Feb 17 (Hindu) The State government should step up security to prevent infiltration by members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Minister of State of Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal said on Saturday. Speaking to reporters here after visiting Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram, he said the Centre was satisfied with the law and order situation in the State. Asked about remarks by Congress leaders, including Union Minister P. Chidambaram, about the movement of LTTE cadres in the State, he said he did not want to comment. more..

Feb 17 (SAMN) The United States and Sri Lankan Governments are on a diplomatic collision course over former UNP MP Ali Zaheer Moulana being posted to a high ranking diplomatic position at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington DC. Moulana, who was instrumental in the defection of one time LTTE Eastern Commander, Karuna Amman, assumed duties as the minister consular to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington DC on November 26, 2007. more..

Feb 17 (SAMN) Legislation giving tax exemptions to individuals and companies that contribute to the country’s economy, while imposing limitations on certain tax holidays, is expected to be approved by parliament this week. The Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill amending the Inland Revenue Act No 10 of 2006 was presented to Parliament earlier this month and will be taken up for debate on Thursday along with several other related bills. more..

Feb 17 (SAMN) Controversial politician Mervin Silva has resigned from his post as non-cabinet Labour Minister and his seat in Parliament – amidst conflicting reports on whether he quit or was asked to quit. His letter of resignation was handed over to the President amidst reports that he was asked by the President to step down in the aftermath of his recent fiasco at the Rupavahini Corporation and the embarrassment caused to the government by allegations of involvement with underworld elements and drug dealers. more..

Feb 17 (SAMN) A rash of Hepatitis A patients in the Colombo north area is causing concern among the health authorities. Eleven people, living in homes close to the massive garbage dump in Mattakkuliya have been diagnosed with viral Hepatitis A which is contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food. “Most of the people affected by Hepatitis A are mainly living in Mahawatte, Mattakkuliya, Bloemendhal and Modera. We have mapped all the cases and are testing water samples,” more..

Feb 17 (SO) The continuous military pressure on the LTTE has pushed the outfit into a dilemma, where they are now facing lots of difficulties in recruitment, re-organising and strengthening the fire power, the Director General of the Civil Defence Force Rear Admiral, Sarath Weerasekara said adding that the LTTE terrorists would disappear soon. Commenting on the humanitarian assistance of the international NGOs and local NGOs he said that some of the organisations wanted to slow down the resettlement programmes to earn more money for their own their own survival. more..

Feb 17 (SO) The Ministry of Transport will not issue new permits to private bus operators as the number of buses that operate is sufficient to provide a good service. Secretary to the Ministry of Transport Nihal Somaweera said that the Ministry took this decision to provide a better service to commuters by improving the facilities and making maximum use of the buses that operate in the country. more..

Feb 17 (SO) A massive fertiliser fraud which had been going on for some time in a government owned fertiliser company under the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Services has been detected by the investigation unit of the ministry. The Director of the investigation unit said when his team raided the packaging plant of the fertiliser company at Hunupitiya on the instructions of the Agriculture Minister, more..

Feb 17 (SO) A program to develop the rural economy through "Vidatha Centre" network has been implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The rural farmers and small and medium scale entrepreneurs are able to obtain technology, financial assistance and marketing information for their agricultural and industrial ventures from village based Vidatha centres, said the Minister of science and technology Prof. Tissa Vitharana. more..

Feb 17 (LB) Non Cabinet Minister of Labour, Mervyn Silva announced yesterday that he was resigning from Parliament to take up a post in the Constitutional Council. But Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga denied that Silva was being given a CC slot. Asked whether the controversial Minister was being appointed to the Council, he replied by SMS: “No. I saw the news item and I thought it was Mervyn’s wish.” more..

Feb 17 (LB) Parliamentarian Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi’s tragic death caused turmoil in political circles last week. UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe was in Kurunegala at the time, leading a district progress review meeting. (Previously, UNP representatives had been summoned to Sirikotha for such discussions but it was subsequently decided that the leadership will hereafter travel to the peripheries). more..

Feb 17 (LB) Well, there is no country that doesn’t collectively enjoy a good juicy conspiracy theory and Sri Lanka now has a new one after Sripathi Sooriarachchi’s sudden death. UNP bigwigs met last week in Polonnaruwa after a party event and the speculation was outlandish and sometimes vague, such as “‘why did this happen exactly one year after he was sacked”, “why, wasn’t he the person who had the video of money being given to the LTTE by the President.” more..

Feb 17 (LB) The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is poised to increase your electricity bill possibly by 40 per cent. Their claim is that the CEB cannot continue to stomach the loss of Rs.50 million on a daily basis. However, the CEB is experiencing a heavy loss not due to thesale of a unit of power on subsidised rates —- but largely due to the high scale of corruption and misuse of resources. The COPE report listed CEB as the second most corrupt institution in the country among 26 institutions. more..

Feb 17 (NS) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has submitted a cabinet memorandum to secure national interest in recommending tender awards. The President had submitted this memorandum for approval on January 13. In his memorandum, President Rajapaksa had stated, “Having conducted a review of the implementation progress of several projects, I have observed the procurement process has not adequately addressed the need to secure maximum socio economic benefits to the country.” more..

Feb 17 (NS) President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited ailing former Minister Anura Bandaranaike on Saturday afternoon and spent nearly one-and-a-half hours at Bandaranaike’s bedside, chatting with him and going down memory lane. Rajapaksa offered Bandaranaike medical treatment at any destination of his choice and asked him to clear the rest with his sisters, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sunethra Bandaranaike. more..

Feb 17 (NS) Last Saturday saw the death of SLFP rebel Sripathi Sooriyarachchi under tragic circumstances in what may turn out to be a critical event in opposition politics in the foreseeable future. Sooriyarachchi, no matter what the allegations levelled against him were, was a dynamic politician. He had the audacity to challenge the powers that be, when he could have taken the path of least resistance and nodded his assent to the establishment. For whatever reason, he chose not to do that. more..

Feb 17 (NS) The JVP yesterday denied the allegations levelled against the party, accusing it of having had an arms deal with the LTTE during the 1988-’89 period, across the Hambantota coastal area. JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa told The Nation that the accusation was cooked up by retired Major General Wasantha Perera in favour of the court case filed against Weerawansa. “He is trying to influence the procedure of the court with such stories, which are in favour of him. more..

Feb 17 (Island) Roundly condemning an overseas visit undertaken by 21 members of the UPFA-run Southern Provincial Council, the JVP yesterday accused the government of profligacy. Funds which could be used for the benefit of the people are wasted unashamedly, Sisira Kumara, the JVP leader of the SPC told The Sunday Island. While one group of councilors have already left on the jaunt, a second group is due to leave next week. more..

Feb 17 (Island) Former MP and one-time Premadasa loyalist Hudson Samarasinghe yesterday claimed that the then Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa provided actor turned politician Vijaya Kumaratunga both financial assistance and material support to run his party. The outspoken former politician who now anchors live radio talks show on Isura said that Premadasa revealed this at the Ward Place residence of President J.R. Jayewardene shortly after a lone gunman assassinated Kumaratunga during the height of the JVP led insurgency. more..

Feb 17 (Island) When Sripathy Sooriyarachchi met with that fatal accident, President Rajapaksa was in Singapore and Additional Presidential Secretary Gamini Senarath broke the news to him. Rajapaksa then directed Health Secretary, Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage, to rush to Anuradhapura and see what Sooriyarchchi’s condition was and render all possible assistance. The secretary fortuitiously was already in Anuradhapura with Minister Bandula Basnayake and he quickly got to the hospital. more..

Feb 17 (Island) Former ITAK MP M.K. Eelaventhan yesterday said that the ongoing CID investigation would prove he lost his National List seat as a result of an over-three month long absence from parliament due to no fault of his own. The CID recorded Eelaventhan’s statement at his Madiwela residence last Thursday. He was removed from Parliament on November 21, 2007 for being continuously absent from sittings for a three month period without a formal resolution granting leave. more..

Feb 17 (ST) Politics, they say, makes strange bedfellows. However, in Sri Lanka, where it is an art for both the possible and the impossible, stranger are the ways such bedfellows behave. One day they are literally in love, the next day they hate each other and on the third, they are at war. Such scenarios in this murky world are all too common and comical. The latest to fit into this script of real life political drama is the JVP, and its sometimes friend and other times foe, the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government. more..

Feb 17 (ST) Several security related programmes to educate people, including school children, on the need to be vigilant in the wake of increasing terrorist attacks on civilian targets, were carried out, Nuwara Eliya police said. At a meeting held at the District Secretariat last week Nuwara Eliya SP Gamini Maturata said there was information that the LTTE was attempting to infiltrate the area to strengthen its activities there. more..

Feb 17 (ST) As a result of many complaints being received by the police regarding child abuse taking place in school vans, a circular has been issued by the Police setting out new conditions for local police officers to observe regarding school vans, DIG Gamini Navaratne said. According to the circular, all police stations should maintain a list of school vans operating in their respective areas. more..

Feb 17 (ST) The National Lotteries Board has notched up an operational surplus of Rs. 809,249,253 in 2006, but in a damning indictment the Auditor General has spotlighted massive wrongdoings in his report on the accounts. The profit for the previous year was Rs 846,249,700. The Auditor General’s report on the latest available audited accounts of the National Lotteries Board for 2006 is replete with exposures of wrong doings running in to hundreds of millions of rupees in just a single financial year. more..

Feb 17 (PTI) Rubbishing frequent claims by Sri Lankan government that the elusive LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been injured in a military raid, his key aide has said the people would soon realise the "futility" of army's claims of success against the rebels. "A false propaganda saying our leader Prabhakaran is injured is being carried. Nobody can approach our leader," LTTE political head B. Nadesan told the Tamil Daily Thinakkural in an interview on Saturday. more..

Feb 17 (PTI) Engaged in an all-out military campaign against the LTTE, Sri Lanka has said it was procuring arms from Pakistan to meet the terror threat from the Tamil Tigers. "We are facing a problem of terrorism against a democratically-elected legitimate state. In that situation, the government needs to procure equipment to resist that terrorism. So we are making the purchases," Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India C R Jaisinghe said when more..

Feb 17 (PTI) To augment supplies to Jaffna region, Sri Lankan government has increased the number of ships ferrying material to the battle ravaged peninsula from two to ten. At the beginning there were only two ships for transporting goods to Jaffna and now it has expanded to ten, an official statement said here. A shipload containing food, dry rations, asbestos sheets, cement and textbooks would leave Colombo harbour soon. more..

Feb 17 (WT) The conflict in Sri Lanka is inextricably linked with the demand for secession, deceptively designed to wrench the sympathy of the international community. Last month, the LTTE, urged the United Nations to recognize "Tamil sovereignty" and end the conflict in Sri Lanka. The international community must be told that, beneath a plausible veneer, the demand for a separate state for Tamils of Sri Lanka is rooted in fiction. more..

Feb 17 (IRIN) Every Friday people crowd into Rammalappu Dhanapala’s yard, eager to hear the fortune teller’s prophecies and seek his advice on how to avert imminent disasters. “I have supernatural powers given to me by my grandparents and my parents,” he said, showing vials of potions that he dispenses to cure various ailments. Carrying on a long family tradition, Dhanapala who lives in Panama village in Ampara District in eastern Sri Lanka, now offers his counsel in a newly-constructed shrine room filled with the scent of incense. more..

Feb 17 (IANS) The central government Saturday gave a clean chit to the DMK regime in Tamil Nadu, saying it had done 'better than others' in curbing security threats to the nation and there was no LTTE infiltration in the state. On a visit to Ramanathapuram district, about 650 km south of Chennai, central Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said, 'The state government has done better than other states in dealing with national security and terrorism.' more..

Feb 18 (IANS) Hundreds of Buddhist monks in Bodh Gaya have protested a Bihar government advertisement showing photographs of President Pratibha Patil and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar placed above a picture of the Buddha. They staged a protest in Bodh Gaya, about 110 km from here, where Gautam Buddha attained his enlightenment. They also demanded action against officials responsible for 'hurting' their sentiments. more..

Feb 18 (KT) Sri Lankan housemaid Regina John finally flew back to her home country yesterday morning to be reunited with her father, after lying paralysed in a Sharjah hospital for nearly three years. The Ministry of Health waived her hospital bills of around Dh125,000 and even paid for her flight ticket. The 39-year-old maid, who became 90 per cent paralysed after an accident in Shrajah in 2005, was transported on a stretcher from the hospital to Dubai International Airport more..

Feb 18 (CO) Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko today urged the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government to make arrangements for fishermen from Ramewaram to take part in the St Antony Church festival to be held at Katchativu by the end of this month. In a statement here, he said the fishermen had the right to visit Katchativu and take part in the festival, but they were denied entry into the island by the Sri Lankan Navy since 2002. more..

Feb 18 (AAP) PAKISTAN are are looking to host Sri Lanka if Australia pull out of their scheduled tour of the violence-marred country next month, a report said. A three-member Pakistan Cricket Board delegation visited Colombo to ask Sri Lanka to tour Pakistan and the matter was under consideration, The Nation newspaper said. It quoted top Sri Lanka Cricket sources as saying that Sri Lanka had been asked to play either a five-match one-day series or a three-match Test series in Pakistan. more..

Feb 18 (KT) Sri Lankan government officials share the view that a fear of terrorism poses a major threat to local tourism industry. Renton de Alwis, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority in Colombo, said, there is "no doubt that the local tourism industry has been hit hard by terrorism." The chairman said the government is fully aware of the detrimental effect of terrorism on tourism. more..

Feb 18 (IANS) Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan is as famous for his doosra as for his enchanting smile and blame it on dentist Peter Foltyn for his missing grin these days. A local teeth re-positioning expert Foltyn conducted a minor surgery on Muralitharan after his front tooth was knocked back into his mouth following a hit by the ball while fielding during the Lankans' first outing at the Commonwealth Bank tri-seriers against Australia Feb 8 here. more..

Feb 18 (TN) Managements of some private sector banks are demanding Jaffna based Tamil civilians residing in Colombo district to produce police registration certificate in addition to other documents usually required to open current or saving accounts in their branches located in Colombo, civil society sources in Colombo said. Elsewhere in Sri Lanka potential new customers wishing to open current or saving accounts in banks are required to produce only the National Identity Card and not the police registration certificate,

Feb 18 (GL) A packed public meeting at Brisbane’s Activist Centre on February 6 heard Brian Senewiratne, a Sinhalese consultant physician in Brisbane, deliver a passionate and informative presentation on the long struggle of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking minority against persecution by that country’s Sinhalese-dominated government. Senewiratne, who comes from the family that has produced three of Sri Lanka’s prime ministers, has more..

Feb 18 (AT) The number of violence in the Batticaloa district is reported to be low after the filing of the nominations for the Batticaloa Municipality and for the 9 other local government bodies. According to report released by Centre for Policy Alternatives Election, monitors, who have become active over the last week, are therefore recording a relatively violence-free lead up to elections in terms of the number of election-related incidents of violence. more..

Feb 18 (LeN) Ten Tamils and four Sinhalese have been taken into custody for conspiring to assassinate the President and his family. The President's Japanese language translator is among the four Sinhalese. The others are two Army deserters and a monk. This group of persons has been arrested following the information unearthed from one Jeyaraman Ramanathan alias Thambi alias Ramesh who was taken into custody at Kotahena the day before the Independence Day. more..

Feb 18 (BBC) Police in Sri Lanka are accused of not doing enough to probe the murder of a Tamil parliamentarian. Family members of the late MP, Thyagarajah Maheswaran, say the police are yet to probe the telephone calls received by Mr. Maheswaran just before the fateful day. Mr. Maheswaran was shot dead on the New Year's day in a Hindu Temple in the capital, Colombo. The suspect, identified as Johnson Colin Wasanthan Valentine, had worked for state security forces, more..

Feb 18 (AFP) Sri Lanka said Sunday that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia could set an "unmanageable precedent" and threaten world peace. The Sri Lankan government, which is battling separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, reacted swiftly against Kosovo's independence, which it said was a violation of the United Nations charter. "This action by Kosovo is a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which enshrines the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states," more..

Feb 18 (BBC) Deputy Director of the Amnesty International's Asia Programme, Kim Parritt says that Amnesty International (AI) rejects any calim that AI is biased. He was responding to accusations from Defence spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella that the organisation was biased against the government. Paritt in an interview with Sandesaya said that at this time as the situation is deteriorating AI appeals to both sides of the conflict in Sri lanka to protect civilians. more..

Feb 18 (PTI) Engaged in an all-out military campaign against the LTTE, Sri Lanka has said it was procuring arms from Pakistan to meet the terror threat from the Tamil Tigers. "We are facing a problem of terrorism against a democratically-elected legitimate state. In that situation, the government needs to procure equipment to resist that terrorism. So we are making the purchases," Sri Lankan high commissioner to India C.R. Jaisinghe said more..

Feb 18 (LBO) The rather unusual step taken by the CEB to actually follow the law and make available for comment its proposed tariff has stirred up significant interest. This short contribution will not address all the issues pertaining to the tariff revision, but simply seeks to shed some light on one key proposal: shifting from a slab model to a low-user model. I will not deal with the actual numbers, only the principle. more..

Feb 18 (SLW) In a recent media interview President Mahinda Rajapaksa has extended the August deadline for eliminating the LTTE given earlier by the government to over a year and a half. While the government forces have been making progress on the ground, the progress has been relatively slow. The issue of protecting human rights and ensuring practices of good governance takes on heightened importance in the context of the likely prolongation of the war. more..

Feb 18 (SLW) Having heard about the unfortunate and distressing incident of shelling that fell in the compound of St. Anthony's Shrine Thallady resulting in deaths of some soldiers and causing injury to some others besides damaging the portico of the church on 12th Feb 2008, I wish to offer my sympathies and prayers to the families of the victims. more..

Feb 18 (SLW) Extremist? Holocaust denial is extremist. The denial of some Israelis of the Palestinians' right to exist in their own homelands might be extremist. A belief that we should all live under a new global "caliphate" or Islamic government with Islamic law, the Al Qaeda position, might be extremist. The belief that one may arbitrarily invade another people's land and take control of their resources, otherwise known as the "Bush Doctrine", might be taken as extremist. more..

Feb 18 (SLW) Tamil Canadians are deeply concned about the alarming rate of civilian killings in Sri Lanka over the past several weeks. Frequent bombings, forceful abductions, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture, and killings are occurring on a daily basis across the island nation adding to a catastrophic civilian death toll. On January 2nd, the Government of Sri Lanka announced that it would unilaterally end the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) of 2002. more..