Friday (05) evening around 3.00 p.m. when Tamil Tigers activated a claymore mine on a Police Double Cab at MANDAN in NELLIADY, JAFFNA. The injured Policemen were airlifted to COLOMBO for further treatments. more..

May 6 (SLA) SRI LANKA NAVY (SLN) CRAFT ON PATROL off KUDIRAMALAI sea in KALPITIYA, PUTTALAM Friday (05) morning at about 8.45 a.m. were compelled to completely destroy one LTTE (Tamil Tiger) craft laden with arms and ammunition when a few LTTE boats, mingling with fishermen, began firing at naval vessels on duty. more..

May 6 (wsws) Despite international pressure for the resumption of peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, violence in the war zones of the East and North of the island is continuing unabated. After months of attacks and reprisals, for which both sides denied responsibility, hostilities erupted into open warfare last week. more..

May 6 (GN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday decided to provide a subsidy of Rs. 750 per bag of urea fertiliser to tea, rubber and coconut land smallholders who own less than five acres, the President's Office said yesterday. The President took this decision when delegates of Tea Smallholders and other similar organisations met him at Temple Trees more..

May 6 (TW) A series of cartoons ridiculing Social Services minister and Eelam Peoples Democratic party Secretary - General Douglas Devananda may have resulted in the attack on the “Uthayan” Tamil daily newspaper say informed sources in Tamil media circles. more..

May 6 (TW) The Tamil Woman broadcaster arrested on May 2nd at the BMICH and remanded as a tiger suspect on May 3rd was produced in court again on May 5th and released on bail. In an ironic incident illustrating the climate of grave insecurity amidst which Tamil journalists are working in Sri Lanka the young Tamil woman radio announcer was arrested when trying to attend a conference in Colombo to mark the World Press freedom day. more..

May 6 (TW) In 1983, on July 23, at around 11a.m, the writer heard the sound of crackling glass, a van, with school children, had been set on fire in front of Sukhastan Gardens on Ward Place. The driver ran into the writer’s house, clambered over the short boundary wall and ran into a private hospital with a screaming mob chasing him in his wake, into the hospital, more..

May 6 (TW) There is growing disillusionment in the intelligence units over the lack of interest shown by defence authorities about the formers’ warning that a large number of soldiers and policemen in the North and East areas had been bought over by the LTTE. According to sources, repeated requests have been made to the relevant authorities along with the names of suspected officers. more..

May 6 (TW) The bimonthly newspaper Thenseide, published in Tamil Nadu, has asserted in its latest issue that India should take action against Sri Lanka by imposing economic sanctions. The latest issue of the publication, which is overseen by P. Nedumaran, the leader of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Coordinating Committee, reported the following: more..

May 6 (TW) The day President Premadasa died, I lost a part of my life. While on the campaign trail for the Colombo Municipal Council elections I had an encounter which reminded me, once again, however great my loss is, it is not mine alone. I met nearly 400 families living in community centres and playgrounds almost one and a half years after the tsunami. more..

May 6 (ISL) A Reuter report titled “Sri Lanka, rebels talk transport as violence rages” by Peter Apps (May 5, 2006) is somewhat of a run of the mill material. Writers of his ilk and like must understand that the contentions that are flayed about by the Tamil Tigers regarding the peace process are all a camouflage, a reality that has persisted for years. more..

May 6 (LT) About 400 people in Kebithigollewa Divisional secretariat in Anuradhapura district are said to have been displaced following Tiger threats. Armed Tiger terrorist have been spotted moving around in jungles in Halmillawewa, Kebithigollewa day before yesterday (04) and they are reported to have shot at the villagers. But no one has been harmed. more..

May 6 (ANN) The Supreme Court yesterday (May 5) refused the general secretaries of the United National Party (UNP) and United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) special leave to appeal to Supreme Court. This related to the rejection of their respective nomination lists to contest for the Municipal Councils of Colombo and Gampaha respectively. more..

May 6 (PIS) SriLankan Airlines representatives will travel to Trincomalee today to make a ground inspection of the three sites chosen to land the sea plane that will be transporting LTTE Eastern leaders to Kilinochchi. Pending a definite response from the LTTE on the acceptance of this latest transport offer, more..

May 6 (CI) Ashantha de Mel, the former Sri Lanka fast bowler, has been appointed chairman of the national selection committee. The new-look panel, appointed by the government, also includes Amal Silva, Don Anurasiri and Shabbir Asgerally. De Mel, 46, replaced Lalith Kaluperuma, a former spinner, who chaired a controversial four-man panel that faced mounting criticism from the local media in recent weeks. more..

May 6 (LNP) The 2550 Buddha Jayanthi Vesak Festival celebrations of Chennai branch of the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka commenced May 03 with the ordination of Tamil Samaneras. Such ordinations began in 2000 as key step in the Buddhist revival to attract Tamil to Buddhism and for Buddhist revival. more..

May 6 (LNP) A human rights group in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Sri Lanka had fallen short of its commitment to safeguard human rights. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM ASIA) said Sri Lanka`s pledges fell short of substantive steps to ensure effective promotion and protection of human rights domestically and internationally. more..

May 6 (LNP) A number of undercover LTTE cadres are moving around in Colombo and its suburbs, Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. N. Mallawarchchi told The Island yesterday (5). Citizens of Colombo and the suburbs should be wary of strangers moving about in their areas, he said. more..

May 6 (SAMN) Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake deputizing for President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the launch of "Sambuddha Jayanthi Year" of 2550 said that Buddha's teaching was based on the principle of 'Ahimsa'. In celebrating this "Sri Sambuddha Jayanthi" year, the country should send a message to the world that the Sinahala Buddhist views his enemies differently to them. more..

May 6 (SAMN) The Principal of Keppetipola Maha Vidyalaya Gampaha, W.A. Seneviratne, was allegedly threatened by a JVP candidate for the Gampaha Municipal Council recently over an argument at the delay in getting the candidate’s son’s National Identity Card from the school. more..

May 6 (SAMN) The seizing and killing of dogs by local authorities will not take place during the period of the Buddha Jayanthi celebrations. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed the Municipal Commissioner, Colombo, to immediately stop the seizing and killing of dogs carried out by the Colombo Municipal Council, in view of the current Buddha Jayanthi celebrations, marking 2550 years of Buddhism. more..

May 6 (DN) The Private Medical Institutions Bill will be presented to Parliament on May 10 by Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to give more teeth to the private medical sector to perform better and enhance private health care delivery systems in the country. more..

May 6 (HT) The LTTE has said that there can be no peace talks with the Sri Lankan government so long as killings continue in the Tamil-speaking North Eastern part of the island country. "There is no question of going for talks so long as the killings continue," the LTTE's media spokesman, Thaya Master, told Hindustan Times over phone from Kilinochchi on Saturday. more..

May 6 (TN) Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers damaged the building which functioned as the political office of the Liberation Tigers at Kokkuvil in Jaffna, in the early hours of Saturday, according to civilians in the area. The troops entered the building at Potpathy road around 12.30 a.m. and smashed doors and windows, they said. more..

May 6 (Xinhua) The Lumbini Bauddha University (LBU) of Nepal is set to run Doctored course in Buddhism aiming to address the crunch of teaching manpower on the subject at the higher level, an official at LBU said here Saturday. The newly opened semi-government university in Tenhawa village of central Parsa district, some 100 km south of Kathmandu, more..

May 6 (AFP) Sri Lanka is seeking foreign forensic help to establish whether a female suicide bomber who tried to kill the country's army chief was indeed pregnant as she claimed, investigators said. Tests by local laboratories proved negative and the investigators are now trying to secure the help of forensic experts abroad, more..

May 6 (AFP) A Japanese peace envoy was to arrive in Sri Lanka for talks as Scandinavian monitors said violence between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels was out of control. Tokyo's special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi was to hold talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and would also try to meet leaders of the Tamil Tigers during his four-day visit, the Japanese embassy said on Saturday. more..

May 6 (AP) A Japanese peace envoy was to arrive in Sri Lanka Saturday for talks with the president and will push for a meeting with Tamil rebel leaders to try and prevent a return to civil war amid spiraling violence. A secretive group widely believed to be a front organization for Tamil Tiger rebels, meanwhile, has vowed to step up attacks against Sri Lankan government forces more..

May 6 (Reuters) Government troops came under fire in Sri Lanka's north on Saturday as the island awaited the arrival of Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi for the latest in a series of attempts to prevent a return to civil war. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebel attacks, ethnic riots, government air strikes and unsolved murders blamed on both sides have killed more than 200 people since early April. more..