Aug 24 (ST) A senior nurse attached to the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital has lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, saying she was verbally abused, harrassed and detained by the police for more than five hours – all because of an error on her national identity card issued by the Registration of Persons Department. Sriyani Mangalika Karunaratne, a resident of Weerakoon Gardens, Kandy, was born on 03.06.1960 and possesses an authentic National Identity Card bearing number 601550660V. more..

Aug 24 (ST) Election monitors said that although the campaign leading up to yesterday’s North Central and Sabaragamuwa provincial council elections was marked by violence, the election itself was relatively free of major incidents. The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) received 71 complaints of election-related violence yesterday, said CaFFE spokesperson Keerthi Tennakoon. He said only a few incidents could be described as major. more..

Aug 24 (AFP) Sri Lanka's ruling party swept two local councils in an election seen as a referendum on the administration's war against Tamil rebels, results showed on Sunday. President Mahinda Rajapakse's UPFA comfortably won the provincial councils by polling more than 55 percent of Saturday's vote, according to the department of elections. Rajapakse wanted the ballot for the highest level of local government in the North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces to be a referendum on his military campaign against Tamil separatists. more..

Aug 25 (LG) Transparency International Organization has said in its report that corruption has increased in Asia, as a threat to the economic growth and social welfare. In fact, the corruption has increased badly compared to what it had been a decade ago. Asian countries only pay lip service protesting against corruption. As a result of corruption, prices of goods and services charges have increased by 30 to 40 percent in the affected countries. more..

Aug 25 (LG) UN HQ has expressed worry that there is scarcity for relief aid since 1000’s of families have been displaced due to the war climate in the North. It has also appealed that displaced people should be protected. The reports reveal that thousands of families have been displaced in the north. Meanwhile, it is reported that one and a half year old child was killed and 18 others were injured including Mulalitheevu district GA as a result of a shell attack. more..

Aug 25 (LG) Sri lanka government forces, intentionally and on a pre-programmed agenda are targeting innocent Tamil civilian population in Vanni. Internally displaced Tamil people who were forced to displace again and again in their all life are once again chased from their habitations with bombings and air attacks. But the Sri Lankan propaganda machinery with its calculated false reports is depicting the agonies and miseries of the Tamil people as a defeat of the LTTE. more..

Aug 25 (LG) Lankan Tamils are frustrated at the news that surfaces regarding New Delhi’s strategies diplomatic and otherwise, to secretly connive with Colombo in Lankan issues particularly in Lankan ethnic issues. Since there is mass support for the Lankan Tamils in Tamil Nadu and since the present Delhi regime depends greatly on the support of Tamil Nadu for its survival, Manmohan Singhe government makes its moves rather surreptitiously and secretly as far as the Lankan Tamil issue is concerned. more..

Aug 25 (LG) "I see the convincing victory by the UPFA at the elections to the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils held yesterday as a victory for all our people who love our motherland. It is an election where the country has won. While thanking the people of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ratnapura, and Kegalle Districts and all others, who contributed to this victory, I call upon them to enjoy their success in peace,” more..

Aug 25 (LG) In no uncertain language the provincial poll elections have shown the minds of the people; they certainly want an end to terrorism and political mess. The crucial point expressed is that all political parties and this even applies to the TNA parliamentarians and therefore the LTTE whose interests they shamelessly promote, must go for a solution straightaway. If this is not addressed, then Wanni must be stormed immediately and more..

Aug 25 (LG) Whatever be the results of the Provincial Council polls in North-Central Province and Sabaragamuwa, charges and demands on the role of the police in ensuring free and fair elections cannot but be expected in their wake. Arguments such as those available on the Government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse that had some validity at the time of 'democratisation' of the Eastern Province are not relevant now. more..

Aug 25 (LG) The UNP Chief Ministerial Candidate Ranjan Ramanayake got 130,258 preferences in Ratnapura while UPFA Chief Ministerial Candidate Mahipala Herath got 98,120 preferences in Kegalle at the PCs elections. Meanwhile Chief Ministrial Candiated Janka Chandrajith Perera (Gen. Janaka Perera) got 116430 preferences in Anuradhapura while UPFA Chief Ministerial Candidate Bertty Premalal Dissanayake got 105588 preferences more..

Aug 25 (LG) Month after month, Rohitha Bogollagama continues to astound the country with his free-wheeling attitude towards public finance and his blatant abuse of the foreign ministry portfolio for the good of his own. Since the ministry of foreign affairs fell onto his lap on 28 January 2007, very much like manna from heaven, Bogollagama has been engaged in antics that have made Bozo the Clown look normal in diplomatic circles. more..

Aug 25 (LG) Basil Rajapakse MP and the Senior Advisor to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, when speaking to ‘Asian Tribune said, “This Provincial Councils victory is the verdict given by the people. By this election, President has sought a mandate from the people for the 32 months administration of the UPFA Government and they have overwhelmingly endorsed it. more..

Aug 25 (AT) A move to tie-up and strengthen links between Sri Lanka’s metropolitan city of Colombo and Frankfurt, considered Germany’s Banking, Financial & Trade Centre. This was discussed in Frankfurt, when Mayor Mrs. Petra Roth, welcomed Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to Frankfurt at a meeting in the ‘Rathhaus’ (Town Hall) on the 22nd of August, 2008. During the discussion, both parties noted that Sri Lankan Airlines flies direct to Frankfurt four times a week and more..

Aug 25 (CI) For the second game in succession, an inspired opening spell by India's seam attack of Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar brought a powerful batting line-up to its knees. A middle-of-the-road target of 238 was always going to be competitive under lights but a flurry of early wickets before effectively sealed the match before the first Powerplay ended. Both captains arrested top-order slides with fighting half-centuries, but his bowlers made Mahendra Singh Dhoni's effort count in the end. more..

Aug 25 (BBC) Saturday’s provincial council (PC) elections were neither free nor fair, says President Rajapaksa’s former political ally. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said the elections were marred with widespread violence, intimidation and misuse of public property. JVP Chief Ministerial candidate for Sabaragamuwa province, Chameera Koswatta, told BBC Sandeshaya that the result did not reflect the genuine choice of the voters. more..

Aug 25 (LBO) Sri Lanka's government will run out of working people to tax in the future, as retirees increase and the workforce shrinks, creating a crisis that will leave a rapidly ageing population unprotected, a top financial analyst has warned. The government is currently getting benefits from a demographic bonus, as a large proportion of the population is part of the workforce. At the moment 49.8 percent of the population is in the labour force. more..

Aug 25 (LBO) Sri Lanka's ruling coalition has won convincingly over the main opposition and weakened a Marxist former ally in a provincial poll, placing the administration in a strong position for national polls on its own. The UPFA led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of President Mahinda Rajapaksa won 18 seats in the North Central Province against 12 for the main opposition United National Party (UNP). more..

Aug 25 (Hindu) In a swift pre-dawn operation here on Saturday, sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested a drug peddler who was evading arrest for many years. Chellappa Saguneswaran, 42, of Vavunia in Sri Lanka, was picked up from a lodge at Periamet. NCB sources said the police intercepted Shanmuganathan of Colombo at the Chennai international airport on Friday night when he was about to board a plane to Sri Lanka. more..

Aug 25 (KT) A tsunami caused by an earthquake took away tens of thousands of lives in Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, in 2004. But it didn't end in complete catastrophe. "Many lives were lost, but now we have a system to deal with disaster," Mahinda Samarasinghe, the first minister of disaster management and human rights said in an interview with The Korea Times during his visit to Korea last week. more..

Aug 25 (CI) Mahendra Singh Dhoni has adapted his game superbly to the needs of his team over the last couple of years and it was again evident in a bristling 76 that helped leave India a win away from their first ODI series triumph in Sri Lanka. On a tough tour like this, India needed their captain to get into some sort of form to lift their spirits. Dhoni delivered, with a different yet no less effective approach. more..

Aug 25 (UCAN) Ahead of approaching provincial council elections, 20 religious leaders have met the election commissioner to voice concern for election-related violence and harassment of media personnel. The Buddhist, Catholics, Hindu and Muslim representatives of the Congress of Religions in Sri Lanka spoke to Dayananda Dissanake on Aug. 20 at his office in Rajagiriya, outside Colombo. They called for free and fair elections. more..

Aug 25 (AFP) Sri Lanka's top cricketers had a shot at Bollywood stardom when they wefilmed for an upcoming movie that features some of the best players in the world. Scenes for "Victory," a story of a small town boy who dreams of playing cricket for India, were shot in Colombo last week, with actor Harman Baweja playing against Sri Lanka's national team. Sri Lankan stars Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya were among those more..

Aug 25 (PISL) I have been asked to speak on the political and social consequences of July 1983, and I will try to focus on these. With regard to background and causes, I said enough when I introduced the topic of the seminar, and also I have written about these at length, so I will refrain from discussing these areas here. In talking of the political and social consequences I will look at several areas. more..

Aug 25 (PISL) Given below is the text of a letter sent to the Sunday Leader in response to an article that appeared on August 17th. Sections of the letter were reproduced in another article in the Sunday Leader on August 24th, but the full letter makes clear a point the article avoids, namely the commitment of the police and the Sri Lankan state to affirm the rule of law and deal firmly with breaches of the peace arising from religious prejudice. more..

Aug 25 (AT) The long-awaited Provincial Council elections for the North Central and Sabaragamamuwa Provinces are over. The Government party has won the two Provincial Council defeating the Opposition. It has witnessed bloodshed as well as damage to the property of not only the politicians but also of the civilians who sincerely supported them. It is a fact that the Government used it s all the power and authority to win the elections. more..

Aug 25 (GV) No more scantily clad foreign cheerleaders at cricket matches in Sri Lanka as it goes against our “culture”, the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge recently decreed. He was awakened to this “foreign evil” by the Minister of Cultural Affairs Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, after seeing them at the first one-day match between India and Sri Lanka at Dambulla on August 19th. more..

Aug 25 (LT) The government has decided to levy VAT for water bills that are for less than 25 units from the 1st of July. National Water Supply & Drainage Board states the relevant water bills will be levied a 15% tax from the 1st of July. Additional Gen. Manager of the Board K. Balasuriya says the new tax has been made by a special circular issued by the Ministry of Finance. more..

Aug 25 (LT) Giving 3 seats to the JVP from three districts in an election the government launched its brutal violence is a victory given by the people to bring victory to the principles of the JVP says Information Secretary of the JVP Vijithe Herath. He said the government carried out a ferocious campaign of violence throughout the election campaign, destroying and setting fire to election offices, shooting, more..

Aug 25 (MOD) United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has built a new maternity and paediatric ward complex and established Regional Medical Supplies Division (RMSD) for the benefit of the people living in the Eastern Province. According to a press release issued by the UNICEF office Sri Lanka, the two new facilities will be added to the public health network from today (Aug 25) onwards. The press release in full: more..

Aug 25 (GDI) Leader of the National Freedom Front Wimal Weerawansa MP said yesterday (24) that the masses had rejected the JVP leadership as it had joined forces with the 'reactionary' UNP and called up the leadership to resign forthwith. "If the present leadership is ousted and the party's course readjusted, we will have no difficulty in forming an electoral alliance with it," more..

Aug 25 (TN) Tamil students of the Arts Faculty of the Peradeniya University Friday handed over a memorandum to the Vice-chancellor requesting him to take immediate steps to release K. Umanath, a final year student, from police custody, enabling him to sit for his final examination scheduled to be held in three months, sources in Peredeniya said. Umanath is still being detained in Davulugala police station in Kandy district. more..

Aug 25 (TN) Unidentified men hurled a hand grenade Sunday early morning 2:00 a.m. at the residence of Eastern Province Council (EPC) member, S.M.Zubhair Hadjiar located along Ea'raavoor Girls School and bolted away. The grenade fell within the premises of the home close to the entrance and exploded. Zubhair escaped unhurt in the explosion and the house was undamaged. Mr.Zubhair had returned home at 10:00 p.m. after having addressed election rallies in Pollanaruwa district more..

Aug 25 (TN) The committee appointed by Colombo Supreme Court to explore into the possibility of resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in areas inside Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam north met Saturday around 3:30 p.m in Palaali SLA Head Quarters and decided to allow resettlement in the first stage only in areas outside the HSZ within the 600 meter distance of no-man’s area, contrary to the hopes of the applicants for resettlement inside the HSZ, now occupied by the SLA. more..

Aug 25 (TN) A 27-year-old Public Health Inspector and his 34-year-old friend who were among the devotees, allowed to enter Ponnaalai Varadarajah Perumaa'l temple inside the Sri Lanka Army High Security Zone (HSZ) at the entrance to the Kaarainakar island in Jaffna, have been reported missing on Sunday. The missing civilians are Thevasenathipathy Sukanthan, the health inspector from Cha'ndilippaay West, and Paramanathan Murukanananthan, from more..

Aug 25 (LNP) President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who craftily turned Saturday`s PC polls into a referendum on his warfront, has bagged the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces with ease. It was his personal victory rather than anyone else`s. Let neither of the UPFA chief ministerial candidates who ran the two provinces previously claim he has got a fresh mandates to do more of what he was doing. more..

Aug 25 (SAMN) Sri Lanka is braced for intense fighting as troops close in on the Tamil Tigers' political capital, with local election results on Sunday backing the government's war strategy, analysts say. The defence ministry announced last week that government forces were just 12 kilometres from the key rebel-held city of Kilinochchi. The army has recently captured the towns of Uyilankulam and Thunukkai after battling the separatist LTTE for months. more..

Aug 25 (SAMN) Stroke is the major cause of serious long term disability and death in Sri Lanka, affecting one person every 45 seconds and killing one every three minutes, a medical expert said. The President of the National Stroke Association (NSA) of Sri Lanka, Dr. Lalith Wijeratne addressing its Annual General Meeting 2008 at the HNB Towers Sunday said many people were permanently disabled as a result of strokes. more..

Aug 25 (SAMN) The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was capable of getting a steamroller majority in the Ranapura district in the provincial council elections. The people have placed trust and confidence in President Mahinda Rajapaksa because President Rajapaksa has taken appropriate action to eradicate brutal terrorism, Health MInister Nimal Siripala said. more..

Aug 25 (DN) Gama Neguma is a most valuable development programme that helps to establish a well developed village providing more facilities to people in rural areas. Therefore every official must give priority for the success of this programme said Wasantha Gunaratne, Divisional Secretary, Pitabeddara. He was speaking at the meeting of Divisional Agriculture Committee, Pitabeddara held at the DS auditorium. more..

Aug 25 (DN) Amidst criticism by the UNP and JVP the Government regained power in the North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces easily, Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services and SLFP General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday. He said that due to the poor election propaganda campaign and unproductive election manifesto the UNP lost its recognition and credibility among the masses. more..

Aug 25 (Island) UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake yesterday said they were able to increase their representation in both councils despite the government blatantly abusing state resources to spearhead its campaign. Attanayake said the government had failed to retain the number of seats it had in the councils. He said a 50-day campaign of terror and destruction unleashed by the Rajapaksa government had been its primary tool to win the election. more..

Aug 25 (Island) Though the people of the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces too faced the problem of high cost of living, the government was able to win the election by selling the war, former SLFP and UNP minister S.B.Dissanayake told The Island. People from various areas were brought for the election rallies where the President and Prime Minister were present, but the other UPFA meetings were not crowd pullers while the JVP was decimated in the election Dissanayake said. more..

Aug 25 (DM) The Tamil political parties that contested the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council election failed for the first time to get a single member elected despite the presence of a sizeable number of estate Tamils in the province. At the previous election, the CWC held a seat in the council, but lost it on Saturday and neither were any Tamils who contested under the symbols of the main political parties elected. more..

Aug 25 (DM) The security forces continued its multi-pronged offensive from advanced positions in the Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and the Eastern Wanni battlefronts while killing at least 28 LTTE cadres and injuring 19 others, the Defence Ministry said. The Army infantrymen have launched assaults at identified LTTE strong-holds and gathering locations also assisted with heavy artillery and aerial fire support, Wanni security sources said. more..

Aug 25 (LD) Iyyadorai Kadiramathambi alias Mangalam Master of the TMVP is to be appointed to the North Central Provincial Council, after he came last in the list of preferential votes. He had contested Polonnaruwa on the UPFA ticket and polled just 5,519 votes. SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena had agreed to grant him one of the bonus seats for the province under an election agreement with the TMVP alias Pillayan Group.

Aug 25 (LD) Now that the path is clear, it is expected of the victor to halt sheer politicking and focus its energies in getting rid of terrorism & building this nation which has bled for too long. This is an independent review of provincial council elections sent to us by one of our readers, Mr. Suranimala Yapa. The point of view expressed in this review is Mr. Yapa's and 'Lanka Dissent' holds no responsibility. more..

Aug 25 (LD) Several organizations are joining hands with the Manel Mal Movement to organize a campaign to wish for strength to the armed forces in their quest to liberate the north. Titled 'Jayodaye Ranagosha', the event is a procession of vehicles that starts from Vidyalankara Pirivena in Peliyagoda, Colombo at 7.00 am on August 30th. The procession will proceed to Kandy and reach Sri Dalada Maligawa, or the Temple of the Tooth, by 5.00 pm, organizers said. more..

Aug 25 (LD) JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe has downplayed the party's debacle at the provincial polls, and blamed it mainly on the absence of a free and fair voting process. However, he conceded the party has suffered a setback, but not for the first time, and noted that it is somewhat difficult to enlighten the people. Mr. Amarasinghe accused the government of having employed every possible means to win the elections, like giving false promises and issuing warnings. more..

Aug 25 (LD) The government says it is prepared to take up the challenge by the UNP leader to hold a parliamentary election, without dissolving provincial councils. Government minister Dallas Alahapperuma, who is also treasurer of the SLFP, told the media in Colombo today (Aug 25th) that they are prepared for polls within three months. more..