Apr 9 (SAMN) The UNP Tuesday said the current government has broken all records with inflation rising to 28.1 per cent in recent weeks. United National Party, National Organiser S.B.Dissanayake addressing a press briefing charged that the Rajapaksa government has ruined the country resulting in ordinary people being unable to celebrate the New Year because of the sky rocketing prices of essential goods. more..

Apr 9 (DN) Excise sleuths busted five large scale moonshine producing plants, cleverly hidden in a few islands in the Madampa river, declared by the Government as a sanctuary due to its unique bio-diversity features. The Madampa river joins the ocean near Ambalangoda, and the wetland which surrounds the area, has the reputation of being the breeding ground for many endangered species of plants and animals. more..

Apr 9 (DN) The price of rice has risen by more than half in two weeks - and analysts are predicting worse to come. It could lead to a crisis for countries such as India, China and Vietnam, the London-based Independent reported yesterday. The price of rice - the staple foodstuff for more than 8 billion people around the world - has shot up by more than a half in just two weeks. What is more, analysts are predicting worse to come. more..

Apr 9 (Island) TULF leader V. Anandasangari yesterday said there was a sinister move to keep the Tamil youth divided into various groups. "All these militant groups have been registered as individual political parties at a time when there is a requirement by the Elections Department that to register as a political party, one member should be a member of parliament or an ex –MP or a Senator. more..

Apr 9 (Island) The UNP yesterday raised a storm in the House, over the appointment of Dhammika Kitulgoda as Acting Secretary General of Parliament, forcing the Speaker to suspend sittings twice as some MPs even entered the Well and shouted slogans. Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera asked the Speaker whether the newly appointed Acting Secretary General could function in the post while he was the Secretary of the Constitutional Council. more..

Apr 9 (DM) The assassination of Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was not only a loss to the Nation and the government but was a bigger loss to his wife and two children, the eldest who had just passed her GCE Ordinary Level examination with straight ‘A’ passes in all subjects. “He wanted to be with the people always and disliked exclusive and special treatment for himself putting his own life at risk” the grieving wife of slain Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said yesterday. more..

Apr 9 (DM) President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday night told government parliamentary group not to get discouraged by the death of UPFA strongman and Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Addressing a special government parliamentary group meeting held on Monday night at Temple Trees the President said the brutal attack by the LTTE which killed the Minister would not deter the struggle against terrorists. more..

Apr 9 (LBO) Sri Lanka's first ever boat show will be held in June aimed at promoting local boat building for the leisure, marine, tourism, and fishing industries, the organizers said. Local boat yards hopes to cash in on the shift in manufacturing from European countries to South Asia owing to cheap and skilled labour and access to raw materials. Diyanath Rohan Jayasinghe, Chairman of the state-owned Cey-Nor Foundation which builds fishing boats, more..

Apr 9 (AN) Convicted Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek yesterday appeared before the same judge in Dawadmi who had sentenced her to beheading last year over the death of a four-month-old baby. Chief Judge Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Rosaimi ruled that any further objections to his verdict must be presented to the Supreme Judicial Council, which had recently ordered the case back to him for “clarifications”. more..

Apr 9 (AFP) Sri Lanka's police arrested four people and seized a large quantity of explosives that could have been used in a suicide bombing, officials said Wednesday. Investigators found about 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of plastic explosives and grenades in a location in central Kandy district on Tuesday, a police official said. "There is an indication that the explosives were probably meant to be used in a suicide attack," more..

Apr 9 (PTI) LTTE supremo Prabhakaran was quite regular in attending the training camps of the Tamil Tigers and used to personally supervise their programmes, a surrendered activists of the banned organisation has said. Arumugam (named changed) told a team of visiting journalists at a fortified building in Jaffna that houses the former LTTE cadres that the LTTE chief was quite regular in attending training camps and used to personally supervise their programmes. more..

Apr 10 (LD) Parliament passed the state of emergency by a further month today (Apr. 09th). A vote was taken on the motion for the extension, where it received a 78 vote majority. Ninety-three members voted in favour, while the 15 Tamil national Alliance MPs voted against. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna voted with the government. The United National Party abstained, while the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress members were absent at the vote.

Apr 10 (LD) Failure to respect majority opinion of the party is the main allegation the JVP is leveling against party MP Wimal Weerawansa. JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, at a media briefing in Colombo today (Apr. 09th), listed the charges against Mr. Weerawansa, that also include his refusals when the party wanted him to declare its stance on the cost of living, forced removal of Tamil nationals from Colombo lodges and various other issues. more..

Apr 10 (LD) Personal bodyguards of the top Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leadership prevented the representative of ‘lankaenews’ from carrying out his duties at the media briefing called by JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe today (Apr. 09th). The bodyguards had prevented the website’s Shantha Wijesuriya from entering the venue, the auditorium of the National Library and Documentation Services Board in Colombo. more..

Apr 10 (LT) Mr. Wimal Weerawansa has not been removed from any of the positions he has held says Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe. He has not been removed from the post of Information Secretary or from being the leader of the group of Parliamentarians of the JVP said the JVP leader addressing a press conference held in Colombo today. He added that no other person has been appointed for the organizations Mr. Weerawansa has convened. more..

Apr 10 (BBC) Two factions of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are engaged in a war of words over alleged suspension of senior leader, Wimal Weerawansa. Ten JVP parliamentarians on Tuesday expressed support to Mr. Weerawansa after he told the parliament that JVP leaders have 'shot him from the back'. The JVP leadership, meanwhile, accused the Propaganda Secretary of working against the party policies. Have your say. more..

Apr 10 (BBC) The dissident group of JVP says a another JVP legislator has stolen their vehicles at the parliament. Kalutara district JVP parliamentarian Piyasiri Wijenayake told BBC Sandeshaya that his official vehicle, a Toyota Double Cab, was forcefully removed by a group led by Trncomalee distrcit MP, Jayanatha Wijesekara. The group who has assaulted the policeman in duty has also taken dissident MP Achala Suranga Jagoda's Toyaota van on Wednesday, he added. more..

Apr 10 (BBC) President Mahinda Rajapaksa's political ally, JVP, has categorically denied conspiracy charges levelled against them by a breakaway faction. The faction lead by JVP parliamentary group leader, Wimal Weerawansa, said there was an "international conspiracy" to drag the party towards imperialist forces. Representing Mr. Weerawansa in a press briefing, Kalutara district MP Piyasiri Wijenayake on Tuesday said the JVP is gradually moving away from the party's supporters. more..

Apr 10 (AFP) At least 93 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and another 686 injured during clashes with Tamil Tiger rebels last month, the prime minister told parliament Wednesday. Premier Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, in a statement to the 225-member national legislature, said 38 civilians were killed and another 21 wounded in March. "The number of security personnel killed last month was 93 while another 686 soldiers and police were wounded," more..

Apr 10 (LG) Capitalism, according to some "postmodernist" Marxists such as Fredric Jameson, is in its third stage having passed the stage of imperialism as identified by Lenin. Jameson, apparently, has conceptualised a third stage for capitalism, having being influenced by the concept of late capitalism of Mandel, a guru in the Trotskyite tradition. However, there are many Marxists who do not believe in postmedernity, let alone a third postmodernist stage of capitalism, and more..

Apr 10 (IRIN) A poor rice harvest, rising global food prices and the enduring conflict are increasing food insecurity for hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans, UN food experts have warned. Only half the country’s 20 million people are receiving the minimum daily calorie intake of 2,030, according to the latest poverty assessments compiled by the government. “An average poor person in Sri Lanka receives only 1,696 kcal per day while a non-poor person receives 2,194 kcal,” more..

Apr 10 (AP) The West Indies and Sri Lanka will take contrasting strategies into Thursday's one-day international that initiates a three-match series at Queen's Park Oval. The home team has retained all of its players from the two-match test series that ended 1-1 on Sunday. But the Sri Lankans have sent seven of their test squad home, replacing them with a number of new faces to boost their challenge. more..

Apr 10 (OC) Much of Sri Lanka is in mourning after a weekend terrorist attack that killed Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, minister of highways and road development, as well as former Olympic marathon runner K.A. Karunaratne. The attack is being blamed on the LTTE who are said to have targeted the minister because he was "a strong supporter of the government and a very senior minister," according to High Commissioner W.J.S. Karunaratne. more..

Apr 10 (DT) Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka are lucrative investment locations for each other’s exporters as Pakistan is a gateway to resource-rich Central Asian States while on the other hand Sri Lanka enjoys duty-free access to huge European and Indian markets. This was the consensus developed at a meeting between Sri Lankan High Commissioner Dr Wijeratne Bandara Dorakumbure and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Mohammad Ali Mian here at LCCI on Wednesday. more..

Apr 10 (AT) Question is being asked what has the aging recluse, Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the LTTE has achieved by killing the dissident Tamil leaders from Mayor Alfred Duraiyappah to Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Is he closer to his goal of creating a separate state of Tamil Eelam by these killings? Has he ushered in a rose garden with make milk and honey flowing on to the plates of the Tamils in the North and East? more..

Apr 10 (AT) Two developments in the Sri Lankan theatre need to make Delhi and other world capitals, particularly Washington and London, sit up and end the dichotomy that has characterised their reaction to and relations with Colombo. Firstly, senior Lanka Minister Jeyraj Fernandopulle, the only Roman Catholic in the Rajapakse government was assassinated just outside Colombo. His religion had lost relevance for the LTTE as he facilitated the Pillayan Group’s entry into mainstream politics. more..

Apr 10 (LG) When Dr. Badiudeen Mahmood, contested in the 1977 General Election in the Batticaloa District under the SLFP, the Muslim voters in the district were attracted to the magic word “ Kilakistan” which was first coined by Mr. Rasool from Kattankudy in Badiudeen’s election meetings. Mr.Rasool, a teacher by profession adorned all the Campaign meetings from Eravur to Kattankudy and publicly declared that “If “Kilakistan” was not achieved, it would be “Kaburistan” more..

Apr 10 (LG) In as rare a show of unanimity as one could dream of finding in that quagmire called “Politics” in Sri Lanka, practically all the parties opposed to the present Government [that is `opposed’ at this moment – for who knows what they will be in the next moment !!] including the SLMC, its junior partner [at this moment] the UNP, and the JVP have, with one voice called for the immediate disarming of the Pillaiyan Group before the Eastern Provincial Council Elections. more..

Apr 10 (LR) The marketing people can temporally blow up character of an ordinary person using well planned publicity campaigns on different themes. The white feather of a feeble clown may be presented to general public as a prince of peace. Licking of boots of colonial masters may well be presented as international diplomacy. However those are mere artificial boosting and dumb character will surface with time. more..

Apr 10 (AHRC) We reproduce below a letter written to the Vice Chancellor of the Sri Jayawardenapura Univestiy and the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission regarding the complaint of several academics who fear foul play which will result in discrimination against them in the appointment of an associate professor who does not meet the required qualifications. more..

Apr 10 (AHRC) The Sinhala and Tamil New Year used to be a time of recreation and relaxation for all the communities of Sri Lanka, more or less like Christmas time in the west, or Chinese New Year for the Chinese. However, this year the 11th to the 13th April New Year holidays will be accompanied with sad memories and tension for most Sri Lankans both in and out of the country. more..

Apr 10 (UCAN) Buddhists and Christians condemned an apparent suicide attack that killed a Catholic government minister and 15 others, as they remembered his efforts at fostering interreligious understanding. Highways and Road Development Minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle, 55, died in the explosion early on April 6 at the start of a marathon just north of Colombo, at Weliweriya Kanthi Sports Ground, to mark Sri Lankan New Year. more..

Apr 10 (CO) Tamil Nadu State Intelligence sleuths have seized 16 cans of highly inflammable chemical solution, suspected to be used for manufacturing powerful explosives, meant for smuggling to Sri Lanka, in an operation here today. Police said acting on a tip off, the 'Q' branch police team arrested a Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Navaneetha Krishnan (33) from the 'Samathuvapuram' locality near Sakki Mangalam. more..

Apr 10 (LBO) Sri Lanka's top state legal advisor has told company directors not to be mere 'rubber stamps' but to act independently and in the best interests of their companies and stakeholders. Attorney-general C R de Silva said company directors today are expected to meet an increasing range of obligations amidst commercial and legal expectations. Directors should ensure company financial reports and audits are reliable, and act against corporate fraud, more..

Apr 10 (TN) Masked men in black uniform entered the house of Tamil parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, a prominent leader of the TNA, in the early hours of Wednesday, forced the care-taker of the house into a room saying that they were from the CID, and dug several holes at in the backyard. After they left, Police came to the house, went directly to the backyard without talking to the caretaker and finally detained him till Wednesday noon at Wattala police. more..

Apr 10 (LBO) Economic activity in Sri Lanka's eastern port city of Trincomalee is set to revive after a public market was re-built by the United States and Greek aid, the US Embassy in Colombo said. The refurbished Anuradhapura junction public market in Trincomalee had been has been opened this month. The rebuilding of the public market was funded by a joint grant of 700,000 US dollars the from more..

Apr 11 (FI) The assassination of Minister of Highways and Road Development, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and the killing of 14 others including some of the country’s athletic stars, and the injuring of over 80 others by a suicide bomb attack at a new year Marathon race adds to the long list of political leaders and civilians whose lives have been cruelly taken due to the long unresolved ethnic conflict. more..

Apr 11 (LG) I am delighted to have this opportunity to address you at the Asian Study Centre here in Cairo and to share my thoughts on the challenges Sri Lanka faces today. Yours is a highly reputed institute with a distinguished history as a centre of scholarly excellence and discourse and I thank you Mr Chairman for your invitation and kind words of introduction. more..

Apr 11 (LG) The Deputy Provincial Directors of Health Services (DPDHS) for Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu, have both recently raised their concerns about the severe lack of material resources to run the health services in the two districts. These two districts in Vanni suffer material shortages to run the health services because these materials are blocked at the checkpoints in Omanthai and Vavuniya by the Sri Lanka Defense Ministry, more..

Apr 11 (LG) The international press freedom and human rights community is extremely concerned that journalists and media workers in Sri Lanka are daily confronting grave threats to the safety of themselves and their families. As a result of our concerns and common interest in defending the rights of journalists and others across the world and in Sri Lanka, we have joined forces in an international campaign to Stop the War on Journalists in Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 11 (LG) A friend of mine remarked, JVP without Wimal Weerawansa, is like the SL cricket team without Sanath Jayasuriya. Popularly known as JVP firebrand, with his forceful style of addressing meetings, Weerawansa added life and lustre to the Marxist party. The only surviving JVP 'Old Guard', Somawansa Amarasinghe, having gone underground when rest of its leaders were killed in the purge following 89 insurrection and more..

Apr 11 (SLW) The LTTE, as is customary to them, has commenced a gradual withdrawal from the Our Lady of the Rosary Church at Madhu as troops surround the area. Military sources indicated the withdrawal has commenced before Army completes encircling of Madhu. Senior cadres from Jeyam and below have all abandoned the area. Large trenches, trappings and small groups of Tigers still remain. more..

Apr 11 (wsws) Sri Lanka’s official annualised inflation rate skyrocketed to 28 percent in March, up from 24 percent in February. Prices for essential food items are soaring—the inflation rate for food and beverages reached a staggering 37 percent—while transport prices and housing rents followed with 24 percent and 11 percent respectively. Over the past three months, the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) has jumped by 487 points, from 5,955 in December to 6,442 in March, and more..

Apr 11 (BBC) Some dissident group members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are ready to reveal soon the conspiracy, says JVP MP Vijitha Herath. JVP, MP for Matale District, Sujatha Alahakoon has realized what had really happened and will on Friday disclose details of the conspiracy to the country. “Along with her there are others who unknowingly supported this conspiracy. They too have now realised what has happened”, says Vijitha Herath. more..

Apr 11 (LBO) Sri Lanka's Capital Maharaja Organisation, a big unlisted conglomerate, has earmarked a group of engineers for training in offshore petroleum skills but warns further delay in starting oil exploration could be costly. "Our chances of finding oil or gas offshore are very, very real," said Nimal Cooke, executive director, projects of the Maharaja Organisation. more..

Apr 11 (CI) East West Marketing have agreed to sponsor the Schools Invitation XI, which has enabled them to participate in the inaugural Sri Lanka Telecom inter-provincial Twenty20 tournament in Colombo and Kurunegala from April 17 to May 1. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) sources said if no sponsor had come forward, they wouldn't have been in a position to put together a schools side for this tournament. more..

Apr 11 (CI) Shivnarine Chanderpaul carried West Indies to a thrilling final-ball one-wicket win in the first one-day international in Port of Spain after being left needing 10 off two deliveries. He responded with a straight drive before flicking a Chaminda Vaas full toss over deep midwicket to send the Trinidad crowd into wild celebrations. An enthralling match had swung one way then the other before the final act. more..

Apr 11 (BBC) An arms trade campaigning group has criticised the sale of 10,000 military missiles by Slovakia to Sri Lanka. The three-metre missiles are designed to be dispatched from multiple rocket launchers. Simon Hill, from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), said the sale was "exactly what Sri Lanka doesn't need at the moment". Sri Lanka has been engaged in civil war for 25 years, and the CAAT fears the weapons may be used against civilians. more..

Apr 11 (LD) The emotion-filled speech by the Parliamentary Group leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Wimal Weerawansa in parliament, prompted her to accompany those who attended the media conference in support of Weerawansa, was the explanation given by Matale district JVP MP Sujatha Alahakoon, addressing a media briefing today. Ms. Alahakoon also claimed that MPs who attended the briefing were divided in their opinions. more..

Apr 11 (LD) As a result of the internal crisis facing the JVP, the party has decided to stop the publication of its weekly 'Lanka' newspaper after the April 13th issue, 'Lanka Dissent' reliably learns. Since its inception, the Sunday newspaper had come under the direct supervision of the JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa. Published by a private publisher, the newspaper has been funded by a group of expatriates supporting the party, more..