July 22 (SAMN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa is engaged in a dual political role trying to woo senior UNP members while stopping defections from his own party at the same time, political sources said. They added that soon after UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe signed an agreement with the SLFP (Mahajana Wing) on Thursday, President Rajapaksa sprang into action and started calling up senior UNPers in a bid to woo them. more..

July 22 (SAMN) The political arm of the Karuna faction, the Thamil Makkal. Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) formed by renegade former Eastern Commander of the LTTE, Vinyagamoorthy Muralithan (alias Karun) has announced plans to contest local government elections in the East.The spokesman for the TMVP, Mahesh, said his party would contest elections in the East and was eyeing the Batticaloa Municipal Council and eight other urban councils. more..

July 22 (SAMN) Permanent work contracts and life-long-jobs are going out of fashion in Sri Lanka with more and more businesses opting for informal work arrangements. The latest findings show that Sri Lanka’s job market is ‘informalising’ at a rate, jerking labour market regulatory systems out of gear. Given the changes, the experts say Sri Lanka needs to re-look at existing labour regulations fast, to make sure they remain useful. more..

July 22 (SAMN) All school text books in which factual errors have been identified will be removed from next year with the Education Ministry taking over the writing of school text books, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said. A Ministry selected qualified committee of 12 members for each subject will write the books and another committee of 12 members will edit them, the minister said. more..

July 22 (LN) The LTTE is poised to launch an attack on the forward defence lines (FDL) in Mannar, according to intelligence sources. A large concentration of LTTE cadres have been observed in Killinochchi on Friday. According to intelligence sources, the LTTE has over thousand cadres in readiness in Killinochchi to be dispatched to Mannar, where the LTTE staged a pre-dawn raid on the military detachment in Neelachchenai on Friday, more..

July 22 (LN) Kollupitiye Wickrem-esinghe might KNOW a thing or two about politics, having diddled in the field for some years. But judging by the stream of accidents that have been flying out of his mouth since the Thoppigala victory, one might wonder what he has LEARNT from this experience. To use a quaint Sinhala-ism, one might even say Ranil has been edagena nanawa for the past few weeks. Anagannawa, kela-wa gannawa or illang kanawa. None of which is very cool. more..

July 22 (LN) Who was celebrating a birthday on July 13 but former Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte. And who was the biggest shot to attend the party but President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Not only did the President accept the invitation but he turned up with a birthday cake to celebrate the milestone. No hard feelings on that front, it would seem. more..

July 22 (LN) The Auditor General, Attorney General and Inspector General of Police will no longer be eligible for service extensions under wide-ranging recommendations proposed by a parliamentary select committee on the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. The select committee, which is headed by Constitutional Affairs Minister, D. E. W. Gunasekera, last week finalised a lengthy list of proposed changes to the 17th Amendment. more..

July 22 (NS) With the SLFP (Mahajana Wing) standing firm over their refusal to use the ‘elephant symbol’ in any future elections when contesting together with the UNP, senior UNP stalwarts, The Nation learns is taking an equally stronger stand on the issue. “The Mahajana Wing will not compete in the upcoming elections under the Elephant symbol of the UNP,” chief co-ordinator Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi told The Nation just hours after his wing sealed an agreement with the UNP. more..

July 22 (NS) The coming weeks will see a realignment of political forces in the country as the UNP, arguably the party with the largest support base, aligns with the self-proclaimed ‘Mahajana’ faction of its’ arch rival, the SLFP. Proponents of the move claim this will lead to the dawn of a new era in Sri Lankan politics but is this alliance worth the posters and slogans it is spouting? more..

July 22 (NS) Internet censorship in Sri Lanka took a new twist recently when a newly launched website of a registered Tamil political party was hacked into and all information related to the human rights situation in the country was ‘deleted’ by a group believed to be having unrestricted access to all websites and other internet related activities in the country. more..

July 22 (NS) The government has decided to stop all offensives in the north in order to facilitate peace moves. The government will only engage in military exercises if there is an attack by the LTTE. Highly placed government sources said that the government is in touch with the Norwegian facilitators to kick start the stalled peace efforts. The government top brass is now in the process of meeting with constituent parties individually in a bid to surmount the stalemate situation. more..

July 22 (SO) The senior members of the UNP have expressed their displeasure over promising the deputy leadership to Mangala Samaraweera by disregarding senior members who had toiled hard for the party, well informed sources told the Sunday Observer. As Mangala has not brought a group of MPs as he promised earlier therefore it was not proper to promise him a deputy leader post in a future UNP Government. more..

July 22 (SO) Sri Lankan cinema in recent years has featured films that tackle coarse subjects, including affiliations, abortions and the years of conflict between the military and the LTTE. The first film to be produced and shown in Sri Lanka was 'Kadawunu Poronduwa' which was released in 1947. Later on, the first colour film 'Ranmuthu Duwa' and hundreds of movies were screened. more..

July 22 (ST) Mystery surrounds the alleged abduction of a senior police officer’s son-in-law and the demand of half a million rupee ransom – with family members and police telling contradictory stories. According to sources close to family members, Ranga Indika Perera, son-in-law of Senior Superintendent (SSP) Fabian Mitchele, was abducted in Kotahena by three men who came in the now-notorious white van. more..

July 22 (ST) Hard on the heels of the victory at Toppigala followed the national celebrations in Colombo last Thursday. Even if the victory by the Security Forces and the Police (mostly their Special Task Force) earned plaudits from the public, the highly publicized event at Independence Square, in marked contrast, was different. Despite a strong campaign to whip up euphoria, only some Sri Lankans showed interest in the event. more..

July 22 (ST) The mood was sombre though the colourful splendour of a military parade and a fly past filled the television screens like scenes from a thriller war movie. Government parliamentarians, a handful of VIPs and some school children gathered at Independence Square. President Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa hoisted the national flag and mounted a special dais to declare, "Citizens, this is your victory." more..

July 22 (ST) Ardent devotees by the hundreds have been arriving by foot from villages on the east coast, crossing Yala National Park to attend the Kataragama Festival. Pilgrims must cross nearly 100 km of jungle to reach Kataragama for the Esala season festivities.With the Okanda Malai Murugan Devale and Kataragama Maha Devale festivals occurring simultaneously, several thousands of foot pilgrims are now streaming towards Okanda, most of whom continue through to Kataragama. more..

July 22 (KT) The Sri Lankan Embassy has said that workers, particularly the housemaids, who work in homes are allegedly badly treated and survive on scant diet and meagre salaries. This conclusion emerged after the mission heard tales of exploitation of Sri Lankan workers who are seeking amnesty. One on them is M.P. Nona Pausia, 48, who came to the UAE in 2004 looking for better life but the life turned her dreams upside down. more..

July 22 (IPS) The dramatic reprieve for a condemned Sri Lankan housemaid won by lawyers, beating a Jul. 16 deadline for filing an appeal in the Saudi Arabian courts, has focused the international spotlight on a closed justice system which condemns people to death without legal representation at their trials. Rizana Nafeek, a 19-year-old migrant worker, was sentenced to death on Jun. 16 for allegedly intentionally killing a four-month-old infant who choked to death while she was giving it a midday bottle feed in May 2005. more..

July 22 (AFP) President has ruled out a snap parliamentary election to increase his slender majority, after battlefield success against the Tamil Tiger rebels boosted his government. President Mahinda Rajapakse said he was keen that the current parliament serve its full six-year term. It was elected in April 2004, while the president came to power in November 2005. "I am not interested in calling a snap election," the president told AFP more..

July 22 (Reuters) Sri Lankan police found and defused a powerful bomb at a fair just 3 miles from a rally attended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa near the capital Colombo on Sunday, the military said, accusing Tamil Tiger rebels of planting it. However the bomb and the rally did not appear to be related, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said, adding Rajapaksa had flown in by helicopter and so would not have passed nearby. more..

July 23 (BT) Deputy Director Textile and Training and Services Centre, S. Kuruppumullage has said that the Clothing and Textile Industry is unable to compete in foreign markets due lack of quality products. People should be made aware of low quality products which have entered the local market, he added. He said neighboring countries like China, Bangladesh, Vietnam have now become competitors with the introduction of the free quota system. more..

July 23 (BBC) A Sri Lankan Tamil immigrant has launched a hunger strike against a deportation order by British authorities. Subramaniyam Alosius Jude Christie, 44, has launched his protest on 09 July in Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, in Middlesex, against his removal from the United Kingdom. A resident of northern Sri Lankan town of Jaffna, Subramanium says his life is in danger if the UK authorities send him back to Sri Lanka under current circumstances. more..

July 23 (KT) Hosts Sri Lanka stunned UAE 2-1 in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Zone Group 3 tennis championship in Colombo yesterday. The defeat dealt a severe blow to UAE’s hope of moving a step up to Group 2. Mahmood Khalifa, a non-playing captain of the team, described the loss as very painful. “I think with the defeat, we are going to stay in Group 3. We have to wait and see what happens in tomorrow’s matches where Sri Lanka take on Lebanon and UAE meet Oman,” he said. more..

July 23 (UNI) India will start its campaign against Sri Lanka in the second Commonwealth Volleyball Championship beginning in Kolkata from July 29. India is placed in Group A along with Australia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Bangladesh. Canada, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa would figure in Group B. The championship would be played on league-cum-knockout basis with top two teams from each group advancing into the semi-final stages, more..

July 23 (Hindu) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has claimed that after a gap of three decades, decisive steps have been taken towards elimination of the “politics of terrorism and violence”. In his message to mark the 17th Convention of the SLFP, Mr. Rajapaksa said there was no other country except Sri Lanka that had committed a “criminal act by acceding to a treaty”, which confers a legitimate territory to terrorism. more..

July 23 (Hindu) Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi should urge Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to send an all-party delegation of MPs to Sri Lanka to inspect alleged human rights violations, Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam leader P. Nedumaran has said. Talking to reporters here on Friday, he said that air strikes continued in the island nation’s north-east. While thousands of Tamils were fleeing their houses, many had lost their lives, he said. more..

July 23 (AT) Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, will lead the three-member Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices in Occupied Territories this week. The visit will include trips to Egypt, Jordan and Syria where Palestinians will make representations about Israeli human rights abuses in occupied territories. Since its establishment in December 1968, the Special Committee has repeatedly been denied cooperation by the Government of Israel or access to the Occupied Territories. more..

July 23 (AT) Tamil Tiger activities in France have been handed over Alain Anandane, a Tamil from Pondcherri, in South India. After the arrest of LTTE leader Parithi, alias Nadarajah Mahendran, who was the President of the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC) Alain Anandane has been handpicked to run the day-to-day affairs of the Tiger outfit in France, though Barani is kept as the nominal head. more..

July 23 (AT) Lately, religions seem to play many roles, the least of which has not been the ones they were created for by the man in the first place. In the Muslim world some try to enforce-draconian laws in the name of Islam. The Taliban in Afghanistan has been in a fierce war to enforce their own repressive version of Islam. The branch of Islam-Wahhabism founded by Muhammad Ibn Abd-al_Wahhab and the Shariah law that he introduced has been the law in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. more..

July 23 (BBC) Sri Lanka will be deprived of international aid if the proposed plans for the military to supervise development work implemented, rights activists warned. Military in eastern Sri Lanka have ordered regional authorities to "supervise" all development work by NGOs in the region. In a memorandum circulated to the security chiefs and civil administrators, Eastern Commander Maj. Gen. Parakrama Pannipitiya has ordered not to allow any NGO to start projects "according to their will" in the east. more..

July 23 (FI) Ranil Wickramasingha and his party spokespersons are quite worried these days about the way in which Thoppigala operation was carried out by the security forces. Wickramasinghe’s initial position is capturing Thoppigala is useless exercise as it is worthy only for collectors of fire-woods. As I have no knowledge in military strategy and I have no idea to get access to that sphere of knowledge, I do not wish to comment on that. more..

July 23 (FI) The walls in Colombo, if not in other cities and towns have gone too scarce for posters that keep coming out like patriotic Tsunamis. Some don’t even have any ownership and some organisations sound obviously too fake to believe. There were the obvious ones from the JVP and the JHU too. All, competing between each other to be the best “patriotic salute” for the war heroes who defeated Tigers and their “Eelam dream”. more..

July 23 (FI) Batticaloa District, covering a land area of 951.5 square- miles and inland water way of 65.1 square- miles has high potential for Paddy, Coconut, Animal husbandry, Fisheries etc. where 85 per cent of the population are engaged in agriculture. We have 145, 000 acres of paddy lands, which constitute 1/12th acreage in Sri Lanka. We have 17 major tanks, irrigating only about 66,000 acres of which 25,000 acres are double cropped. more..

July 23 (LBO) ABC Investments, a new Sri Lankan Islamic investment group, plans to expand their business with branches outside the capital Colombo, especially in areas with large concentrations of Muslim people. The firm which provides Barakah Islamic financial services, looks to cross the 300 million deposit mark before December while operating only in Colombo. They plan to move into Kattankudy in the island's east and Kandy in the central hills by January. more..

July 23 (LBO) Money laundering investigators say authorities are probing activities of Goldquest in Sri Lanka but details could not be released because there was no legal provision to do so. "Goldquest investigations are continuing," Joan de Zilva, consultant to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) that is charged with probing money laundering and terrorist financing, said. "Whatever investigations are being conducted, we cannot disclose them." more..

July 23 (BN) Sri Lanka's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the highest level in Asia to help bring inflation below 10 percent. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka maintained its repurchase rate at 10.5 percent for a fifth straight meeting, the Colombo- based bank said in a statement today. Ten out of 11 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey predicted the decision. One expected a 25 basis point cut. more..

July 23 (wsws) The army’s capture of the last eastern stronghold of the LTTE at Thoppigala on July 11 became the occasion for the Sri Lankan government to stage a grotesque “victory” celebration last Thursday to whip up jingoistic sentiment. Far from evoking popular support, however, the ceremony exposed President Mahinda Rajapakse’s increasing reliance on the armed forces and the growing militarisation of every aspect of society. more..

July 23 (LBO) Sri Lanka's share market closed six points up with a few dips during the day's trading but there was not enough buying support to push stock prices higher, stockbrokers said on Monday. The All Share Price Index gained 6.31 points to close at 2,390.36 while the Milanka Index, listing the most liquid companies, closed 10.67 points higher at 3,270.31. Total turnover for the day was 68 million rupees. more..

July 23 (LBO) The sudden recall of Sri Lanka's envoy in Saudi Arabia may affect the case of a teenager on death row, a rights body which championed her cause said Monday in an open letter to President Mahinda Rajapkse. It also urged the government to sign a treaty that will allow better legal protection for migrant workers in that country. more..

July 23 (LBO) Central bank has warned of higher inflation in July as authorities started to apply brakes on rising interest rates by expanding domestic assets of the banking system. Sri Lanka's inflation fell in the first half of the year as the central bank tightened monetary policy, but monthly inflation rose 3.0 percent in May and 3.2 percent in June which analysts have pointed out is higher than the annual inflation rate in most countries. more..

July 23 (LT) Election Commissioner's office reveal that the party declared after signing an MoU between UNP leader and SLFP dissident Mangala Samaraweera has been registered 4months before, even prior to their cross over. The house with address in which this party 'People's Congress' registered is reportedly belonged to Mr. Sripathi Suriyarachchi in Colombo 8. Two flags is the election symbol of this party. more..

July 23 (AT) Only the parents of Rizana Nazik an underage Sri Lanka girl condemned to die by an executioner’s sword in Saudi Arabia were allowed to visit the prisoner in a jail of the desert kingdom on July 22 Sunday by the Saudi Arabian government, Sri Lankan embassy sources in Saudi Arabia said. A Sri Lanka team of Muslims led by the island nation’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila and more..

July 23 (LeN) SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday that next parliamentary election would be in 2010 and the Presidential in would be in 2011. He said that elections would not be held according to the will of the opposition and the SLFP was ready to face the challenges of the opposition. The SLFP General Secretary Mithripala Sirisena expressed these views addressing the 17th general assembly of the party held at the National Youth Centre in Maharagama. more..

July 23 (LD) “Today, we have a class struggle. There is a division among us. The elite class is hurt, for the reason that I have eaten yams and kurakkan, have bathed in brooks and streams and my ability to speak in Sinhala. Today, there is a Sinhala styled leadership with a rural Sinhalese background. Their jealousy is for this my friends. This ruralism hurts.” more..

July 23 (GDI) With the liberation of entire east from the clutches of the LTTE the Government has allocated a large sum of funds for the development of East. Accordingly under the swift restoration process a sum of Rs.980 million will be utilized for the upliftment of the fishing industry in the area. East has been identified as one of the best coastal region in the country that could contribute a large harvest of fish with the added nutritional and environmental factors optimum for fish cultivation. more..

July 23 (GDI) “In order to comply with the rising demand for Sri Lankan tea both in local and international market land area used in tea cultivation process should be extended to at least 20,000 acres annually,” said Minister of Plantation Industries D.M. Jayarathne. He said this at a meeting held in the Small Tea Estate Development Authority. more..

July 23 (GDI) Government is to organize a trade and investment promotion mission to Russia and Ukraine opening a new window establishing joint ventures between Sri Lanka and those two nations. With the initiation of this new promotional mission both countries will have the opportunity to expand the trade relationships and to establish business partnership with Sri Lanka. more..

July 23 (GDI) Having noticed its potential increase tourist and business traffic between the two countries, Singapore airport authorities are interested in granting several types of concessions to the ‘Mihin Lanka’, the Government owned budget airline. Added with this latest development, it is reported that the airline has carried over 17,000 passengers in the last two and a half months, while providing a boon for pilgrims going to India and migrant workers as Mihin airfares were much more affordable. more..