Jan 9 (AT) After the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) the Tigers have changed tactics. They are not putting up the fight they were expected to in the battlefield where they are losing cadres and territory daily. They have moved to target unarmed civilians in urban areas. Military sources consider this as a desperate move of the Tigers who are facing defeat in all fronts. Political commentators consider thie abrogation of the CFA as the biggest blow to the Tigers after Thoppigala. more..

Jan 9 (RNZ) 75 Sri Lankans refugees are still being held in Australia’s detention centre on Nauru more than a month after the new Labor government came to power. The new government has promised to end the controversial Pacific Solution policy that led to asylum seekers being detained in Nauru. The 75 Sri Lankans were granted refugee status under the old Howard government about four months ago, but they are still in offshore detention. more..

Jan 9 (GDI) Sri Lanka can be promoted to tourists as the 'Great Green Destination' for being carbon clean, which enables us to invite tourists to visit the country without any associated 'travel guilt' on account of long distant air travel, said Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka. The minister was speaking at the launch of the Jetwing Eternal Earth Project (JEEP) at Jetwing Hunas Falls, last Monday. JEEP is a part of the 'Earth Lung' initiative to make a carbon clean Sri Lanka. more..

Jan 9 (wsws) After waging an undeclared civil war for two years, the Sri Lankan government gave notice on January 2 that it would pull out of the 2002 ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. The decision sets the stage for a further escalation of fighting aimed at destroying the LTTE militarily and effectively ends any prospect of peace talks and a negotiated resolution to the 25-year conflict. more..

Jan 9 (LR) The assassination of Minister of Nation Building D M Dassanayake by a suspected LTTE claymore mine in a suburb of Colombo while on his way to Parliament has come within a week of the assassination of Opposition Parliamentarian T Maheswaran. The National Peace Council condemns this latest mindless killing of an elected politician, and the incidental deaths and injuries to civilians in the vicinity, which more..

Jan 9 (LR) Terrorists are evanescent, fleeting. They come and go. Their whereabouts are unknown. They hide among the innocent civilians. They roam about, dressed up like any other civilian. There are no warning signals; a bomb, an explosion, a head flies. Yes, it was a suicide bomber, and the soldiers could not do much about it. It is extremely difficult, almost impossible, to distinguish between this unconventional terrorist posing as a civilian, and the ordinary civilian. more..

Jan 9 (LG) The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lost anotherr important field operative on January,5,2008, when Col. Charles, Head of its Military Intelligence organisation, was killed in what was described by it as a random Claymore attack by Sri Lanka Army's Deep Penetration Unit in Pa'l'lamadu in Mannaar. The vehicle in which he was travelling hit a mine, killing all the three occupants of it. more..

Jan 9 (PISL) In recent months there has been much criticism of the national Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. This criticism has been a focal point of the determination of interested parties to establish a field office in Sri Lanka of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, answerable as she unequivocally put it, ‘to me’. Accompanying such claims are the myths that the deficiencies of the current HRC are entirely the fault of the current government, and more..

Jan 9 (LD) Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle strongly criticized the judiciary for certain of its rulings, when he participated in the News Headlines Programme of Isiria Radio this morning (Jan. 09th). He blamed recent court decisions for the spate of bomb blasts and murders in Colombo and suburbs. His criticisms were against the removal of roadblocks, ban on inspecting lodges and searches of houses during nighttime, following court orders. more..

Jan 9 (LD) A group of Buddhist monks from Myanmar staged a protest in front of the UN office in Colombo yesterday (Jan. 08th) to urge the international community to restore peace and stability to their country and for world peace. Several local monks, including Ven. Baddegama Samitha Thera, joined the demonstration. The protestors carried placards and banners that called on the UN to support the people’s struggle in Myanmar that has been challenged by the ruling military junta. more..

Jan 9 (LD) The appointment of Hemasiri Fernando to the chair of the rifle shooting interim committee has created serious problems for the sport, ‘Lanka Dissent’ reliably learns. Fernando has not fulfilled at least the minimum qualifications to hold the post, veterans of the sport say. According to them, his appointment to head the sport itself is a disparaging of rifle shooting. more..

Jan 9 (LD) Witnesses failed to identify the suspect in the murder of UNP MP T. Maheswaran at an identification parade before Colombo Additional Magistrate Kumari Abeyratne today (Jan. 09th). The witnesses were a bodyguard of Maheswaran and the head priest of Sri Ponnambalavaneshwarar Hindu Kovil in Kotahena where the Colombo district parliamentarian was gunned down on January 01st. more..

Jan 9 (LD) The unexpected postponement of debating the Commissions of Inquiry Bill for tomorrow saw an early adjournment of parliamentary sessions before 12.00 noon today. The UNP and the JVP opposed taking up the bill in the day’s proceedings, and called for the discussion of the same at the Parliamentary Consultative Committee. Justice Minister Dilan Perera said any amendments could be discussed at the PCC meeting later in the day, and that the bill could be debated tomorrow. more..

Jan 9 (LD) Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara informed Parliament today (Jan. 09th) that the IGP had agreed to deploy four bodyguards for each MP. The security of parliamentarians continued to be a key issue during the day’s proceedings, but there were no unruly scenes. Lokubandara said that he had raised the matter with the police chief yesterday night, and that the Security Council that meets today, would discuss it further. more..

Jan 9 (LD) People in several areas of Colombo and suburbs have panicked following reports of a bomb scare this morning (Jan. 09th). One reason for the alarm is said to be a cannon boom at a passing out parade at the Kelanimulla Army Camp in Angoda. Following the incident, panicked people in Kelanimulla, Angoda, Kolonnawa, Rajagiriya and Borella area had inquired about a bomb blast. more..

Jan 9 (LD) Air Force Commander Air Vice Marshal Roshan Gunatilake had been the target of the bomb blast that occurred near Lake House last night (Jan. 08th), defence sources say. The AF chief had passed the location just five minutes before the explosion, and the road had been kept closed due to the VIP movement. The bomb had been fixed to a telephone booth of the nearby Reagent Flats. more..

Jan 9 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that assistance of the private sector and the business community is vital in uplifting the local economy. The President made this remark at a meeting held at Temple Trees yesterday at a meeting with the local business community. During the discussion the attention was drawn to the rise in oil price in the world market and the scarcity of wheat flour. The President highlighted the need of collaborative work as the need of the hour. more..

Jan 9 (GDI) Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake vehemently condemning and expressing his heartfelt condolence over the brutal killing of his colleague, Nation Building Minister D. M. Dassanayake yesterday (08) said that the sole aim of the LTTE terrorists is to kill the innocent and they have begun the killing spree with the beginning of the New Year. Whether it is a Member of Parliament, a civilian, a student or a patient going to hospital to obtain medication, the terrorists do not care and they take away the precious lives of the innocents. more..

Jan 9 (GDI) Sri Lanka will be obtaining a US $ 170 million loan from Rites of India Limited, a subsidiary of the Indian Railway Department, to upgrade the Southern Railway line up to Matara. The loan for implementation of the project will be granted under a credit line facility and the project will be implemented in two stages. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008. more..

Jan 9 (LNP) Minister of Nation Building D. M. Dasanayake may not have been the intended target of yesterday`s claymore mine blast close to the Ja-ela police station. `It could be a case of mistaken identity or an opportunity target,` a security official said asserting that the Chief Government Whip and Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who regularly used the Colombo-Negombo road, would have been definitely high on the LTTE hit list. more..

Jan 9 (LNP) JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Wimal Weerawansa yesterday thanked the Government for abrogating the cease fire agreement. The UNF Government had entered into the agreement with the LTTE without showing a copy of the agreement to the Cabinet of ministers, the Executive President or other stakeholders, he said. Right from the beginning, the JVP had rejected this agreement and showed on numerous occasions that it would not bring any political or economic dividends favourable to the country, he said. more..

Jan 9 (LNP) UNP Parliamentarians yesterday morning disrupted the normal business of the House by displaying a large green banner: `Is VIP security only for bosses of the Government?` and large posters bearing the photograph of assassinated UNP Parliamentarian T. Maheswaran which said: `Murderers who silenced Maheswaran cannot still his voice.` `Mahinda Chintana murders parliamentarians.` more..

Jan 9 (LNP) It never rains but it pours. Yesterday`s assassination of Minister D. M. Dasanayake came close on the heels of the felling of UNP MP T. Maheswaran inside a Kovil on January 01 and the attack on a bus carrying injured soldiers in Colombo. The claymore mine blast that took the minister`s life had the trademark of the LTTE. That cowardly attack is, no doubt, condemned unreservedly by all right thinking people. more..

Jan 9 (SAMN) With three bomb explosions within a week, the Eelam War has firmly entered the Colombo city, sending shock waves to the people. The defence authorities however, are determined to tackle it, spurred by the record 35,000 youth joining the army to fight against terrorism. The country was jolted Tuesday when Non-cabinet Nation Building Minister D.M. Dassanayake was killed, along with his bodyguard, in an LTTE claymore explosion at Je-Ela, while later in the day another bomb exploded in Fort. more..

Jan 9 (SAMN) The JVP Tuesday called upon the government to go beyond the abrogation of the CFA and do away with the role of facilitator. Making a special statement in parliament, JVP Group Leader, Wimal Weerawansa said that SLMM officials should be sent back to their countries. He lauded the government’s decision to abolish the CFA and appreciated the reduction of the manipulative role the international community played in Sri Lanka and warned that international community would be looking new ways to interfere with governance here. more..

Jan 9 (SAMN) In an attempt to fight for their rights, some 40 trade unions are, officially, set to come under one wing when they launch the ‘Trade Union Confederation’ Thursday. The President of the Trade Union Confederation, K.S. Weerasekara said that the confederation’s main aim is to safeguard workers’ rights, as they had been violated by different parties in the past and these workers did not have a strong voice to fight for their cause. more..

Jan 9 (SAMN) Mobile phones are increasingly being used as soft port devices with students, mostly girls from popular schools in Colombo being enticed to act in indecent videos, Chief of the Children's and Women's Bureau, IP Buddhika Balachandra said, adding that the use of mobile phones to take nude pictures of women has become a common practice. Balachandra was addressing a seminar organised by the Children's and Women's Bureau and Women in Need to educate Woman OICs of 36 Children's and Women's desks set up countrywide. more..

Jan 9 (DN) Sri Lanka's public transport service is set for an overhaul with the Ministry introducing several measures to make it more productive and people friendly. Lankan commuters bare ample testimony to the daily harassment they have to undergo in the form of indiscipline and abuse by workers, lack of facilities, inadequate transport services, indiscriminatory price hikes and schedules etc. more..

Jan 9 (DN) The Education Ministry and Provincial Ministries of Education will jointly have a mobile service throughout the country aiming to answer the prevailing issues among teachers, service, principals, service, adminstration service and non-academic services, Education Ministry sources said. Accordingly, the Education Ministry assumes that the mobile service would definitely assist to upgrade the quality of education since the burning issues in the education sector would be settled while having a quantitative uplift. more..

Jan 9 (Island) A Sub Inspector of Police and two constables attached to the Anuradhapura Police Station, were among a number of suspects interrogated by the Crime Division of the North Central Province in connection with the sale of spurious ‘gold’ coins purported to belong to an ancient era. The coins were discovered during a treasure hunt, the racketeers claimed. But all had been turned out of iron washers, police said. more..

Jan 9 (Island) Former Prime Minister Torbjørn Jagland is not impressed with Norway’s peace work abroad. In an article by Kristoffer Rønneberg in Aftenposten (Jan 4) Jagland points to how Norway has failed to create peace in conflict affected countries and areas. He mentions among other things the conflict in Sri Lanka where Norway has had an active role as peace mediators and observers. more..

Jan 9 (DM) A real life drama took place at Hulftsdorp courts yesterday, when a man who claimed that he had discovered a cure for the deadly AIDS, took the High Court judge's seat in order to make a public announcement. A few minutes before court proceedings began, a twenty eight year-old youth who had entered the courthouse claiming that he was a litigant in a case, had occupied the judge's seat. more..

Jan 9 (DM) The TMVP led by Pillayan claims there are attempts by the EPDP to discredit the outfit prior to the upcoming polls in the Batticaloa district. TMVP spokesman Azad Maulana claims a campaign has already been launched to alege the outfit will use weapons and intimidation to win the polls. In comments that are bound to once again strain relations between the TMVP and EPDP, Mr. Maulana claimed the EPDP has done very little to meet the needs of the Tamil people in the East despite being in politics for several years. more..

Jan 9 (PTI) Sri Lanka has praised India for its consistent policy on Tamil issue even as it noted that New Delhi had expressed concern on the question of "military solution" to the LTTE problem. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, talking to Daily Mirror Newspaper on Wednesday, said "they (India) have not expressed any concern on the abrogation (of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE), but on a military solution. On that we see eye to eye." more..

Jan 9 (ACHR) On 8 January 2008, the Sri Lankan Minister for Nation Building, DM Dassanayake was killed when his convoy was hit by a powerful roadside bomb blast allegedly planted by LTTE near the capital, Colombo. This killing follows the killing of LTTE’s Political wing chief S P Tamilselvam and Intelligence wing chief "Colonel" Charles by the Sri Lankan security forces. These deaths bring Sri Lanka’s escalating conflict into sharp focus. more..

Jan 9 (LBO) A new credit line from the World Bank inked Wednesday will help build 50 mega watts of power in rural Sri Lanka, helping light up 60,000 rural homes, officials said. The money would be lent through the DFCC Bank for off-grid renewable energy projects. The World Bank is giving 40 million dollars to the government as a 20-year interest free loan for on-lending, Treasury Secretary P B Jayasundera said after signing and agreement with the lender. more..

Jan 9 (AN) Violence in Sri Lanka has escalated over the past two years, but there are widespread predictions of even greater bloodshed when a moribund ceasefire officially ends later this month. The 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of conflict between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, but it began to unravel in 2005. "The last two years have been the most violent in a 25-year-long war which has taken over 70,000 lives," the Wall Street Journal says. more..

Jan 9 (IANS) The Sri Lankan ethnic issue has entered the US presidential campaign with Democratic Party contender Barack Obama saying that the conflict in the island is a 'vicious civil war'. In an interview to candidates@google, Obama said that conflicts, such as those in Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland, stemmed from the inability of people to accommodate others who were not like them. 'The problem of the 21st century is the problem of the other,' he said. more..

Jan 9 (IANS) Undeterred by the series of bomb blasts and terror attacks in and around the Sri Lankan capital over the past few days, over 30,000 Dawoodi Bohras from various parts of the world have congregated here for a 10-day religious ceremony. Gracing the 'Ashara Mubarak' ceremony in Colombo for the second successive year is the India-based religious leader of the Bohras, Syedna Muhammad Burhanuddin Saheb. more..

Jan 9 (AP) Sri Lankan soldiers captured some rebel-held territory in the embattled north as heavy artillery and mortar battles across the region killed 42 people, the military said Wednesday. Fighting has escalated around the rebels' de-facto state in the north since last week, when the government officially pulled out of a tattered cease-fire with the Tamil Tiger rebels. In the latest clash Tuesday night, army troops seized about one square kilometer of territory near the village of Parappaankandal in northern Mannar district, more..

Jan 9 (Reuters) Sri Lankan troops have captured a section of rebel-held territory in the island's northwest and killed 44 Tamil Tigers, the military said on Wednesday, as a new chapter in a 25-year civil war intensifies. Troops killed 38 Tigers in a series of confrontations in the war-battered north on Tuesday, and killed six more on Wednesday, the military said, adding the dead included an eastern Tiger leader called Shankar. more..

Jan 21 (TN) None of the major political parties have submitted nominations up to Sunday afternoon for the forthcoming local government elections for the nine local councils, sources from Batticaloa district elections office said. Meanwhile, 12 independent groups have paid their deposits. T.Krishnananthalingam, the Assistant commissioner of Elections for Batticaloa district announced last week that nominations for the elections will be accepted from Friday 18, January till 25 January. more..

Jan 21 (LG) In a follow-up to the arrest of eight LTTE cadres including Nathan alias Suruli in Tamilnadu, the sleuths of State Intelligence wing have filed a petition at Alandur court today seeking one week police custody for interrogating the arrested. And the petition is likely to be taken up for hearing on Tuesday. It may be noted that Thambidurai Parameswaran who had been working with LTTE’s intelligence section infiltrated into India via Rameswaram last February and later moved to Chennai. more..

Jan 21 (LG) Tamilnadu Assembly session is expected to be stormy on Wednesday, with Governor’s address, amidst lots of speculation in the political circles of realignment. Opposition Parties in Tamil Nadu have chalked out a strategy to put the ruling party on the pat on a host of issues arising out of the movement of the LTTE and in the wake of the terror outfit’s men in the recent past. more..

Jan 21 (LG) Surprise and shock. When LTTE cadre, Thambidurai Parameswaran and his accomplices were apprehended by the police yesterday, neighbours and locals at Puzhuthivakkam, a southern Chennai suburb were left speechless that hardcore members of a proscribed organisation had lived amidst them so long without creating suspicion. The Puzhuthivakkam house where Thambidurai stayed on rent was monitored for several days before the special team zeored in on him. more..

Jan 21 (LG) With dead bodies of civilians being discovered everyday, the number of massacred civilians in Thanamalvila and Hambantota could be as many as 30, unofficial and unverified sources indicated to DefenceWire. The victims are mostly Chena Cultivators from Thanamalvila. These massacres have been conducted, possibly by 3 12-man/woman teams, probably from Jeyanthan Regiment brought through Peraru jungle in Trincomalee. more..

Jan 21 (LBO) Sri Lanka's exports of desiccated coconut (DC) were far below the island's potential last year due to insufficient coconuts to keep mills running, exporters said. Sunil Watawala, former president of the DC Millers Association, said DC is the island's main kernel product that is competitive in international markets as local coconut oil prices are too high to be exported. more..

Jan 21 (LBO) Power supply to most parts of Sri Lanka failed as a transformer in a transmission line just outside the capital burst in the early hours of Monday, officials at the state power utility said. A current transformer in the Kotugoda grid substation had burst tripping off the adjacent Biyagama substation which received power from the generation system in the Mahaweli river system setting off a chain reaction, more..

Jan 21 (LBO) Sri Lanka's country-wide inflation hit an all time record 26.2 percent in November 2007, following one of the worst bouts of money printing ever seen in the country, the latest official data showed. The Sri Lanka Consumer Price Index's (SLCPI) previous high was 24.1 percent recorded in October as the government printed 45.2 billion rupees from April to September 2007 to finance a widening fiscal deficit. more..

Jan 21 (LBO) Sri Lankan writers trying to break into the international arena are facing a barrier from foreign publishers who expect books themed on the three-decade long conflict in the island. "The books that catch on are books about violence and books about terrorism where there is lot of blood on the floor," says Yasmine Gooneratne, a Sri Lankan-born author and literary critic who has broken into the international publishing industry. more..