May 13 (LT) The Health Ministry has declared a national red alert on dengue through all its MOH offices as the number of deaths from the dengue outbreak has risen precariously and hospitals reporting intake of a large number of patients suffering from the illness. A significant increase of dengue cases have been reported from Colombo, Gampaha, Kandy, Kalutara, Kurunegala, Kegalle, Matale, Puttalam, Hambantota, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts. more..

May 13 (LT) The commencing of constructing an alternative route as a solution for the traffic jams in Kegalle town was scheduled for yesterday (11th) but government officials took measures to postpone the programme. It was proposed to construct an alternative route to avoid the congestion in Kegalle town on Colombo Kandy road. The road from Ranwala to Meepitiya was the route that was to be constructed. more..

May 13 (LT) It has been reported that Ceylon Electricity Board has sought permission from the Ministry of Power and Energy to cut electricity daily for two hours due to the decreasing water levels in reservoirs connected with power stations. Ms. Bhadra Jayaweera, Chairperson of CEB, in a letter to the ministry has asked permission to cut electricity for two hours to confront the situation. more..

May 13 (GDI) The rubber yield per hectare has increased up to 3,000 kgs compared to 350kgs in the past as a result of efficiency of the scientists at the Rubber Research Institute, Rubber Research Board (RRB) revealed. According to these sources, Sri Lanka has the best quality rubber in the world but it was necessary to adopt recommended practices to improve and maintain quality. more..

May 13 (GDI) The Ministry of Health Care and Nutrition has taken steps to provide Rs. 1.3 million to the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) to immediately purchase the medicines required by the Maharagama Cancer Institute. The Minister of Health Care and Nutrition, Nimal Siripala De Silva has issued instructions to the SPC to immediately purchase the medicines required by the Maharagama Cancer Institute. more..

May 13 (GDI) A high ranking Chinese delegation is scheduled to be in Sri Lanka on May 23 to promote Sri Lanka's tourism potential as agreed at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF 2009) held in China recently. The GITF 2009 was held at the Guangzhou Jinhan Exhibition Centre, recently with the participation of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) and several travel companies from Sri Lanka. more..

May 13 (MoD) Troops of 11 Sri Lanka Artillery (11 SLA) serving under 57 Division uncovered LTTE aircraft engine and a few accessories in a search operation conducted in general area Thevipurm, Mullaittivu this morning, 13 May. According to the information, rotary blades, communication equipments, runaway lights and documents belonging to LTTE "air wing" were also among the items found during the search operation. more..

May 13 (DN) President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for the interest rates to be further brought down in the wake of the various incentives granted by the Government to stimulate the economy and that this benefit should be passed onto small and medium scale investors as well as directly to the public. He was addressing a delegation from the Central Bank as well as representatives from both the State and Private Banks more..

May 13 (MoD) Amidst the fabricated news items carrying out by the LTTE terrorists and pro-LTTE media activists against the Sri Lankan security, two-pronged offensive continued to rescue the civilians hostage held forcibly by the LTTE terrorists in "Civilian Safe Zone", military sources said. Troops of 11 Sri Lanka Light Infantry (11 SLLI) serving under 58 Division confronted with LTTE terrorists in general area Vellamullaiwaikkal inflicting heavy damages to the enemy. more..

May 13 (PISL) The Peace Secretariat is not entirely surprised by a recent statement of several United Nations Special Rapporteurs, which is of a piece with a recent campaign to rouse emotions about and against Sri Lanka. It is however disappointed that the Rapporteurs have not stopped to think that such statements may deprive Sri Lanka of the peace it has long sought, and which now seems so near. more..

May 13 (LNP) A few days ago the army monitored a conversation between the LTTE`s arms procurer turned spokesman KP and a senior Tiger leader trapped in the Vanni via a satellite phone. KP asked his beleaguered colleague to do whatever possible and hold out as he and his foreign allies were doing their best to save them. Less than two days later, a story was floated that a large number of civilians had been killed in an army artillery barrage. more..

May 13 (DN) HealthCare and Nutrition Ministry Secretary Dr. H.A.P. Kahandaliyanage has questioned the veracity and credibility of statements attributed to a doctor said to be working in the no-fire zone in the North-East. In a letter to the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry, he states: "I wish to draw your attention to a statement released by one Dr Shanmugarajah, allegedly a District Medical Officer (DMO) of a hospital in the Mullaitivu District, that has been circulated to foreign media agencies. more..

May 13 (DN) Summing up his radio broadcast from Colombo the respected BBC Radio 4 reporter Andrew Hosken in Today program said Sri Lanka Army’s determination is not only to put an end to the LTTE but also to save the trapped Tamil civilians. He said in his broadcast, the Army knows this is a fight not just to obliterate the Tamil Tigers but to save the lives of perhaps many thousands of innocent men, women and children caught up in the storm of war. more..

May 13 (Island) Chief Minister of the Sabaragamuwa Province Maheepala Herath and Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya are on a collision course over the latter’s accusation that the CM had thwarted the launch of an alternative road construction project to ease traffic congestion in the Kegalle town. A furious Siyambalapitiya publicly accused Herath of interfering with the project as it would force him to give up some valuable property situated in the town. more..

May 13 (DM) The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, is horrified at the deteriorating crisis in Sri Lanka and its serious toll on children. "The current situation is dreadful and cannot continue. Children should not be held hostage, recruited as child soldiers and put in harms way", she emphasized. more..

May 13 (Island) Government revenue has fallen to Rs. 90.8 billion for the first two months of this year from Rs. 102.8 billion while expenditure has increased to Rs. 195 billion over the same period compared to Rs. 159.5 billion last year, the latest provisional economic indicators of the Central Bank shows. The economic activity is showing signs of contracting with exports declining by 10.7 percent during the first two months of 2009 compared to 2008. more..

May 13 (Island) The Ministry of Indigenous Medicine will take steps to rebuild the Siddhayurveda Hospital in Jaffna District under the ‘Uthuru Wasanthaya’ (Northern Reawakening) project. The Hospital was used by the LTTE as a military base prior to being liberated by government forces. The equipment in the hospital had been destroyed by the LTTE. During the ceasefire the government had been able to operate three wards in this Hospital with nine ayurvedic doctors and one nurse. more..

May 13 (DM) The United Nations said yesterday the donor community had shown a ‘low interest’ in funding the emergency relief work for the internally displaced civilians with only 32 percent of the aid package of US $ 155 million sought by the government being pledged so far. In February, the government with the UN facilitation launched the Committee on Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) and sought US $ 155 million for the emergency relief work. more..

May 13 (DM) A Sri Lankan couple sentenced to death by stoning in Saudi Arabia received a reduced sentence following an appeal filed by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “They were given a reduced sentence of 700 lashings and six years in prison for committing adultery”, Deputy Foreign Minister Hussain Bhaila said. Under Sharia law adultery is a crime and the Jeddah Judiciary informed the office of the Sri Lankan Consul of the sentence on the March 23. more..

May 13 (LBO) Demand for natural rubber and rubber products will fall this year with the decline in sales of tyres and vehicles, a rubber expert told an international conference in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. But demand will recover next year or the year after as the global economy recovers although at a slower pace than previously forecast, said Gerard Stapleton of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), more..

May 13 (LBO) Central bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said there was more room to cut rates and hinted that the monetary authority may return to a single signal policy rate. "We have given very clear indications that we are relaxing monetary policy and in fact that has been made well known," Cabraal said. Cabraal said the central bank now has more space to relax monetary policy even further after some aggressive rate cuts this year. more..

May 13 (AP) Satellite images of Sri Lanka's war zone along with witness accounts indicate the government has shelled the densely populated area in recent days despite its repeated denials, a human rights group said Wednesday. Health officials in the tiny coastal strip still under rebel control say the area was repeatedly pummeled by artillery attacks, including the shelling of a hospital, that killed as many as 1,000 civilians more..

May 13 (BBC) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says that one of its employees has been killed in a shell attack in Sri Lanka's war zone. The victim - a Sri Lankan working as a water technician - was killed along with his mother. He was working in the small pocket of territory still controlled by Tamil rebels where fighting is taking place. The dead man - who was married with a child - is the third ICRC employee to be killed in the zone in recent weeks. more..

May 13 (TS) There's no question it was criminally irresponsible for Tamil demonstrators to block the Gardiner Expressway on Sunday to protest ongoing events in Sri Lanka. Similarly, there's no question the Tamil Tigers are terrorists. It was the Tigers, not Islamic terrorists, who invented the explosive vests worn by suicide bombers around the world today, as well as being the first to use female suicide bombers. more..

May 13 (NP) While all Canadians must be concerned about the killing of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, there should be no misunderstanding about the objectives of the demonstrators who blocked the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto on Sunday. If their primary concern had been the safety of Tamil civilians, they would have been calling on the Tamil Tigers to allow those trapped in the war zone to flee to safe areas, instead of using them as human shields. more..

May 13 (ANN) Amidst LTTE’s attempts to force the UN to intervene in Sri Lanka, the Army has carried out a two-pronged assault to tighten its grip on the LTTE trapped on the Mullaitivu coast. Army Chief, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka has ordered the 59 Division, deployed south of the newly established no fire zone, to advance northwards while the 58 Division fought its way into the safety zone amidst heavy LTTE resistance. more..

May 13 (PTI) Advancing Sri Lankan troops today recovered an LTTE aircraft engine and other accessories buried by the Tamil Tigers while retreating in the face of military offensive in Puthukudiyirippu. Troops of 57 Division uncovered LTTE aircraft engine and a few accessories during search operations in general area Theravipuram in Puthukudiyirippu this morning, the army said. more..

May 13 (AP) Shells hit the only hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone Wednesday, killing 15 people in the second such attack in two days, a doctor said, as a human rights group accused the government of breaking its pledge not to fire artillery into the tiny coastal strip. The military has denied firing any heavy weapons in recent weeks as it pushed to finish off the Tamil Tiger rebels, but more..

May 13 (AP) With mainstream journalists barred from Sri Lanka's war zone, Tamil expatriates desperate for news of loved ones have turned to small Web sites for reports and video from across the front lines. Much of their reporting comes from locals — some of them former journalists and aid workers — who are working anonymously in the war zone and e-mailing their reports to editors in Europe. more..

May 13 (G&M) Apart from a few portraits of the same smiling man, there is nothing to adorn the tired, beige walls of Bala Rajendran's apartment, where Tamil surnames fill the lobby directory. Identical pictures hang in hundreds of homes all over Scarborough, where the smiling man - Velupillai Prabhakaran, supreme commander of the Tamil Tigers - is revered as the lone defender of their long-oppressed Sri Lankan minority. more..

May 13 (AFP) Tamil Tigers put up stiff resistance to advancing government troops on Wednesday, in heavy fighting that saw the beleaguered rebels launch a wave of suicide attacks, the military said. The clashes came as both sides in the brutal conflict faced renewed charges of war crimes, with the United Nations describing the situation as "absolutely awful" and a rights group saying civilians were being used as "cannon fodder." more..

May 13 (NP) A demure 16-year-old in a pink sweater, skirt and sandals, Darshika Kugandirasan doesn't look like a frontline guerrilla fighter. She looks like a schoolgirl, which she was until two months ago. She was studying at Malawi Central College, hoping to become a teacher, even though classes were often cancelled because of the war. As the eldest of three children, she knew the Tamil rebels wanted her to join; every family was expected to hand over at least one child for the liberation cause. more..

May 14 (GV) Dilemmas at War’s End, by Prof. Michael Roberts, is an essay of profound importance. Sadly, not for its genius, but to the extent that it provides an abject lesson in the tragic consequences of the failure of one’s moral imagination. I offer this study of it, therefore, as primarily a cautionary tale. The focus of Roberts’ essay is the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, as the Colombo government moves closer to defeating the LTTE. more..

May 14 (SU) The Sri Lanka Government has reportedly assured to speed up the signing of JV agreement between Ceylon Electricity Board and NTPC to expedite the implementation of NTPC's 500 MW imported coal based power project at Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. As per report, CEB has also assured necessary support for time bound implementation of the project and also necessary tax concessions. more..

May 14 (MSF) Transcript: There is a little girl, she is about seven or eight and she has lost her leg. She is not sure where her parents are and she was very upset when we talked to her. One of the things the nurses said is that little girls dance in Sri Lanka; that is something they do, they learn traditional dancing. And I promised her that she’d dance again and really our task is to see that that will happen, one day. more..

May 14 (EB) A plethora of rumours about LTTE chief V Prabhakaran started doing its rounds in Chennai as the countdown for Wednesday’s Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu began. Though the rumour mills started whirring a few days back, the last couple of days saw anxious people enquiring if the LTTE chief had been killed in the war. Some of them even wondered if the Sri Lankan government would make it known to the world only after the elections in Tamil Nadu. more..

May 14 (GR) Post reporter Natalie Slater is spending three weeks in Sri Lanka to see the work of Reading Initiative for Tsunami Action (RITA) in Beruwala. Here she explains how the charity has helped the community rebuild their lives following the tsunami in 2004 – but she says there is still work to do. RITA was set up in the wake of the 2004 Boxing Day disaster. Through tireless fundraising and generous donations from Reading people, more..

May 14 (AN) Muslim Aid Sri Lanka has been working around the clock in Vavuniya refugee camp to ease the pressure on local hospitals which are unable to cope with the huge numbers of injured and sick people in desperate need of medical assistance. "Our inflatable mobile hospital is currently treating about 2,000 patients a day and our ambulances take, on average, about 5-10 serious cases to the nearby government hospitals, who themselves are struggling to cope. more..

May 14 (Xinhua) Sri Lankan troops continue their hunt for LTTE leader as the High Court here issued a warrant for his arrest here Wednesday. The Colombo High Court issued open arrest warrants on Velupillai Prabakaran and his intelligence chief Pottu Amman for the August 2005 murder of the then Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Kadirgamar, a fellow Tamil, was gunned down at his private residence here by an LTTE gunman. more..

May 14 (BBC) The Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre based in Kingsbury North West London was attacked in the early hours of Wednesday says Venerable Galayaye Piyadassi Thero, Head of the centre. “The attackers threw stones at the front windows and fled away” said Piyadassi thero. The attack was blamed on the LTTE by the head of the centre who said that although no one was harmed the loss incurred is heavy. "This is the ninth occasion where the Buddhist Centre has been attacked." more..

May 14 (IANS) Three men said to belong to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terror group have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team that claimed the lives of eight Pakistanis and injured six players. Quoting sources, Geo TV said the accused are members of banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and hail from southern Punjab. Following their arrest, they had been moved to an undisclosed location for interrogation. more..

May 14 (MoD) A Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) used by the LTTE terrorists were found by the troops of 9 Gemunu Watch (9 GW) serving under 58 Division conducting a search and clearing operation in general area Karyalaimullivaikkal this morning, 13 May, defence sources said. "This is the second time the security forces in Wanni liberation offensive uncovered a MBRL, the first one recovered from Thoppigala operation", more..

May 14 (NCE) A company which shipped fish from Sri Lanka to Northampton before selling the produce on to UK-based wholesalers and restaurants has been wound up in the High Court after acting with "a complete lack of commercial integrity". Ceylon Fisheries UK Limited, based in Scirocco Close, Moulton Park was the subject of a major investigation. The probe discovered the company's website contained a number of misleading and false statements, more..

May 14 (NCE) A cashier has been jailed after more than 1,000 credit and debit cards were cloned at a Northampton petrol station, netting international fraudsters at least £300,000. Suntharam Thevaratnam, 33, turned off CCTV cameras and allowed a bug to be placed inside the Chip and PIN machine at the Shell garage on the A45 near Wootton. The Sri Lankan-born Tamil was employed as a night shift cashier when police began investigating more than 1,000 complaints of card 'skimming'. more..

May 14 (TS) Police in riot gear were keeping an eye on about 300 Tamil protesters who had gathered on the front lawn of Queen's Park early this afternoon. The demonstration – which began at noon – is just the latest in a series of roving protests organized to draw attention to the situation in Sri Lanka, which the United Nations has referred to as a "bloodbath." So far, today's protest has been peaceful, Toronto police say. "When I got here at 11 there were only 30 or 40 people," more..

May 14 (NP) “I wake up, and hear that the village from where my family came has been eliminated. Family and friends are dead or displaced. The world is merely watching, allowing the slaughter of civilians. We are not all terrorists.” These are the thoughts of a Tamil in Toronto. He is not a member - or even a supporter - of the LTTE. But he will not speak against them, even off the record. It wouldn’t be smart, he says. more..

May 14 (AT) The reported death and injury to a large number of Tamil civilians in the so-called 'No Fire Zone' in the North-Eastern edge of Sri Lanka is receiving widespread international attention, including from the UN and other agencies as well as governments. While it is understandable that the government of Sri Lanka wants to complete its military mission against the ruthless LTTE sooner than later, more..