Apr 14 (GV) Some priests in ascetic orders who indulge in carnal pleasures, though not very often, do get excommunicated. A prominent catholic priest of high rank in Europe who had allegedly abused a child some twenty years ago was disrobed recently, when the affected party unearthed that case. There are some Buddhist monks too who are not virtuous, but there is no effective mechanism to disrobe them. more..

Apr 14 (LT) Election for the Eastern Provincial Council would be utilized for the defeat of all local and foreign forces that represent separatism says Chief Ministerial candidate of the JVP Wimal Piyatissa. Speaking to ‘Lankatruth’ Mr. Piyatissa said, “JVP is the only political party that understands the genuine aspirations and issues of the people in the East. The SLFP and the UNP are attempting to drag the East towards separatism to fulfill their petit interests. more..

Apr 14 (LT) A speech made by a member of Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana’s delegation that was in the UK criticized the Government of Sri Lanka and the Armed Forces. Mr. Srinath Perera, a member of Tissa Vitharana delegation to the UK, was the chief speaker at a meeting held at the London Tamil Sangam in the East Ham area of East London on the theme of ‘Stop the War in Sri Lanka.’ The meeting was organized by Socialist Workers Party (SWP) of UK more..

Apr 14 (SLW) Sinhala and Hindu New Year is an occasion for bloom of the country’s wealth and growth with an abundance of all the traditional foods and festivities: Betel, flowers, food in plenty, and blossoming trees. However, it is a pity that this New Year is filled with poverty, starvation, strife, sorrow, hardships, fear and panic never experienced before by the people of Sri Lanka. more..

Apr 14 (SLW) Sri Lanka’s violent conflict raged on this week despite repeated calls by different international actors for an end to war and a return to the search for a political solution. However, although heavy casualties and flooding have produced a lull in the Sri Lankan military’s efforts to capture the Vanni from the Liberation Tigers, Colombo’s determination to achieve a military solution is undiminished. more..

Apr 14 (SLW) As wallowing in the sufferings of the people is the overriding trait of Satakaye Saapaya, so, hardships and burdens imposed on the people by ruthless taxation, peak tariffs (electricity etc.), high cost of living, endless price hikes on essential commodities are its pleasure! Over and over again Satakaye saapaya has demonstrated its evil propensity and its favourite hobby of rejoicing in the sufferings of the people: more..

Apr 14 (AHRC) I am writing to you further on the torture case of Gerald Mervyn Perera and the judgement of the Negombo High Court. I am doing so as the Attorney-at-Law for the widow of Mr. Perera, Ms. Padma Wickramaratna. In my earlier letter I set down what appears to be very serious errors of law and facts in the judgment and I also understand that the Law Society and Trust has also written to you requesting an appeal. more..

Apr 14 (LD) The outstanding state debt of Sri Lanka rose by 18 per cent to Rs. 3,070 billion by the end of last year. This is a Rs. 462 b increase over the previous year, according to the annual report of the Central Bank issued on April 08th. Of that amount Rs. 236 b was local debt, while Rs. 226 b was obtained as foreign debt. The Central Bank report cited the depreciation of the Sri Lanka Rupee as the reason for this situation. more..

Apr 14 (LD) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed a one-man committee to investigate alleged financial misappropriations in the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society. The appointment of Health Secretary Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage to conduct the inquiry came after secretary of the Society's property and finance trust Rajendra Athukorale wrote a letter to the president, alleging the wrongdoings. more..

Apr 14 (AT) Though Sri Lanka is a predominantly agricultural country, in this sphere there are certain areas that need fine tuning and even the Government is striving to push agriculture into its rightful place with its “Api Vavamu” (Let Us Grow) programme. Major portion or almost the entirety of agricultural sector is occupied by Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SME). The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) which is primarily concerned about the SME Sector, more..

Apr 14 (AT) Investigation of assault and sexual harassment of a mother of two children by the police and the medical officer was allegedly to have been influenced by a person employed at the Kataragama Divisional Secretariat. The victim is a mother of two children aged 14 and 1 ½ years and her husband employed in the Housing Authority, working in Ampari was away from home when the incident took place. more..

Apr 14 (AT) India’s maverick politician Vaiko has begged of Norway’s most controversial peace negotiator and International Development Minister Eric Solheim who has been charged by non-tiger Tamil groups as a pro-LTTE man, to give life to a dead cease fire agreement that has been violated thousands of times by the LTTE itself. LTTE news sources revealed that the two controversial men met recently at Oslo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and more..

Apr 14 (AT) The sartorial change has come quite easily to the former guerrilla. But the agenda of Chandrakanthan Sivanesathurai alias Pillaiyan, leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, for the Eastern Province takes the breath out of conventional politicians. Unemployment is the scourge of the region, he says. There is no magic wand to remove the joblessness in one day but a sincere and determined effort is what he promises for quick results. more..

Apr 14 (LNP) Controversy surrounds the move to hold the May Day in Ampara to promote the UPFA-TMVP alliance contesting the first ever elections to the Eastern Provincial Council scheduled for May 10. The decision taken in Parliament against the backdrop of last Sunday s assassination of Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle has shocked the security establishment. Unfortunately the security top brass is reluctant to advise the political leadership against going ahead with more..

Apr 14 (LNP) President Mahinda Rajapaksa s government, struggling to stabilize volatile rice prices, has finalized an agreement with the Burmese military rulers to import 50,000 m.t. of rice to meet the growing shortfall in the local market. But the stocks will not arrive in Colombo until end of this month due to the difficulty in finding sea transport. The failure to arrange earlier shipping would cause further price escalation, an authoritative official told The Sunday Island, more..

Apr 14 (LNP) The Somawansa vs. Weerawansa battle that exploded last week has been very much in the air in the preceding days. Various media reports had said that the JVP was in crisis but the party dismissed these as inventions of hostile forces. The JVP leader has publicly confirmed that Weerawansa, who in addition to being the leader of the party s parliamentary group, was also its propaganda secretary, was under disciplinary inquiry. more..

Apr 14 (SAMN) The story of the Buddha, as described in ancient chronicles, will be translated to the big screen in an epic movie to be filmed largely in Sri Lanka. International involvement is expected in the ambitious cinema project. Buddha Charitha, or The Life Story of the Buddha, to be made at an estimated cost of US$20 million, will be jointly produced by two companies, Radiance Films International, a subsidiary of the Light of Asia Foundation of Sri Lanka, more..

Apr 14 (SAMN) The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) yesterday charged that the so-called Environmental Conservation Levy Bill passed by Parliament would neither conserve the environment nor levy the environmental cost. “Based on flawed principles, the Bill is putting a tax on common people to raise funds, not for the conservation of environment, but for reasons unknown,” the centre charged. more..

Apr 14 (SAMN) Sole remaining SLFP rebel Parliamentarian and dissident SLFP (Mahajana) wing convener Mangala Samaraweera will now face the party disciplinary inquiry launched by its General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena on May 27, a top party source said. Samaraweera and the other rebel MP the late Sripathy Sooriarachchi were each served a second charge sheet calling for their explanations over their crossing over to the opposition, more..

Apr 14 (SAMN) A child help line – 1929- established to promote awareness on the rights of the child, will go a step further this New Year with the new child rights awareness campaign to be aired on television. Director of this campaign, Kanthi Goonathilake said the help line receives a lot of calls from persons regarding issues such as child labour, corporal punishment and mental abuse of children. more..

Apr 14 (Island) The April New Year season in Nuwara Eliya is on a low key this year with the expected turnout in this picturesque salubrious hill country holiday destination, popularly called ‘Little England’, falling far short of expectations. Security concerns coupled with economic factors are attributed by hospitality industry officials for the poor turnout this season. more..

Apr 14 (Island) The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has refused to form an alliance with pro-government Muslim parties for the May 10 Eastern Provincial Council Electionbecause it did not want to create a puppet Chief Minister, the party’s General Secretary Hassan Ali said yesterday. Hetold the "Sunday Island" that pro-government Muslim parties wanted the chief ministerial candidate to be selected from among them. more..

Apr 14 (Island) An Italian transit passenger, who injured himself after a nasty fall at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), attempted to run berserk on admission to the Ragama Hospital last week. Police said that hospital staff had to restrain the hefty foreigner after he tried to run amok. Police suspect that the Italian, a resident of Milano, had taken drugs aboard the flight and was not in his proper senses when the aircraft touched down in Colombo. more..

Apr 14 (Island) S.B.Dissanayake, the controversial national organizer of the UNP and a keen student of JVP politics from his university days, speaks to C.A.Chandraprema on the latest split in the party. He directs scathing criticism not just at the party but at all the dissidents who have broken away from the JVP in recent times as well. more..

Apr 14 (LD) The government is considering getting down Gurkha soldiers from India to beef up the security of top political leaders who face grave threats to their lives, reports said. A proposal in this regard has already been made to the Ministry of Defence, and it will be taken up at government level in due course. Gurkha soldiers are the top choice of heads of state and other VVIPs of several Asian countries to care for their security, as they are considered top experts in their profession. more..

Apr 14 (AP) Fierce weekend fighting in Sri Lanka's northern region killed 81 Tamil separatists and 11 government soldiers, the military said Monday. On Sunday, army troops killed five Tamil Tiger rebels in separate clashes along the front lines separating government-controlled territory with the rebels' de facto state in the north, a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing government regulations. more..

Apr 14 (EI) Concerned over the fallout of psychological stress among students in LTTE-controlled areas due to the fighting, the rebels' outfit has launched a first ever counselling services in a school in northern Sri Lanka to help the students deal with their traumas. "School students in war time in Wanni face many psychological traumas due to factors such as death of friends and relatives or fear of bomber planes flying overhead," the LTTE said in a statement on Monday. more..

Apr 14 (AN) Security is getting worse around the Marian Shrine of Madhu as clashes between Tamil separatists and the army continue. At the same time requests from the Catholic Church for an end to violence and for respect for this “haven of peace” continue. In the wake of the recent appeal by Mgr Rayappu Joseph, bishop of Mannar, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL), which met on 9-11 April to discuss the situation, made its own appeal to both government and Tamil rebels. more..

Apr 14 (IP) Fly Srilankan Airlines to any South Indian destination and taste the age old tradition of warm hospitality of 'Paradise Island' on board. The Srilankan Airlines, Central Asia's Airline of the Year for four years now, has more attractions for Indian travelers from US major cities. This was revealed in an Agents Presentation held recently in at Holiday Inn in Skokie, a Chicago suburb. more..

Apr 14 (NP) The World Tamil Movement headquarters is a red brick industrial building on a strip of auto body and garment shops a block from Highway 401. A Canadian flag waves above the front door. Inside, a giant portrait of a Tamil guerrilla leader fills a wall above a stack of Tamil newspapers reporting the latest skirmishes in the jungles of Sri Lanka. Down the hall in the library, Tamil books are stacked neatly on shelves. But otherwise the building is empty and dark, its contents in the hands of RCMP officers. more..

Apr 14 (TS) A senior Sri Lankan minister killed in a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel suicide blast has been buried amid certainty that the country has entered one of its worst phases of conflict – with the fight returning to big cities. Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, a staunch Catholic and member of the minority Tamil community, died April 6 when a suicide bomber detonated explosives as he was about to flag off a marathon near the bustling city of Gampaha. more..

Apr 14 (IANS) Over 25,000 people, including 6,000 students, in the LTTE-held areas in the north-western Mannar district face displacement as the advancing government troops and the rebels are locked in fierce fighting, official sources here said Monday. 'The entire population of the LTTE-held Madhu and Maanthai west Assistant Government Agent division, numbering over 25,000 face displacement due to recent fighting in the area,' more..

Apr 14 (NP) Counterterrorism police in Quebec and Ontario effectively shut down a non-profit organization for Canadian Tamils this weekend due to allegations it has been raising money to finance terrorist activities in Sri Lanka. The RCMP was expected to announce details of its unprecedented actions as early as today, but several sources said police had moved in to enforce a Federal Court restraining order against the World Tamil Movement. more..

Apr 15 (BBC) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has no other option than fighting against the LTTE, the leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) said. Minister Tissa Vitharana who is also the chairman of the multi-party body to find a political solution, told BBC Sandeshaya that President Rajapaksa was forced to take military action by the Tamil Tigers themselves. President Rajapaksa “honestly tried his best”, Prof. Vitharana said, to negotiate with the LTTE but the rebels launched “provocative attacks”. more..

Apr 15 (BBC) Implementing Mediation Boards in the north and the east are being delayed due to delay in appointing selected members, authorities said. Head of Mediation Boards Commission (MBC), retired judge Dharmasiri Jayawickrama, told BBC Sandeshaya that the MBC is awaiting the response from the Justice ministry to appoint the board members. The Commission has urged ministry secretary to speed up training so that members can be appointed to the boards that are already set up in many areas. more..

Apr 15 (FI) It is about time education is elevated to centre-stage as the main focus of the national debate. A regular review of what goes on in our schools and universities will have healthy implications for the long term well being of the larger community we live in - the future of our children and of generations yet to come. Education is a future oriented activity. more..

Apr 15 (FI) Many problems created and neglected by successive governments continue to deny Sri Lanka stability, unity, peace and social and economic development benefiting the people in all provinces and ethnic groups. The disparities in overall income distribution and in the living conditions of the people in different provinces have also widened. Many citizens face an uncertain future. more..

Apr 15 (CI) West Indies have secured the series after their back-to-back wins in Trinidad, one a last-ball thriller and the other a more comfortable success completed by the man-of-the-moment, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Marlon Samuels. It has been an uplifting couple of weeks for West Indies, following their series-levelling Test victory, and a whitewash of the one-dayers would set them up nicely for the ultimate challenge of facing Australia. more..

Apr 15 (MG) Humanitarian aid, not weapons - that's where money raised by Tamil immigrants in Quebec goes, the owner of the community's Montreal headquarters said today. He was reacting to news the Côte des Neiges premises has been sealed off while the RCMP investigates the organization on suspicion of terrorist-funding activity. "Absolutely no funds go to military usage - everything is going for humanitarian use," said Sivanathan Sivaraman, owner of the building leased to the World Tamil Movement, more..

Apr 15 (Hindu) Sri Lanka’s military on Monday claimed that troops destroyed eight LTTE bunkers and killed five Tiger cadres in heavy fighting in the north. One soldier died in the battles. According to a Defence Ministry statement, “heavy fighting” broke out in the Wanni and the northern theatres in which five LTTE cadres were killed and 16 others injured. In Muhamalai, a soldier was injured and a Tiger cadre killed. In Mannar, two LTTE cadres were killed in Vediyamurippu, military said. more..

Apr 15 (NIP) Sri Lankan Tamils, who are known for their orthodoxy, have summarily rejected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s bid to change the Tamil New Year from Chittirai Thirunaal (April 13) to Thai Pongal (January 14), saying it is unwarranted on astronomical, historical and cultural grounds. Pro-Tamil Tiger commentators as well as Tamil moderates in the island feel that more..

Apr 15 (AT) The Tea Industry here rebuffed the attempts by many astute commentators, both in the print and electronic media, to diminish its landmark achievement in breaching the elusive US.$.1 Billion Value Barrier in the year 2007, for the first time in its 140 years history. In the official statistics released recently, the value of Tea Exports in 2007 is shown to have recorded a 22 percent increase over the 2006 figure, more..

Apr 15 (AT) An Italy-Sri Lanka Anti-Terrorist Organization was established in Rome under the guidance of Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Rome Hemantha Warnakulasuriya P.C. The first project of this association is a website, in the Italian Language, which will be devoted to the brutal atrocities committed by the LTTE. It will have videos of the attempted killing of Minister Douglas Devananda by a suicide bomber and the killing of Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. more..

Apr 15 (WL) The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict strives to end violations against children in armed conflicts and to guarantee their rights. As a global network, Watchlist builds partnerships among local, national and international nongovernmental organizations, enhancing mutual capacities and strengths. Working together, we strategically collect and disseminate information on violations against children in conflicts more..

Apr 15 (LBO) Sri Lanka's Central Bank has called for the setting up of a high-powered decision-making body, possibly headed by the president, to handle oil exploration. A well-structured institutional arrangement should exist for policy formulation, management, regulation, and supervision of oil exploration, development and production, it said in its newly released 2007 annual report. more..

Apr 15 (TP) Speakers at the 8th Doha Forum for Democracy, Development and Free Trade yesterday called for collective international efforts to bridge the widening gap between the North and South and the rich and the poor across the world. Addressing a session on "Development Projects and New Trends", Hussein A Bhaila, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka said, "While globalisation and more..

Apr 15 (SLW) There is a book on my table titled Chieftains of Ceylon written by J.C. Van Sunder with a foreword by Sir Solomon D. Bandaranaike. Riency Thaldena, a relation of mine who lived in Moladande gave it to me with two other books; these had in turn, donated to him by the late Anura Bandaranaike. I had a conversation with Anura at Riency’s funeral service. That was the last time I got an opportunity to talk to Anura. more..

Apr 15 (SLW) The British Tamil Forum’s (BTF) Mr Bose has published an advertisement in the LTTE printed media demanding Tamil businesses in the overseas to join its newly formed traders association. The Eastham based LTTE activist Bose who runs a real estate agency business has invited the Tamil businesses to join the new forum. Bose was one time a fund raiser of the LTTE and in the last major fund raising titled ‘the final war’ he had personally given £50,000 to the LTTE. more..

Apr 15 (LG) Bringing together top leaders, senior diplomats and experts from diverse backgrounds, a historic Conference on Peace and Reconciliation in South Asia concluded in the "peace capital" of the world today, calling for peaceful resolution of the unsettled issues and highlighting "spirituality" as a way forward. The Conference, which focused on the internal armed conflicts in South Asian nations of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal, more..

Apr 15 (LG) The aggressive military campaign by the Sri Lankan Government started much before the formal abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement by it on January 2, 2008. The action was not only provoked by the continued violent activities of the LTTE but also by a firm policy decision by the Sri Lankan Government who saw no other manner to contain the LTTE. The LTTE had used two events to its advantage- the period during the peace talks and more..