July 26 (SL) Last week SLFP (M) Wing Leader Mangala Samaraweera and Secretary Tiran Alles were questioned by the CID over an alleged plot to assassinate a VIP. Samaraweera claimed that moves to question both him and Tiran Alles revealed that the government had begun a new political witch-hunt. “It is yet another dictatorial move to suppress the freedom of expression,” he told The Sunday Leader. more..

July 26 (SL) With the crumbling of the Ceylinco empire like a pack of cards, a key Ceylinco subsidiary has resorted to denying depositors their right to withdraw cash deposits at maturity by insisting on renewal. Angry depositors told The Sunday Leader that The Finance Company Plc, one of the foremost finance companies with a grand history is now refusing to pay depositors at maturity and request investors to have their deposits submitted to a process of automatic renewal. more..

July 26 (SL) It was once the most visited place in the country and a place of interest for people of all ages. Situated on 23 acres of prime land with a beautifully landscaped garden the Dehiwala zoo has today become a hell hole, not only for its many animals but also for the hundreds of visitors who go there. Many horrible stories are related by visitors with regard to cruelty to animals at the zoo. more..

July 26 (Times) “Ask him what happened,” David, the director, said. “What actually happened to you in the tsunami?” I said, thinking what a great place for a party the house on the tiny Taprobane island would be. Airy bedrooms with antique four-poster beds set around a spacious central area with a tropical breeze blowing through one bright open door from the sea and out towards the shore on the Sri Lankan mainland. more..

July 26 (LB) Two people were hacked to death and twelve others injured and a mosque set ablaze yesterday in sectarian clashes between two Muslim religious sects in Beruwela. The long simmering antagonism between the two sects came to a head when one group supported by underworld gangsters brought from Galle, torched the Mosque of Majid Rahuman at Mahagoda, Beruwela in the wee hours of Saturday morning. more..

July 26 (LB) When it comes to urgent financing requirements, Sri Lanka sure has some dramatically miscellaneous needs. On the one hand, there is the United Nations saying our humanitarian requirements have surged by more than US$ 100 million as a result of the displacement of nearly 300,000 people. On the other hand, there is Rohitha Bogollagama who wants 4.5 million rupees to settle expenses incurred in hosting a birthday party for his daughter at more..

July 26 (LB) Eelam People’s Democratic Party leader Minister Douglas Devananda said last week that he was planning to discuss with President Mahinda Rajapaksa the immediate recall/reinstatement of Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative at the UN in Geneva, whose continuous advocacy of the 13th amendment as a political solution to the ethnic conflict is speculated to have cost his position as ambassador in Geneva. more..

July 26 (LB) Eelam People’s Democratic Party leader Minister Douglas Devananda, who is in Jaffna campaigning for party candidates contesting the upcoming local polls, spoke to LAKBIMAnEWS over the phone last week on matters concerning the local council elections as well as the invitation extended to him to join the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Excerpts: more..

July 26 (LG) The World Press Institute made arrangements for me to work with the Eugene Register-Guard in Oregon on a 10-week internship (Feb, 6 - April 14, 1967). When the news of my internship reached Fred W. Welty, who served as the information chief at the USIS in Colombo in the mid ‘60s, he wrote me expressing his surprise that I had been assigned to work in the very paper that he worked for 22 years ago. more..

July 26 (LG) According to some news items, opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe had announced last week that the UNP’s executive and political committees had given their approval for the party to hold discussions with other political parties and organisations to explore the possibility of forming a common front. He has further said that the UNP was in discussion with the Sri SLMC, the Sri SLFP-M, the Democratic People’s Front and more..

July 26 (LT) A tussle for land in the Eastern Province between the central government and the Eastern Provincial Council has originated even before the 13 + has been implemented. A dispute has arisen between the Central Government and Eastern PC when two projects proposed by the UPFA Central government to allot nearly 35,000 acres of land at Kanthale in the Eastern Province was cancelled by the UPFA controlled Eastern PC. more..

July 26 (GDI) Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake left for Uganda in the African continent yesterday to attend the International Smart Partnership Dialogue Conference 2009. The Prime Minister is expected to meet several leaders participating at this conference to hold bilateral talks. Uganda hosts this years conference of a series that began in 1995 and Sri Lanka has been a keen participant. more..

July 26 (GDI) Dog biting man is a costly exercise. Why? It cost the government Rs.500 million annually to treat dog bite victims.It doesn't matter whether the dog is mad or not.But the cost of treatment remains the same. At least two hundred persons countrywide are bitten by dogs. The cost per dog bitten victims was Rs.39,000 while the dog population in the country stand at 2.5 million inclusive of bitches. more..

July 26 (GDI) Transport minister Dalas Alahperuma at addressing the second meeting of the SAARC ministers meeting of Transport yesterday (25) said. The proposal for the railway link with India and a land bridge is viewed by our Government with a visionary approach as the project of the Century. The linkage through this to see fulfilled sooner than later, enabling us to become a more vibrant of a larger region. more..

July 26 (GDN) Bharain Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa begins a visit to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, at the invitation of the government. He will meet President Mahinda Rajapakse, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and officials. The visit will help boost political and economic relations, with a number of bilateral agreements to be signed, including a MoU between the foreign ministries of the two countries, more..

July 26 (MoD) A large transformer was transported last week by road from the Wattala- Aniyakande power sub station to the Vavuniya power sub station under the 180 day Uthuru Wasanthaya program. The transformer worth Rs 20 million weighing 65 tons which will provide electricity to vast areas in Vavuniya and other adjacent areas is now being installed at the Vavuniya power sub station. more..

July 26 (MoD) As a major step in improving the quality of postal services throughout the country, a regional centre for the distribution of forms and other documentation was opened in Ampara recently by Professor G.L. Peiris, Minister of Export Development and International Trade. The Minister, in his address, described this initiative as an aspect of modernization of essential services. more..

July 26 (MoD) Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya visited Security Forces Headquarters in Wanni on yesterday (25 July) morning to meet all Security Forces Commanders and other senior Field Commanders in North and East. Lieutenant General Jayasuriya was received by the Commander, Security Forces Headquarters (Wanni) Major General Kamal Gunarathna on his arrival. more..

July 26 (LP) Labour Relations and Manpower Minister Athauda Seneviratne yesterday warned all officials in private and public sectors to pay their attention on HIV/AIDS affected persons in their office environment as over 1000 HIV/AIDS affected persons have been recorded in the island wide. All higher official in work places should take effective measures to educated their employees about the negative impact of HIV/AIDS. more..

July 26 (LP) UNP Kalutara district parliamentarian Jayasiri Sarath Kumara Ranawaka passed away yesterday at the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital following a brief illness. He was 62 years old at the time of his death. Cremation will take place at the Bulathsinhala public grounds on Wednesday. According to reports ,Ananda Lakshman Wijemanne is to be succeeded.

July 26 (SO) With the Vavuniya UC and Jaffna MC polls two weeks away, political parties and independent groups contesting the polls have intensified their campaigns - house to house canvassing, holding pocket and public meetings while releasing election manifestos, according to reports. No incidents of election-related violence were reported and all campaigns are being conducted peacefully in accordance with democratic norms, more..

July 26 (SO) A greater part of national protected areas have been inaccessible due to the decade long war on terrorism. If favourable conditions for animals are not maintained within these protected areas, the carrying capacity - the number of animals the area can support - may it be elephants, leopards or deer, is bound to go down. Consequently the Department of Wildlife Conservation has adopted habitat enrichment practices, more..

July 26 (SO) Suitable sites for oil drilling in the Mannar Basin are being surveyed at the moment, said Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat - PRDS Director General Dr. Neil de Silva. The seismic data already available is not sufficient to launch drilling operations. Therefore, Cairn Lanka, the company in charge of the drilling operations is looking for more three dimensional - 3D - data, he said. more..

July 26 (SO) She was nine but couldn’t read or write. Without dropping out of school, the ‘illiterate’ girl, Samanthi, came to school daily just to sing and dance. Not only Samanthi but also many children of her age couldn’t read or write but attended school daily. Coming to school was not easy for them. Drowned in extreme poverty, they walked miles and miles barefooted through thick jungles avoiding deadly attacks by wild elephants. more..

July 26 (SO) Nallur, which is situated about two kilometres to the North of the town of Jaffna was the capital of the medieval kingdom of Jaffna. It was established and developed by the Arya Chakkaravatti rulers. In fact, under the Arya Chakkaravattis, who were great patrons of learning and the Saiva tradition, the peninsula of Jaffna became a stronghold of the orthodox form of Saivism, which has attained the peak of its development in South India during more..

July 26 (NS) It was Junius Richard Jayewardene, JRJ to all, who engineered the revival of the UNP in the late ’70s, resulting in an unprecedented mandate for the party at the General elections in 1977, where a ‘free and just society’ was promised to the people. A cornerstone of that victory was the economic policy advocated by JRJ. Seven years of a ‘closed door’ economy imposed on the country by Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her United Front Government had taken its toll. more..

July 26 (NS) Facing a life changing accident and being confined to a wheel chair is one of the most traumatic experiences one can face, and latest statistics show that having a spinal injury that confines one to a wheel chair can also be a death sentence. Each year between 1800 and 2300 people are disabled due to injuries to the spine and 60% of that number don’t make it beyond the first year. more..

July 26 (NS) The UNP on Wednesday rejected a request from Central Province Opposition Leader S B Dissanayake to be appointed as its Chief Organiser for Hewaheta in the Kandy District. The decision was taken by the party advisory Committee appointed by its Working Committee. Dissanaike who topped the preferential list at the last Central Provincial Council Election polling a record 181,783 was refused the Hewaheta seat, more..

July 26 (NS) The CID has begun an investigation into a complaint that plans are underway to sell as blocks the 50-acre coconut plantation that belonged to world renowned author and surgeon Dr. R.L.Spittle located at Makola, Kiribathgoda. A great lover of the country’s Veddah community and peasants living in remote areas leading hardy life, Dr. Spittle earned the sobriquet, ` Doctor of Wilderness’ for his love of wild life. more..

July 26 (NS) “It was never English medium education to begin with” says Officer-in-Charge- Bilingual Education Programme, Ministry of Education, Priyatha Nanayakkara, pointing out what may well be the mother of miscomprehensions. “It should be referred to as Bilingual Education,” she says, explaining that most stones aimed at the programme have come from the incorrect term being more popular. more..

July 26 (Island) Although a section of the print and electronic media declared that the Jaffna-Kandy A9 road had been re-opened for public transport, the military yesterday said that though several buses had been allowed to pass through last Wednesday, the A9 will not be opened for public or private transport immediately. Military sources said that there was no truth in recent reports that the road had been re-opened with the military spokesman, more..

July 26 (Island) "The major consideration when planning, designing and constructing the museum was not to have it overshadowing, in the slightest, the Rock itself. The museum, the excavated gardens and all else is secondary to the Rock". This is what Chandana Ellepola FIA, Architect of the Sigiriya Museum Project told us as we stood at the entrance to the completed museum funded by the government of Japan. more..

July 26 (Island) The number of LTTE cadres, including child soldiers and their family members awaiting rehabilitation could be as high as 50,000 persons, well informed sources said yesterday. While some initially believed that rehabilitation of LTTE terrorists would be adequate, the government is of the view that their families, too, should be accommodated. Sources said that there could more LTTE cadres taking refuge among the civilians held at welfare centres in more..

July 26 (Island) The economic reform program against which the IMF Executive Board on Friday approved a US$ 2.6 billion 20-month standby facility focuses on post-conflict reconstruction with Colombo requesting IMF financial assistance to support this effort. The IMF said soon after the grant of the facility was announced that the key elements of the program include fiscal policy, exchange rate and monetary policy, social protection and the financial system. more..

July 26 (Island) Now, that all accused in the country’s worst ever single polling day incident have been acquitted and discharged by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, it would be pertinent to recall the December 5, 2001 killing of 11 SLMC supporters about one hour after polling ended in the Kandy district and the environment in which the polling was conducted. The 11 victims were among 45 persons killed and a few hundred wounded in polls more..

July 26 (CI) It was a series decided in three sessions. Not to take any credit away from Sri Lanka, but Pakistan lost the series in those three sessions, their first defeat in Sri Lanka. Nineteen sessions were played in the first two Tests, and Pakistan won 12 of them. Sri Lanka capitalised on the other sessions in a spectacular manner because they hung in when Pakistan did well. They were never quite blown away like Pakistan. more..

July 26 (IANS) It's 6.30 p.m. Dusk begins to give way to nightfall when a man walks up to the beach here with a big box containing a special load -- three-day-old turtles. The box is tipped over, the hatchlings scamper towards the ocean and within minutes they are bobbing away into the waves. Yet another `regular' day for 47-year-old K. Chandrasiri Abbrew who has released 3.5 million turtle hatchlings in the past three decades. more..

July 26 (ST) At the Deyata Kirula exhibition in Colombo early this year, visitors peered curiously at a group of Africans sitting in a stall. “They thought we were foreigners,” laughs 51-year-old Peter Louis, a Sri Lankan of African origin whose ancestors came from Mozambique. Asked by inquisitive visitors whether they could speak a language, Louis jokingly put his tongue out and gestured with his hands to indicate ‘No’ but later spoke perfect Sinhala – more..

July 26 (ST) The jubilation in the dovecotes of power is reminiscent of the events just two months ago and may even grow. Like the military defeat of Tiger guerrillas, the news that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has extended US $ 2.5 billion dollars under a twenty month long Stand-By Arrangement, swelled their hearts and lit their minds. The decision by the board of management came at a meeting in Washington on Friday. more..

July 26 (ST) Tough economic reforms like reducing debts of the petroleum, power agencies and other state enterprises, limiting foreign borrowings, cutting subsidies, curbing military spending and consulting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in other policy issues are in store for Sri Lankans after the IMF approved its biggest-ever facility of $2.6 billion to the country. more..

July 26 (ST) As the police continue to crack down on criminal gangs, “unidentified groups” are taking the law into their own hands and carrying out vigilante killings – a development that is causing grave concern among human rights groups. Despite the escalation of abductions, killings and multiple homicides, little or no official information about the groups responsible for the killings has been forthcoming. more..

July 26 (LBO) Too many transport ministries and agencies which do not co-ordinate effectively has resulted in poor transport service in Sri Lanka and delayed its aim of becoming a hub, an expert said. "We've forgotten that transportation is about movement of people and goods - not vehicles," said Saman Bandara, a transport expert at the Moratuwa University. Over a million people are directly or indirectly employed in the transport and logistics sector, more..

July 26 (LBO) Sri Lanka's central bank will improve data reporting following the approval of a 2.6 billion US dollar facility by the International Monetary Fund, a loan document released by the monetary authority said. IMF sent a 'safeguards assessment' mission to the central bank in May to ensure that its funds could not be mis-used and reliable data to monitor the program was in place. more..

July 26 (PTI) Even as it has 273 prisoners on death row, Sri Lankan government plans to reintroduce capital punishment due to rising number of heinous crimes. The new Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda is slated to discuss the possibility of implementing the death penalty with President Mahinda Rajapaksa as a result of increase in number of crimes in the country. There are about 273 prisoners in death row but they could not be hanged without the approval of the President. more..

July 26 (ST) A Centre - Province dispute has arisen over the issue of land with Eastern Provincial Council canceling two projects proposed by the Central government, claiming that more than 35,000 acres in the Trincomalee district were to be allotted to two private companies without consultation with the Council. The issue is likely to precipitate a constitutional crisis viz-a-viz the 13th Amendment and the powers relating to the granting of State lands. more..

July 27 (SLW) Note from the Editors of Sri Lanka Watch: We picked this letter for its strange contents which should be obvious to our web surfers. Suresh Mather, obviously a North American citizen is now in Sri Lanka, and one can see, quite happy to be involved working for the IDPs. However, he opens up with a report of what he claimed as army fire 150 metres away with the armed sentries ducking for cover but he had no fear. more..

July 27 (GV) The recent interview the JVP leader, comrade Somawansa Amarsinghe, conducted with Sanjana Hattotuwa and published on Groundviews clearly demonstrates the limitations, fluctuations and the non-cohesive nature of the JVP’s policy position regarding the national question. The ruling elite and the bourgeois-nationalist intelligentsia belonging to all the communities contributed to spreading and reinforcing ultra-nationalism and chauvinism among the people in Sri Lanka. more..

July 27 (GV) This post which first came to me through Facebook was forwarded to Dayan for comment. His response follows. The emphasis at the end of the article is mine. It is hoped that Aacharya and Dayan will continue this debate along with others on this site, which is more open than Facebook to this type of exchange. The soon to come back home UN Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to Geneva, Dayan Jayatilleke has repeatedly wrote about more..

July 27 (BBC) A key check point in the Jaffna-Kandy highroad should not be removed in spite of re-opening the highway, a Sri Lankan government minister said. Minister in charge of Indigenous Medicine, Tissa Karalliyadda told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya that the check point should remain on A9 highway in order to provide security. A police official manning the check point, meanwhile, accused the media of falsely announcing that the highway is open for public. more..