May 8 (ISL) Tamil Democratic Congress leader in a letter to the media stated that the Nadarajah Sethurupan, the editor of LTTE's Tamil website nitharsanam.com and neruppu.org operating from Oslo had been circulating emails created by his name to misinform and misguide Tamil efforts for democratizing Tamil politics. more..

May 8 (TW) “Mail Link” is a letter writing program to foster friendship between the Tamil children of North America and the Tamil children affected by the war and Tsunami in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The program commenced in April 2005 with 15 kids from Canada writing letters to the children residing at Senthalir Illam (Tender Sprout Home), more..

May 8 (TW) The TNA is compelled to write to you taking into consideration the current situation faced by the Tamil civilians of the Northeast. You will be aware that on 04/05/2006 at about 2pm, seven individuals from “Raja” Village who were traveling in two three-wheelers were killed by the Sri Lankan Government’s Military actions. more..

May 8 (TOI) The Hero group is joining the league of corporate Indians setting up manufacturing bases abroad. Hero group firm Hero Motors is shifting its entire assembly and manufacturing line of scooters and scooterettes to Sri Lanka. With this, Hero Motors has decided to discontinue production of two-wheelers in India and focus on the growing engine and component manufacturing sector. more..

May 8 (WS) Sri Lanka’s pre dominant Muslim political party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) yesterday expressed their outright opposition to the decision taken by the government to recruit Muslim youth to create a separate ‘Muslim regiment’ in the military. more..

May 8 (WS) Amidst a verbal assurance by Power and Energy Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne that ground work on the controversial Norochcholai coal power plant would begin this month, the families that will be displaced as a result of this project will be presented with ‘a load of goodies’ including a house, furniture, electronic items and other necessities. more..

May 8 (WS) Saudan Hennadige Dynesius, father of slain Inspector Douglas Nimal, said he had no confidence in the Government meting out justice in bringing to book the killers of his son and daughter-in-law recently. “I want to appeal to the President to mete out justice but still I know that it is going to be a forlorn hope”, he said more..

May 8 (TN) "Tamil people are gripped with fear and insecurity due to the alarming escalation in Killings and abductions in NorthEast, including Jaffna, and in the South. People are scared of a major war exploding at any time. I appeal to the International Community to urgently intervene to pressure the parties involved to reduce the threat of war. more..

May 8 (AFP) Sri Lanka imposed a curfew in the restive Jaffna peninsula as a Japanese envoy began talks with government officials to try to save a faltering peace process amid escalating violence. The security forces clamped the indefinite curfew ahead of demonstrations called by residents to protest Thursday's killing of seven men the army described as Tiger suspects. more..

May 8 (HT) The ugly shadow war that has been going on between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces has brought life to a virtual standstill in Jaffna, in North Sri Lanka. Sources in Jaffna said that fear was pervasive in this Tamil-speaking district, considered as the heartland of the Sri Lankan Tamils. more..

May 8 (LeN) Our studies on paramilitary Karuna Group in the Eastern Province has made us to come to a conclusion that the paramilitaries are trying to establish a small territory of their control in Welikanda area utilizing the advantageous conditions from the Sri Lanka military forces. more..

May 8 (wsws) An armed attack on the offices of the Tamil-language newspaper Uthayan in northern Sri Lanka on May 2 has left two people dead and another two seriously injured. The assault is the latest in a series of calculated provocations aimed at further heightening communal tensions, more..

May 8 (TN) "We would be forced to attack the Kaddaiparichchan camp of the Sri Lanka Army if the paramilitaries and government troops continue their attack on LTTE forward defense line in Kaddaiparichchan," Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE Monday informed the SLMM in the east port town, more..

May 8 (TN) Sri Lanka's Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) in a message forwarded to the Liberation Tigers has informed that the A9 Road will be open "as soon as LTTE refrains from agitating the general public of Jaffna," indicating increasingly confrontational position being taken by the Government of Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the killings in Thenmaradchy, more..

May 8 (TN) "Almost 30 hours have passed since a crime against humanity has taken place at a temple site. The truce monitors from the SLMM in Jaffna are yet to visit the crime site or approach the area where the bodies are said to be found," accused S. Gajendran, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Jaffna district. more..

May 8 (TN) The Sri Lanka Army imposed curfew has rendered Jaffna a dead city with the hospital staff remaining inside the hospital and a few civilians caught unaware of the curfew going out into the Jaffna streets Monday early morning are detained at SLA check points. more..

May 8 (SLA) TROOPS ON DUTY near MALEI junction in NELLIADY, JAFFNA during small hours on Monday (08) at about 3.25 a.m. recovered a powerful claymore mine and its remote-controller after directing fire at a nearby location following detection of some suspicious movements. more..

May 8 (SLA) AS INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE Sunday (07) night LTTE (Tamil Tigers) hand grenade attack on the BATTICALOA Police station are in progress, reports further confirmed that the number of injured Policemen and civilians had risen to fourteen including two civilians. more..

May 8 (ISL) Fifty thousand protest cum petition cards are being readied by Tamil Tiger interests in Toronto especially Scarborough often referred to as Canada Wanni by the Tiger fanatics, to be presented to the Government of Canada against the banning of the LTTE as a terrorist movement. more..

May 8 (GN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to streamline the public administration system by demarcating the provinces, districts and Divisional Secretariat areas. President told at a meeting held at the Temple Trees recently on the development of the Badulla District that a committee will be appointed shortly to re-draw the areas of the country. more..

May 8 (AT) There is a right way and a wrong way, and the right way is usually the only way to succeed while the wrong way almost certainly dooms you to fail. There is a right way to fight the Tigers and a wrong way to do so, just as there is a right and wrong way to fight for autonomy or federalism for the Tamils. more..

May 8 (ANN) Tigers have ordered Access Group employees working on projects in the Ampara-Batticaloa region to paint their vehicles white to prevent accidental attacks on them. The blue-chip company is one of the few engaged in lucrative projects in the northern and eastern provinces. Such projects, particularly in areas under their direct control, are under strict supervision. more..

May 8 (ANN) Newly-appointed vice-chancellor of the Jaffna University and eminent academic Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole has fled the country with his family to avoid a cruel death at the hands of the LTTE, which objected to his appointment. He represents the typical Sri Lanka Tamil community, which takes pride in academic excellence and hard work. more..

May 8 (Moju) In this analysis of the situation of war and peace following the recent violence in Trincomalee, the Coalition for Muslims and Tamils speaks for and pleads for once again placing people at the centre of peace and the need for the peace process to work towards justice for all peoples in this country. more..

May 8 (CC) New Sri Lanka selector Asantha de Mel wants Sanath Jayasuriya to come out of retirement and join the squad on the tour of England. The 36-year-old hung up his boots in April this year after a distinguished international career, which saw him score 6,613 Test runs at an average of 41.59 and 10,625 one-day international runs at 31.90. more..

May 8 (PIS) The breakaway LTTE faction led by Vinayagamurthi Muralitheran, alias ‘Karuna Amman’, says no one can disarm them, be it the Government, the Norwegian facilitators or, the SLMM, as they were not armed by the Sri Lankan Government. The ‘Karuna’ faction also warned that it was preparing “retaliatory” attacks against the LTTE Wanni cadres in the east, more..

May 8 (PIS) Despite adverse reports that some de-mining groups are suspending their activities in the North and East, the de-mining programme is continuing, the Government assured yesterday. "The de-mining programme is continuing full scale despite the violence reported from the North and East," more..

May 8 (LNP) The JHU yesterday said that Sri Lanka should adopt an Indian model of devolution with its unitary features as it was the only way out of the North-East conflict. The party`s stand comes in the wake of President Mahinda Rajapaksa expressing his willingness to explore an Indian model of federal structure to solve the problem. more..

May 8 (LNP) Arrangements are being made by the Sri Lanka - European Friendship Association to set up health clinics in the remote areas of Sri Lanka to provide free health facilities to the poor. According to the association, a large number of Italian philanthropists and Sri Lankans who reside in Italy have consented to grant financial assistance for this worthy cause. more..

May 8 (LNP) At least six players are reported to be against any possible return of Sanath Jayasuriya into the Sri Lanka cricket team following speculation that the new selection committee chief Asantha de Mel was in the process of persuading the left hand batsman to return to test cricket. more..

May 8 (LNP) If not for the private sector the CMC would not have been able to collect and dispose of 700 tons of garbage per day, for which the council pays around 18 million a month, said Colombo Municipal Commissioner Dr. Jayantha Liyanage yesterday. `This is my personal belief that the council which employs 13,600 persons at present cannot do this alone.` more..

May 8 (SAMN) The National Salaries and Cadre Commission (NSCC) has denied claims by some Trade Unions that its new circular was rife with irregularities, saying instead the document serves to re categorise and restructure ad-hoc remuneration policies followed by the Public Service. more..

May 8 (SAMN) The Peradeniya Students Union yesterday accused Colombo mayoral candidate Vasudeva Nanayakkara of fishing in troubled waters. Referring to Nanayakkara’s recent accusation that student groups affiliated to the JVP had attacked rival groups on university campuses, Chintaka Perera, president of the union emphasized that there was absolutely no basis for this. more..

May 8 (SAMN) Unprecedented security at the five-star wedding reception of Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva's daughter, last Thursday upset many invitees, particularly women invitees who found their sarees and hair styles disturbed by security personnel. The Presidential Security Division (PSD) had conducted thorough body checks on almost all the invitees except more..

May 8 (DN) Subramaniam Park in the heart of Jaffna town and opposite the historic Jaffna Clock tower in the North and the demolished Jaffna Municipal Council in the south got a new span of life after 15 years when it was ceremonially opened by the Jaffna Government Agent Ganesh. more..

May 8 (HT) One of the unrecognised aspects of post-colonial Asia's movement towards unity and towards acquiring a voice in world affairs, is the significant contribution made to it by Sir John Kotelawala, Prime Minister of Ceylon in the early 1950s. Kotelawala had struck a balance between opposition to Western neo colonialism and opposition to the emerging Communist imperialistic threat. more..

May 8 (IANS) Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's curt refusal to meet Japan's special envoy Yasushi Akashi is a well thought out public snub that will not surprise those who have seen the Tigers grow from a ragtag group to be the world's most powerful insurgent outfit. more..

May 8 (DPA) Fighting between Tamil rebels and their main rival group has left an estimated 30 cadres dead in the north-eastern part of Sri Lanka, state-run television reported Monday. Two Tamil rebel camps located in the Sampoor area of the Trincomalee district, 250 kilometres north-east of the capital, came under attack by the rival group known as the Karuna faction on Sunday night, more..

May 8 (DT) Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka are among the 65 countries that have declared their candidature for Tuesday’s election to the newly established 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). A member must secure a minimum of 96 votes in the 191-member General Assembly to be elected and more than one round of polling could take place if all seats are not filled in the first round. more..

May 8 (RW) Since mid-April, there has been an escalation in the number of violence-related deaths and violent incidents reported from the north and east of Sri Lanka, particularly in Trincomalee district. This upsurge in violence appears to have been triggered by the death of a prominent activist in Trincomalee on 7 April. more..

May 8 (Reuters) A top Japanese envoy met President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday to try and salvage the island's battered peace process, as Tamil Tiger rebels accused the army of killing civilians. A vicious spike of suspected rebel attacks, ethnic riots, land and sea clashes, government air strikes and unsolved killings of civilians have killed more than 200 in the last month, more..

May 8 (AP) Security forces clamped down on the Tamil-dominated Jaffna Peninsula to guard against anti-government demonstrations, as a Japanese envoy said Monday he would travel to the country's north in hopes of meeting with the rebels to try to stave off a renewed civil war. more..

May 8 (TN) Members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Monday morning after visiting the site where the bodies were said to be lying, said that they could not locate any bodies. Hundreds of local residents are still gathered at the Seerani Kelakkai temple in Manthuvil East to find out the fate of eight youths who disappeared Sunday morning, sources said. more..

May 8 (AFP) Sweat glistens on the faces of Sri Lankan army soldiers in the early-morning heat as they search the edges of a red-dirt road for the weapon that is increasingly killing them. Since December, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels have exploded dozens of Claymore mines, Scandinavian truce monitors say, in attacks that often cause multiple casualties not just among the military but also among civilians. more..

May 8 (AFP) A Japanese envoy on a mission to save Sri Lanka's faltering peace process is set to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse as the government imposed a curfew in the northern Jaffna peninsula. Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi, who arrived in the South Asian island nation at the weekend, was to meet with Rajapakse after talks on Sunday with Palitha Kohona, head of the government's peace secretariat. more..

May 8 (IANS) Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera Monday urged India to play a role that could lead to a resumption of peace talks between Colombo and the Tamil Tigers. The visiting minister made the appeal during a brief meeting with Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which provides vital parliamentary support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. more..

May 8 (Reuters) Tamil Tigers have vowed to raid government territory to kill former comrades they say are attacking their fighters with the help of the military, warning peace talks are off until those renegade attacks stop. The LTTE are locked in a low intensity conflict with the military that threatens to rupture a 2002 truce and rekindle a two-decade civil war. more..

May 8 (AFP) At least 11 people were killed in Sri Lankan factional fighting, defence officials said, as a Japanese envoy sought to salvage the island's faltering peace process. A breakaway faction of the LTTE launched a pre-dawn attack against a base of the main guerrilla group in northeastern Trincomalee district Monday, defence sources said. more..

May 9 (AP) Security forces clamped down on Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated Jaffna Peninsula on Monday to guard against anti-government demonstrations and a Japanese envoy said he would travel to a nearby area to try to meet rebels and avert a civil war. Envoy Yasushi Akashi met with President Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo and said he intended to go Tuesday to Kilinochchi, more..

May 9 (BBC) The judiciary in Sri Lanka has ordered the government to take measures to resettle thousands of displaced as a result of establishing High Security Zones (HSZ). The Supreme Court ordered the government to initially resettle 7456 families in HSZs in Palaly after considering a petition by Jaffna district parliamentarian Mavai Senadhirajah and another displaced. more..